Colonel Robert Trimble (1824 – 5 September 1899) was a 19th-century

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth D ...

, New Zealand. He was briefly a judge at the

Native Land Court Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

Early life

Trimble was born near

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Ireland, in 1824. He did his apprenticeship as a spinner at

Sion Mills Sion Mills is a village to the south of Strabane in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on the River Mourne. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 2,050 people. It is a tree-lined industrial village and designated conservation area, particula ...

. He emigrated to America at age 21, where he remained for two or three years. While there, he was exposed to

William Henry Channing William Henry Channing (May 25, 1810 – December 23, 1884) was an American Unitarian clergyman, writer and philosopher. Biography William Henry Channing was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Channing's father, Francis Dana Channing, died when he wa ...

unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...

, which he adopted instead of his

presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

upbringing. He then moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and then to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, where he worked for the American linen commission merchants Watson and Co. In 1856, he married Jane Heywood of Manchester. She was the eldest daughter of

Abel Heywood Abel Heywood (25 February 1810 – 19 August 1893) was an English publisher, radical and mayor of Manchester. Early life Heywood was born into a poor family in Prestwich, who moved to Manchester after Heywood's father died in 1812. Abel obt ...

, who at the time was

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

and later became

Mayor of Manchester This is a list of the Lord Mayors of the City of Manchester in the North West of England. Not to be confused with the Directly elected Greater Manchester Mayor. The Current and 124th Lord Mayor is Cllr Donna Ludford, Labour who has served Sin ...

. Their son William Hayward Trimble became the first librarian at the

Hocken Collections Hocken Collections (, formerly the Hocken Library) is a research library, historical archive, and art gallery based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Its library collection, which is of national significance, is administered by the University of Otago. T ...

. While in Manchester, he became interested in the volunteer movement and he joined the

Liverpool Irish The Liverpool Irish is a unit of the British Army's Territorial Army, raised in 1860 as a volunteer corps of infantry. Conversion to an anti-aircraft regiment occurred in 1947, but the regimental status of the Liverpool Irish ceased in 1955 up ...

. He then joined the 15th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers, where he financed an additional battery. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel and upon leaving Manchester, was promoted to honorary colonel. The leading personalities of Manchester attended his leaving dinner in 1875. Trimble settled with his family near Inglewood on of land purchased from the

provincial government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, ...

, on which he established a sawmill.

Political career

After the abolition of provincial government, he became the first chairman of the Inglewood Town Board. He represented the

Grey and Bell Grey and Bell was a Taranaki electorate in the New Zealand Parliament from 1853 to 1881. Population centres The electorate covered the northern, rural part of the Taranaki Province. The localities of Inglewood and Waitara fell within Grey and B ...

electorate from to 1881, and then the

electorate from to 1887 when he was defeated. He contested the electorate in the and was beaten by the incumbent,

Edward Smith Ed, Eddie, Edgar, Edward, Edwin, and similar, surnamed Smith, may refer to: Military * Edward H. Smith (sailor) (1889–1961), United States Coast Guard admiral, oceanographer and Arctic explorer * Edward Smith (VC) (1898–1940), English recipien ...

. Later, he was a judge at the

Death

Trimble died on 5 September 1899 at New Plymouth after having been unwell for a long time. He was survived by his wife, four sons and three daughters.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Trimble, Robert 1824 births 1899 deaths Military personnel from Belfast Royal Artillery officers Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 1887 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1893 New Zealand general election New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates Irish emigrants to New Zealand (before 1923) 19th-century New Zealand politicians