Sir John Beverley Robinson (1848-1933)

He was born in Toronto and was educated there at Upper Canada College. In 1874, he founded the firm of Robinson & Heath that he later sold to a cousin and moved to Edgewater, New Jersey, on establishing a paving stone business in New York. He summered at his 500-acre farm at Burk's Falls in Ontario that had been rewarded to him for his services in the Fenian Raids of 1866. There, he and his wife devoted all their attention to mining for gold - the result of a prophecy made by a friend of his wife who had never been to Canada but, "who professed to describe the location of the mineralized vein on the farm". Alas, the prophecy was never fulfilled. Nonetheless, he was proud that his paving stones were used to form the Long Island approaches to Queensboro Bridge. In 1901, on the death of his cousin, he succeeded to the family Baronetcy but preferred not to use the title and it was a surprise to his Edgewater neighbors when they learned of it. He was married twice: In 1873, he married Margaret, daughter of James MacDonnell. His second wife was Eleanor, daughter of Dr. Charles H. Cooke, F.R.C.S. He had a daughter by his first marriage and a son by his second.