▶Date of birth: 7 December 1809     Place of birth: Wakefield, Yorkshire

▶Father: Robert Hodgson   Mother: Rebecca Hodgson

▶Spouse(s): Disney Robinson  Date(s) of marriage:  7 March 1833   Place(s) of marriage: Darton, Barnsley, Yorkshire

▶Occupation:

▶Lifestory: Frances ("Fanny") was the only sister of the Revd. William Hodgson, the Vicar of St Peter, Cheltenham 1845-66; she moved to Cheltenham with her husband in 1844, when they lived at 5 Pittville Parade (now 10 Evesham Road) and left in 1855 for Henbury, near Bristol.  The Hodgsons were a wealthy family and owned Haigh Hall, six miles north of Barnsley.

After her husband's death in 1869 and the death of her brother William in 1873, Frances inherited a considerable fortune, part of which she used towards the endowment of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Ridley College, Cambridge, and in 1879 she gave an additional sum of £1,000 to Ridley Hall for the erection of the ‘Disney Robinson Memorial Tower’ in memory of her husband.  She gave £5,000 to the Church Missionary Society for overseas mission and £10,000 to the Church Pastoral Aid Society to provide stipends for curates in West Yorkshire.  She also gave £8,500 for the erection of Christ Church, Wakefield, and the Robinson’s were also involved in the patronage of churches in Leicester, Paignton and Wakefield.

She moved with her husband down to the south coast as his health deteriorated, and they lived at Frogmore, in Torquay, where she remained until her own death twenty years later in 1889. In her will she made extensive bequests to religious charities. There are portraits of Disney and Frances Robinson in the Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield.

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

▶Date of death: 26 August 1889   Place of death: Frogmore, Torquay, Devon

▶Date of burial:     Place of burial:

▶Notes:     ID: 2686

Contributor(s): Alan Munden