Person

James Fisher Robinson (governor, state senator, businessman, attorney, and farmer)

b. 1800-10-04 d. 1882-10-31

Twenty-second governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, banker, and legislator. Son of Jonathan Robinson and Jane Black Robinson. Married to Susan D. Mansell Robinson on December 26, 1821. Father of Emilie Jane Robinson and James F. Robinson, Jr. Married Willina S. Herndon Robinson on May 30, 1842. Father of Scott Herndon Robinson, John McCracken Robinson, George Sidney Robinson, Madison Johnson Robinson, Stephen Gano Robinson, Willa Ewing Robinson, Philip Eldon Robinson, and Stephen Gano Robinson. Educated at Forest Hill Academy and Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Trustee of Georgetown College. President of the Farmers' Bank of Georgetown. Represented Fayette and Scott Counties in the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 1851 to 1855. Owned thirty-five enslaved persons in 1860. Represented Fayette and Scott Counties in the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 1861. Speaker of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from September 3, 1861, to September 5, 1861. Speaker of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from August 16, 1861, to August 18, 1862. Governor of Kentucky from August 18, 1862, to September 1, 1863. Returned to practicing law and farming on retiring from politics in 1863.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Scott County, District No 1, p. 216B, 230A.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Scott County, District No 2, pp. 235, 236, 252.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Jefferson County, Louisville Ward 4, p. 266.

John David Smith, “James F. Robinson (1862-1863),” ed. Lowell H. Harrison, Kentucky’s Governors (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 89-92.

William Henry Engle, Pennsylvania Genealogies: Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg: Lane S. Hart, 1886), 553, 556-7.

Citation

Robinson, James Fisher. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32207976 (January 13, 2026).

The people, organizations, and places listed below appear in the same documents as James Fisher Robinson (governor, state senator, businessman, attorney, and farmer). They are sorted by the number of documents they share.

Documents (446)

People

Organizations

Places

Loading network...

Network Visualized

How to use the visualization

CWGK’s network visualization brings the edition’s documents to life. The network on this page centers around Robinson, James Fisher. Click on the light blue dot to see the documents in which the entity appears. You can also click on the dark orange dots to see other people linked to Robinson, James Fisher, a light orange dot to see the places connected to Robinson, James Fisher, or dark green dots to see organizations linked to Robinson, James Fisher.

Additionally, the lines between the dots add additional information. The light green lines demonstrate direct connections between Robinson, James Fisher and another person, place, or organization. The light pink lines highlight that the dots appear in the same document.