Robinson, John definition of Robinson, John in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Robinson, John, 1576?–1625, English nonconformist pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers in Holland. In 1592 he entered Cambridge; in 1597 he received a fellowship and was ordained. Soon thereafter he became curate of a church at Norwich. He was a member of the group of separatists at Gainsborough and a little later (c.1606) was in the company of the separatists gathered around William Brewster at Scrooby. He became their pastor and was a leader in the removal (1608) of the Scrooby group to Amsterdam. In 1609 he and his flock moved to Leiden, where they set up a church. Robinson actively encouraged the projected emigration (1620) to America and would have accompanied the Pilgrims Pilgrims, in American history, the group of separatists and other individuals who were the founders of Plymouth Colony . The name Pilgrim Fathers is given to those members who made the first crossing on the Mayflower.
..... Click the link for more information. had the majority of his congregation gone; with their settlement at Plymouth, Congregationalism Congregationalism, type of Protestant church organization in which each congregation, or local church, has free control of its own affairs. The underlying principle is that each local congregation has as its head Jesus alone and that the relations of the various
..... Click the link for more information. was founded in the New World. Robinson was the author of a number of essays and polemics on the separatists' position.

Bibliography

See his works (ed. by R. Ashton, 1851); biography by W. H. Burgess (1920); C. Burrage, New Facts concerning John Robinson (1910).