”Hon. William E. Robinson” (detail), McGee’s Illustrated Weekly, 1881, engraving, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

ROBINSON, William Erigena, a Representative from New York; born in Unagh, near Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, May 6, 1814; attended the classical school in Cookstown and Belfast College in 1834; immigrated to the United States and settled in New York City in November 1836; was graduated from Yale College in 1841; connected for two years with the Yale Law School; engaged in lecturing before literary associations; assistant editor of the New York Tribune in 1843 and its only Washington correspondent, writing under the name of “Richelieu”; also wrote Washington correspondence for other papers; was admitted to the New York bar in 1854 and practiced law in New York City; appointed by President Lincoln assessor of internal revenue for the third district of New York in 1862; elected as a Democrat to the Fortieth Congress (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1869); resumed the practice of law; elected to the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1881-March 3, 1885); died in Brooklyn, N.Y., on January 23, 1892; interment in Greenwood Cemetery.