Robert Robinson

Robert Robinson was born in Saffham, Norfolk, in 1735. (He died in 1790). His wi­dowed mo­ther sent him at age 14 to Lon­don to learn the trade of bar­ber and hair dress­er. How­ev­er, his mas­ter found he en­joyed read­ing more than work. Con­vert­ed to Christ at age 17, Ro­bin­son be­came a Meth­od­ist min­is­ter. He lat­er became a Bapt­ist and pas­tored in Cam­bridge, Eng­land. He wrote a num­ber of hymns, as well as on the sub­ject of the­ol­o­gy. His lat­er life was ev­i­dent­ly not an ea­sy one, judg­ing from an unsubstantiated but well known sto­ry about his hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Bless­ing.” One day, he en­count­ered a wo­man who was study­ing a hymn­al and she asked how he liked the hymn she was hum­ming. In tears, he re­plied, “Madam, I am the poor un­hap­py man who wrote that hymn ma­ny years ago, and I would give a thou­sand worlds, if I had them, to en­joy the feelings I had then.”

The Wesleys, etc

The Renewed Moravian Church consecrates its first bishop in the person of David Nitschmann (1695-1772), restoring its own ministry separate from that of Nikolaus, graf von Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf sends missionaries to Britain's Georgia colony, where they will have little or no success.

John Wesley and his brother Charles lose their father (April 25) and embark in October for the Georgia colony with two other Methodists, a party of German Moravians sent by Zinzendorf and James E Oglethorpe (1696-1785), who had returned to England in 1734 and would not remain long at Savannah. The Simmonds encounters storms en route and John Wesley finds his fears greater than his faith. He later provoked criticism at Savannah but began the first Methodist society, and although his brother Charles soon returned to England, John remained for nearly two years.

Meanwhile in Swaffham, Norfolk, Robert Robinson (1735-1790), author of "Come Thou Fount of every blessing" and "Mighty God, while angels bless Thee", a Methodist and later Strict Baptist minister was born, on September 27.