Robinson Spencer                        

Robinson Spencer was born 30 January 1845 in Bakewell, Derbyshire the son of Joseph and Jane Spencer.  Jane called her first son, Robinson, after her maiden name.

Robinson was 15 when his father died. Family folklore has it that Robinson studied to be a doctor at Oxford University , but this has not been proven and no record of him studying at Oxford has been found. 

It seems likely that he did have some medical training as following the death of his father, Robinson enlisted in the army as a corporal serving as a Dispenser (Chemist) in No.2 Company of the 3rd Waikato Regiment.  He  left aboard the "Annie Wilson" bound for New Zealand and the Taranaki Wars.    According the the NZ Freelance Annual "he went right up to the front, and placed himself under the orders of old Dr Sam, who was at the head of the medical staff. He was for some time in charge of the hospital at Pukerimu, near Cambridge. After the war, he engaged in business on his own account in various parts of the colony." The attraction of a land grant at the end of his enlistment may have been the enticement that attracted Robinson to come to New Zealand.  However, much to his dismay, after discharge from the army, he was not granted the land to which he felt he was due.

An excerpt from a  letter written by Robinson's grandmother Elizabeth Robinson to her daughter Jane (Robinson's mother) on 5 January 1865 gives cause to think that Jane may have contemplated joining Robinson in New Zealand:

 " I am sorry that you did not say if you had heard from Robinson lately. I should like to know how he is getting on and if he likes the country.  It is a very good thing that you did not go too. It is no place for you with your young family.  You may have difficulties at home but they are nothing to what the difficulties would be in a strange land and which is also the seat of War".

 In 1887 Robinson, petitioned the Members of the House of Representatives in Parliament to try to have them settle his claim:

 The Petition of Robinson Spencer of Mangakahia, Auckland humbly showeth that he was engaged in active service on the Hospital Staff of the 3^rd Waikato Regiment during the continuance of the war in the Waikato in the years 1863-4-5 and that he on his discharge from active service did not receive the land to which he was entitled according to the regulations then existing - no land being at that time available.

Your petitioner residing some twenty miles from a mail route was not aware of the sitting of the Land Claims Commission until after the said commission had completed its duties.

Your petitioner therefore humbly prayeth that your Honourable House will favourably consider this his petition for such recompense as he under the regulations aforesaid was entitled or such part thereof as your Honourable House shall see fit to determine and your petitioner will ever pray etc.

                    (signed) Robinson Spencer

Robinson's petition was unsuccessful.  He continued to fight for what he was entitled to for several years. The letter shown is to  a Mr Houston, concerning Robinson's land claim and is signed by the Prime Minister of the day Richard Seddon.  His claim was that  having served in the 3^rd Waikato Regiment, No 2 Company as a Corporal he was entitled  upon discharge to 60 acres of rural land and 1 acre of townland.  His claim to land under "The Naval and Military Settlers" and Volunteers' Land Act, 1889 was repeatedly rejected, under Section 2, Act of 1889 and Section 6, Act of 1891.  The ruling on his claim stated that the Acts did not apply to the service of the personnel of the 3^rd Waikato Regiment (Militia).

After his discharge, Robinson moved to Thames.   Thames was a major gold mining town in the Coromandel .  The first major discovery of gold was made on August 10, 1867 by a prospector, William Hunt, in a waterfall in the bed of the Kuranui Stream. The era from 1868 to 1871 were the bonanza years for the town with gold production topping one million pounds sterling at its peak.

It was in Thames that Robinson met and married Janet Tetley.  They were married at her parents home in Tararu, Thames Goldfield by the Rev G Harper, Wesleyan Minister on 24 November 1869.They lived in Thames for several years before moving to Northland, living in varies places including Whangarei and Hokianga. The 1881 NZ census shows Robinson in Whangarei working as a chemist. He was also the Native Medical Officer in the Hokianga area at that time.   Robinson was sent drugs from England and whenever he was needed in an emergency, he would mount a horse bareback, using a flax rope, and be guided sometimes through dense bush  to help deliver a baby, or to attend to someone where a tree had fallen on them. Apparently some grateful Maori parents named their children after the doctor, "Ropina Peneha (Robinson Spencer in Maori). His beard was often quite long and when riding he used to part it in the centre, plait it and tie it behind his head to stop it flapping in his face.  If he was operating, he would tuck it in his belt!

