▶Date of birth: 10 September 1804     Place of birth: Lichfield, Staffordshire

▶Father: Revd. Richard George Robinson, Vicar of Harborne, Staffordshire     Mother: Mary Woolhouse Thorp, daughter of Robert Thorp of Buxton, Derbyshire

▶Spouse(s): Frances ("Fanny") Rebecca Hodgson     Date(s) of marriage: 7 March 1833   Place(s) of marriage: Darton, Barnsley, Yorkshire

▶Occupation:

▶Lifestory: Disney was educated at St Paul's School, and at St John's College, Cambridge, admitted Sizar 1822, BA 1828, MA 1831. He first came to the notice of the newspapers when a pair of his shoes where stolen from outside his rooms at St John's, where he had left them to be cleaned.

He was a wealthy Anglican clergyman who became the Perpetual Curate of Woolley, between Wakefield and Barnsley, 1833-68.  In 1828 he was ordained Deacon, and in 1830 Priest (both York).

In 1829 he published Protestant Indifference the greatest encouragement to Popish activity; an appeal on behalf of the British Society, for Promoting the Religious Principles of the Reformation (vol. 3 of the Controversial Pamphlets: Popery series), in 1833 The law and gospel, in 1833 The Christian's priviliege, or words of comfort for his hours of sadness (ed. 2 1843), and in 1836 A practical answer to the question: What is Popery?

Whilst in Cheltenham (where he lived from 1844 until 1855) he served as one of the Vice-Presidents of the town's Literary and Philosophical Institution and was Honorary Secretary to the committee seeking the establishment and support of the Cheltenham Female Refuge, of which Francis Close was President.

His argumentativeness landed him in extremely hot water in 1846, when he accused a neighbour, Mrs Jane Barker, of consorting with Earl Fitzhardinge, Lord Berkeley. He went so far as to libel her twice, on one occasion having the Post Office deliver a letter to her addressed to "Mrs. Barker, Sabbath-breaker and adultress" (sending through the mail constituted publishing the libel, as the Post Office was bound to notice it). He was found guilty at Gloucester Assizes, and after the case went to the Court of Queen's Bench in London he was required to apologise, and to pay Mrs Barker's costs.

He had further dealings with the Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions in 1850, but on this occasion he was the plaintiff, and he was seeking justice for the theft of money.

In 1851 he continued his anti-Catholic arguments with What shall we answer? A plain address from a Protestant minister to his people on the subject of the Romish Invasion.

Disney suffered from poor health and was advised to live in the south of England and lived in Cheltenham, Henbury, Bristol and Torquay.  During his absence from his parish he paid assistant curates to perform his parochial duties. In 1860 he had to relinquish his lectureship duties in Henbury, dying four years later at Torquay. In 1879 his widow gave £1,000 to Ridley Hall, Cambridge for the erection of the ‘Disney Robinson Memorial Tower’, in his memory.

There is an entry for Disney's elder brother Hastings, a distinguished evangelical clergyman, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and portraits of Disney and his wife in the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.

▶Moved to Pittville from:      Moved from Pittville to: Henbury, near Bristol

▶Date of death: 17 September 1869   Place of death: Frogmore, Torquay, Devon

▶Date of burial:     Place of burial:

▶Notes:     ID: 2685

Contributor(s): Alan Munden