hired Mary Ann as a housekeeper in November 1866
(11 August 1867-1869) Separated/Divorced
2 Children
Margaret (Mary) Isabella Nov 1867
George 18 June 1869
James Robinson was a shipwright at Pallion in Sunderland, whose wife, Hannah, had recently died. He hired Mary Ann as a housekeeper in November 1866. A month later, when James' baby, John, died of gastric fever, he turned to his housekeeper for comfort and she became pregnant. Then Mary Ann's mother, living in Seaham Harbour, County Durham, became ill with hepatitis, so she immediately went to her. Although her mother began to recover, she also began to complain of stomach pains. She died at age 54 in the spring of 1867, nine days after Mary Ann's arrival. In 1867, Mary Ann's stepfather George Stott married his widowed neighbour, Hannah Paley.
Mary Ann's daughter Isabella, from the marriage to William Mowbray, was brought back to the Robinson household and soon developed severe stomach pains and died, as did two of Robinson's children, Elizabeth and James. All three children were buried in the last week of April and first week of May in 1867.
Robinson married Mary Ann at St Michael's, Bishopwearmouth on 11 August 1867. Their first child, Margaret Isabella (Mary Isabella on her baptismal record), was born that November, but she became ill and died in February 1868. Their second child George was born on 18 June 1869.
Robinson, meanwhile, had become suspicious of his wife's insistence that he insure his life; he discovered that she had run up debts of £60 behind his back and had stolen more than £50 that she had been expected to bank. Then he found that Mary Ann had been forcing his older children to pawn household valuables. He threw her out, retaining custody of their son George.