Family and Education

b. by 1515, s. of William Robins. m. Angharad, da. of Ifan Lloyd ap Iorwerth of Llangwnadl, at least 1s.1

Offices Held

Commr. subsidy, Caernarvon 1546, relief 1549; bailiff, Caernarvon c.1548, 1554-5.2

Biography

Henry Robins was of English ancestry, the family being of Fletleton Hall in Lancashire, but it is not known when any of its members moved into Caernarvonshire. The John Robins, clerk, living in Caernarvon in 1546 may have been a brother, and the James and Hugh Robins who were bailiffs of Caernarvon and Conway respectively were probably also related to Henry.3

The earliest trace found of Robins is his supply to the Exchequer at Caernarvon in 1536 of green cloth, lighting fuel, peat, hay and straw on the occasion of an audit. He was one of the jury for the town at the quarter sessions at Epiphany 1542, and gave similar service in the following years. After being present at the election of the Member for the Caernarvon Boroughs in the Parliaments of 1545, 1547 and March 1553 he was himself returned to the first two Marian Parliaments. Of his part in them all that is known is that he did not oppose the initial measures towards the restoration of Catholicism. He was again present at the election of his successor in the autumn of 1554. Robins’s failure to appear, with Gruffydd Davies, in the common pleas at the suit of a Beaumaris merchant, to whom they had sold but not delivered a quantity of leather, led to their being outlawed, but on 6 Oct. 1557 they sued out pardons. Assessed at Caernarvon in 1560 as owning lands worth £10 a year, Robins is last found in June 1562 leasing property in the town. No will or inquisition has survived.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Griffith, Peds. 207; Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 114.
• 2. Cal. Caern. Q. Sess. Recs. ed. Williams, 120-1, 132, 136, 140; E179/220/135, 140.
• 3. E179/220/135; Cal. Caern. Q. Sess. Recs. 129, 138; CPR, 1569-72, p. 250.
• 4. SC6/Hen. VIII, 5478 m. 7v; Cal. Caern. Q. Sess. Recs. 13, 66, 108-9, 115, 185; C219/18C/173, 19/151, 20/183, 23/193; CPR, 1557-8, p. 347; E179/220/139; Augmentations (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 298.