George Robinson

Who is George Robinson?

George Robinson was an English stockbroker and swindler in the 1720s and early 1730s. A banker in Lombard Street, he was appointed the circulating cashier of the Charitable Corporation. In 1727 he was one of the Corporation's 'Partnership of Five' who began buying up shares. He and several officers of the Corporation obtained money from it by pawning false pledges, and proceeded to engage in a large scale speculation in the shares of that company and York Buildings Company, also borrowing against the shares purchased so that his partners failed to get what they bought.

Robinson obtained a seat in the House of Commons when he was elected MP for Great Marlow in 1731, but was unable to sit before the affair began to come to light. He fled to France with Thomson, the warehouse-keeper, in October. They were both declared bankrupt. Robinson was back by 25 November and appeared before the General Court of the Company. By 18 December, he was in hiding again because the Company would not supersede the Commission of bankruptcy against him. He had "seen fit to absent himself from the kingdom", according to William Goostry, his attorney.