"I have not seen your circular, and possibly the whole thing may be a mere newspaper fabrication; but it is stated so circumstantially as to carry with it an air of truth, and I have been induced to copy a brief memoir of my maternal grandfather, Lieut.-Colonel Joseph Robinson, in his own handwriting, now in my possession, and to enclose it to you herewith, to be made use of as you think fit in your intended publication. The memoir would appear, from a statement contained in it, to be written in obedience to some order from the then Secretary at War, possibly calling upon the Loyalists in receipt of half-pay from the British Government for a record of their services, to meet parliamentary enquiry; it is marked on the back of the draft, in Colonel Robinson's handwriting, as 'transmitted.' He died in this Island (formerly St. John's Island, now Prince Edward Island) in 1808 or 1809. Colonel Robinson was a native of Virginia, and emigrated from somewhere about James River, in that province, to South Carolina, where he resided at the commencement of the revolution. After a reward had been offered for his life, as stated in his memorial, and he had been compelled to abscond, a party of rebels visited his plantation and burned to the ground his dwelling-house and every building upon it, scarcely giving time to my grandmother (as she has often told me) to drag out of the house her two female children in time to save their lives. My grandmother was a woman of heroic spirit, and she, accompanied by a single faithful negro slave, made her way on horseback, in an overland journey of several hundred miles, to East Florida, where she joined her husband. In this journey she carried one of her children before her on the same horse, and the negro man carried the other in the same way on the horse he rode.
"At the termination of the contest, my grandfather's property, a large and valuable one, was confiscated by the victors, and he embarked with his family for the island of Jamaica, was unfortunately shipwrecked by the way, and lost every particle of property he had left, he, his wife and children, with difficulty escaping drowning. After a short residence in that island he emigrated to St. John's, in the Province of New Brunswick, and ultimately came to this island.
"He was a member of the House of Assembly of this colony, and its Speaker afterward; an Assistant-Justice of the Supreme Court, and member of the Executive Council, such Council at that time also exercising legislative functions. These last-named offices of Judge and member of Council he held up to his decease.
"I was much too young at his death to be enabled to say anything of my personal knowledge of him; but from his papers which I have perused, I am warranted in saying that he was a man of a refined mind, an excellent classical scholar, with a great taste for astronomy, and possessing no ordinary talent in that science, which seems to have amused and occupied his mind in his latter years. The only reward he received was the half-pay of a lieutenant-colonel (his Judgeship was an honorary one, having no salary or emolument); this he enjoyed up to the period of his decease.
"I have somewhat hurriedly put together these observations. You may rely upon the truth of the facts stated, and they are at your service if coming within the scope and meaning of your intended history. At the same time, if the thing be a newspaper hoax, I must beg you to excuse the liberty I have taken in addressing you, and please burn this and the copy of the memoir.
"I have the honour to be, Sir,
"Your obedient servant,
"R. Hodgson,
"Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island."
Report of Joseph Robinson, Lieutenant-Colonel of the late Regiment of South Carolina Royalists, now residing in the Island of St. John, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.