Background
Thomas Robinson was born in 1695, the son of William Robinson of Newby in Yorkshire and of Mary, eldest daughter of George Aislabie of Studley Royal.
Thomas Robinson was born in 1695, the son of William Robinson of Newby in Yorkshire and of Mary, eldest daughter of George Aislabie of Studley Royal.
He was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He then entered the diplomatic service and became secretary to the English embassy in Paris. He was one of the three English representatives at the Congress of Soissons, and in 1730 he was sent to Vienna as the English ambassador. He spent eighteen years in that post.
Robinson returned to England in 1748. He had already been M.P. for Thirsk between 1727 and 1734, and now he became M.P. for Christchurch (1748-1761). He had no particular parliamentary abilities and was strongly attacked by William Pitt, the Elder; but despite these disadvantages, in 1754 he became secretary of state for the Southern Department (the post became that of home secretary in 1782) in the Whig government of the Duke of Newcastle. He did not enjoy the post and cheerfully gave it up in November 1755. He was then appointed master of the wardrobe in the royal household. He refused all subsequent offers of high office.
He died on 30 September 1770.
In 1737, that he married Frances Worsley.
He accepted a peerage in April 1761, becoming the first Baron Grantham.