Sir George Robinson, 2nd Baronet
Sir George Best Robinson, 2nd Baronet (14November 17971855) was a British colonial administrator who became Chief Superintendent of British trade in China. Family background. Son of Sir George Robinson, 1st Baronet and Margaret Southwell, the natural daughter of Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Suffolk, he succeeded to the baronetcy on 13February 1832. Career. Between 1818-19 he was employed as a supercargo by the East India Company in Canton, (now known as Guangzhou). He was appointed third Superintendent of British Trade in China alongside Lord Napier and John Francis Davis in December 1833. Robinson became  Chief Superintendent on 19January 1835 following the resignation of John Francis Davis with John Harvey Astell and Charles Elliot as second and third superintendents. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerton effectively dismissed Robinson in line with "the intention of His Majesty’s Government to reduce the establishment in China" through a dispatch dated 7June 1836, in which he wrote: "It, therefore, now becomes my duty to acquaint you, that His Majesty’s Government have decided to abolish at once the office and salary of Chief Superintendent. In communicating to you this decision, I have at the same time to inform you , that your functions will cease from the date of the receipt of this despatch. You will make over. to Captain Elliot all the archives of the Commission; which will, of course, include copies of every despatch, and its inclosures ("sic"), which you have addressed to this department during the period you have acted as Chief Superintendent. The Spectator later commented: Personal life. On 5December 1825, Robinson married Louisa, youngest daughter of Major-Gen. Robert Douglas Diarist Harriet Low recorded on 5April 1832 that Robinson and his wife: "are both six feet tall and no beauty to boast of; very well  matched as regards intellect, and not at all troubled by the fashions of the world." "The Morning Post" reported that Louisa died in London on 9August 1843. He was at that time resident at Furzebrook House in Axminster, Devon. On 7January 1863 the couple's only daughter, Louisa, married John Prideaux Lightfoot, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University