Robinson often had to act as a vet as well. On one occasion, a valuable thoroughbred horse suffering from colic was brought for treatment.  The cure being a liberal dose of whisky.  This sent the poor animal galloping around the yard.  Unfortunately one of the boys had a left a wooden tub in the yard and the horse tripped over it and was killed. 

 In 1885 Robinson and Janet took over the Native School at Mangakahia. Robinson got on very well with the Maoris and could speak fluent Maori.

A Report from the NZ Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives 1886 Session III, Vol 2 by Mr J.H. Greenaway, District Superintendent for the Bay of Islands reads:

Janet died on the 3 March 1887, two weeks after the birth of Clara.

Robinson remarried in 1889 to Margaret Elizabeth Rust  They had two children:

 In 1892 Robinson leased a hotel called the Travellers Rest in Te Ahuahu, overlooking the plains of Ohaeawai.    Later that same year Robinson, purchased the hotel for 359pd.  According to a Weekly News article, the Spencers owned the hotel until 1918 when it was sold by Henry Wyatt a nephew of Margaret Spencer's, who inherited the property after her death in 1918.  The hotel was a gathering place for the gumdiggers and the men of the great kauri logging camps.  Over the muddy tracks and the summer dust, workmen came to quench their first at the Travellers Rest.

Robinson's next move was to Frankton where he took over the local hotel.  According to an article in 'The New Zealand Freelance' Journal, Robinson was too good natured for the trade and relinquished his licence before moving to Rotorua.  In preparing to leave Frankton, Robinson took out an advertisement in the local paper, requesting all honest people indebted to him to settle their accounts, adding that the "dishonest were past praying for".

 In 1900, Robinson  took over a Chemist & Druggist business in Fenton Road, Rotorua.  Not long after taking over the shop he wrote to his son Alex:

 Rotorua,

July 10, 1900

Dear Alex

            Your letter dated July 1^st found us yesterday.  It is not true that my wife had left me. We are here together with Fanny, Isa and Maggie all well, but as you may suppose experiencing a very cold winter as we are so near to the snowy mountains.

            I send you a photograph of my shop.  You will see that I am now in the same business I was in  when you were born at Whangarei.  You were born on the 27^th March 1882 at Whangarei.

            Your stepmother is running a Laundry in one of the main streets here and although this is winter she as a lot of washing and other laundry work to do employing two Laundresses and she expects to require about six in the summer.  The carpenters and bricklayers are busy making the place suitable for extended operations.  I was very pleased with your offer - it is more than the others would have done and I thank you for it.  When your father is dead,  be sad - New Zealand will be a poor country as he has still a few friends left and they can be counted by the score.  We heard that you had gone to South Africa and wrote to you there but received no answer of course.  Let me know occasionally how you are doing and be sure to keep off the whiskey. I do not mind you smoking if you use tobacco.  Cigarettes are hurtful in many ways.

            I have not heard from any of the others and so can give you no idea as to how they are.  My business is not paying just now but between the two we can get a living.  Good health and good luck to you is the earnest desire of your affectionate father.

                  The youngsters send their love.

                                                                                            R. Spencer

 In 1902 Robinson was elected a member of the Rotorua Town Council and was a council member until 1904.  He was appointed to the Library Advisory Board in January 1905. 

He died aged 61 of Hepatitis on 6 April 1906 at his residence, Tutanekai Street, Rotorua and is buried in the Rotorua Cemetery.   

An obituary appeared in 'The New Zealand Freelance' on 21 April 1906:

 An old identity passed away at Rotorua the other day in the person of Robinson Spencer, chemist, local politician and good fellow all through.  Mr Spencer began life as a dispenser, and continued dispensing something or other until quite recently.  When it wasn't physic, it was those creature comforts that are supposed to make glad the heart of man, and are consequently held in such abhorrence by a section of the pious fraternity.  But, whether gladdening or otherwise in their effects, it was acknowledged that if what Robinson Spencer sold when he was in the chemist business equalled in quality that which he handed over the bar when he was in the hotel line, then the sick folk got fair value for their money.

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