Luke Robinson

Who was Luke Robinson?

Luke Robinson, of Riseborough, was an English Member of Parliament and of the Council of State during the Commonwealth period.

Robinson was the eldest son of Sir Arthur Robinson of Deighton, Northallerton, Yorkshire and his first wife Elizabeth Walthall, daughter of William Walthall mercer of London. He was baptised on 6 September 1610, He was educated at Shenley, Hertfordshire, Aughton, Yorkshire and St Peter’s, York before attending Christ's College, Cambridge in 1627. He was a student of Gray's Inn in 1630.

Robinson was elected MP for Scarborough in 1645, taking the place of a member who had been expelled for his Royalist sympathies, and sat for the town through the remainder of the Long Parliament, being an active member of the Rump after Pride's Purge, and also served as Bailiff of Scarborough in 1652. He subsequently represented Yorkshire in the Second and Malton in the Third Parliaments of the Protectorate, before resuming his seat for Scarborough when the Rump was reinstated in 1659. He was elected a member of the Council of State in 1649, 1650 and 1659.

In January 1660, Robinson was chosen as the Rump's emissary to the advancing General Monck.