Background
Thomas Robinson was born in Vienna on 30 November 1738, the elder son of Thomas, the first Baron Grantham, and his wife, Frances, the daughter of Thomas Worsley of Hovingham, in North Riding, Yorkshire.
politician statesman Foreign Secretary
Thomas Robinson was born in Vienna on 30 November 1738, the elder son of Thomas, the first Baron Grantham, and his wife, Frances, the daughter of Thomas Worsley of Hovingham, in North Riding, Yorkshire.
He was educated at Westminster School and at Christ College, Cambridge.
In the general election of March 1761 he was elected to the House of Commons for Christchurch, Hampshire, and he represented the borough for nine years. He won some minor roles in government, being appointed secretary to the British embassy to the intended congress at Augsburg in April 1761, and in October 1766, one of the commissioners of trade and plantations. In February 1770 he became vice-chamberlain to the king’s household and a member of the Privy Council. He rose to the House of Lords, becoming the second Baron Grantham on the death of his father in September 1770. He was appointed ambassador to Spain in January 1771, and held that post until the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain in 1779. He was then appointed first commissioner of the Board of Trade and plantations in 1780, acting in that role until June 1782, when the board was abolished. The following month he joined Lord Shelburne’s ministry as foreign secretary, helping Shelburne negotiate the peace between France, Spain, and America.
He resigned office in April 1783, upon the formation of a coalition government, receiving a pension of £2,000 per year from the foreign office on top of the pension of £3,000 per year that had been granted to his father. In 1784 he became a member of the Privy Council for matters concerning trade. He died on 17 August 1786. He was survived by his wife.
He was married to Lady Mary Jemima Grey Yorke—the younger daughter and coheiress of Philip, the second Earl of Hardwicke—whom he had married in 1780.