Mary Elizabeth Robinson

b. 11 March 1869, d. 8 July 1955
Mary Elizabeth Robinson|b. 11 Mar 1869\nd. 8 Jul 1955|p146.htm|William Leonard Robinson|b. 3 May 1831\nd. 26 Mar 1902|p360.htm|Matilda Caroline Higginson|b. 27 Aug 1841\nd. 1 Apr 1909|p364.htm|William Robinson|b. 25 Oct 1786\nd. Sep 1849|p355.htm|Elizabeth Manfield|b. 23 May 1800\nd. 8 Nov 1863|p356.htm|Reverend John Higginson|b. 20 Aug 1811\nd. 30 May 1895|p585.htm|Mary M. H. Wynyard|b. 23 May 1815\nd. 13 Dec 1893|p589.htm|
Father*William Leonard Robinson1,2,3 b. 3 May 1831, d. 26 Mar 1902
Mother*Matilda Caroline Higginson1,2,3 b. 27 Aug 1841, d. 1 Apr 1909
ChartsAncestors of Harriet Hanson Robinson
Seth Ingersoll Browne to Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Stede Bonnet to Harriet (Robinson) Pierce
Diana, Princess of Wales, and Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
King Edward I to Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Sir William de Huntingfield to Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
William the Lion, King of Scotland, to Mary Elizabeth Robinson
George Washington - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
John Adams & John Quncy Adams - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Millard Fillmore - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
William Howard Taft - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
(John) Calvin Coolidge Jr. - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Richard Milhous Nixon - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Gerald R. Ford - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
George H. W. & George W. Bush - Harriet Hanson (Robinson) Pierce
Mary Elizabeth Robinson, March 1954
Mary and daughter Harriet, c. 1897
Mothers Day, 1950
     Mary Elizabeth Robinson was born 11 March 1869 at Thormanby, Easingwold, Yorkshire, England.1,3,4,5,6 She was the daughter of William Leonard Robinson and Matilda Caroline Higginson.1,2,3 She was baptized 6 June 1869 at Thormanby, Yorkshire.2 She married Edward Warrington Robinson, son of William Stevens Robinson and Harriet Jane Hanson, 11 November 1893 at Denver, Arapahoe County, Colorado.7,8 She died 8 July 1955 at Los Angeles, California, at age 86.9 She was buried 11 July 1955 at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California.9
     

At some point she took out two life insurance policies with Prudential. Her granddaughter did not recall any insurance claims being filed when Mary died but she did record the policy numbers in her diary. A query to Prudential (a half century later) confirmed the policies had indeed lapsed and were canceled for non-payment of the premium:

Policy #          Lapsed               Canceled
04 790 163     06 Aug 1924          Nov 1932
58 302 214     19 Sep 1932          Feb 1933.10


After Warrie died, Mary stayed with her Mother for a while. She made an an attempt to move back to her husband’s family in Massachusetts but was rebuffed. Eventually she began to eke out a living by taking in boarders or caring for children. At one time the family moved to Casper, Wyoming during the oil boom years.

At some point they moved back to Denver. Lucy finished high school, but Harriet was pulled from school to work the boarding house. In 1915, Harriet made her “escape” and went to California to marry Bill Pierce. In 1928-9 and 1932-3 Mary took a couple of trips east for a time to care for her sister-in-law, Harriet Shattuck, in Poughkeepsie, New York, but that did not work out for the long term. She kept a diary during those trips and it is an interesting view of depression-era America and her constant struggles. She called FDR's inauguration a great day, but shortly thereafter the bank holidays were declared and she could not leave New York until Hattie loaned her some money for bus fare.

As a nursemaid she cared for the children of many prominent people, including Walt Disney. Once she was shot and almost killed when she mistook a burglar for the old man she was caring for. This occurred sometime between 1917 and 1928 and she had a nervous breakdown because of it. Probably what would now be called depression, this may actually have been just after Warrie died.

Lucy’s marriages ended in divorce and death so she finally moved in and cared for her mother. Mary had a small house at 352 East 91st Street in Los Angeles, which she almost lost. One of her brother’s in law helped her make the payments, but when she died, the house belonged to him, not Harriet or Lucy.

By the time she died, Mary was a very stout woman and the cause of death was given as essential hypertension (10 years), coronary arteriosclerosis (2 years) and myocardial infarction (1 week).11

Family

Edward Warrington Robinson b. 4 May 1859, d. 8 Jan 1904
Children

Citations

  1. [S1351] General Registry Office, Southport, England, birth certificate for Mary Elizabeth Robinson, 1869, 9d/341, Easingwold/Coxwold registration district. Hereafter cited as GRO Births.
  2. [S756] Thormanby, Yorkshire, England, Parish Registers of Thormanby, 1658-1993, Baptisms & Burials, 1813-1991:32, FHL microfilm 2103950, items 8 & 9. Hereafter cited as Thormanby Parish Registers.
  3. [S270] Family Record of the Robinson Family of Thomanby England, Family register hand copied from a Bible, Compiler's genealogy files, West Jordan, Utah.
  4. [S461] Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Telluride, 8th precinct, San Miguel County, Colorado, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 120, sheet 198/6B, dwelling 133, family 135, Warrington Robinson household, age 31, born Mar 1869 in England. Immigrated in 1885 and had been in the country 15 years. Not naturalized, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) ; original data: NARA micropublication T623, roll 129.
  5. [S462] Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Denver City, 8th precinct, 9th ward, Denver County, Colorado, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 113, sheet 12B, dwelling 125, family 251, Mary E. Robinson household, age 40, born in England, and rented her home at 1005 E Colfax. She immigrated in 1882, was naturalized, and was a landlady of a boarding house, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) ; original data: NARA micropublication T624, roll 116.
  6. [S464] Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Assembly District 57, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 557, sheet 20B, dwelling 440, family 440, Mary E. Robinson household, age 61, born in England, owned a radio and her own home worth $2500 at 352 91st Street. She immigrated in 1883, was naturalized, and was a practical nurse with private families, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com) ; original data: NARA micropublication T626, roll 153.
  7. [S1292] Warrington Robinson & Mary E. Robinson, Marriage Certificate, 8 Nov1893, Colorado State Archives, Colorado, Araphoe County Marriages, 15979.
  8. [S275] Arapahoe County Marriage Committee, compiler, Marriages of Arapahoe County, Colorado, 1859-1901: including territory that became Adams, Denver, and other counties (Denver, Colorado: Colorado Genealogical Society, Computer Interest Group, 1986), 261, citing Vol 900:554 in the original record books. Hereafter cited as Arapahoe Marriages.
  9. [S1014] Mary Elizabeth Robinson, Death Certificates, File No. 55-056720 (1955), California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California.
  10. [S960] Letter from Marie G Lowe (Prudential Insurance Company) to Greg Cooke, 26 October 2007; Compiler's genealogy files West Jordan, Utah.
  11. [S78] Claudia L. Bushman, "A Good Poor Man's Wife" Being a Chronicle of Harriet Hanson Robinson and Her Family in Nineteenth Century New England (Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1981), 207, 217. Hereafter cited as A Good Poor Man's Wife.
  12. [S187] Harriet Hanson Robinson, Birth Certificate, File No. 44048 (1896), Pueblo Vital Statistics Office, Pueblo, Colorado.
  13. [S276] Lucy Wynard Robinson, Birth Certificates, File No. 63:214:118 (1899), San Miguel County Registrar of Vital Statistics, Telluride, Colorado.
  14. [S1028] Lucy Wynard Kirwin, Death Certificates (1987), Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, California.