Career
Young Robinson served his country, also, in the War of 1812 when he was stationed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as an Adjutant. At the war"s end, he left the Army and settled in Boston where he entered into commercial business until his retirement about 1847. He served in the state legislature for a year, although he never entered into active politics, and as a civil magistrate.
lieutenant was following his retirement that he moved to Lexington on Elm Street (now Harrington Road), where he lived until his death on October 16, 1868.
He served the Lodge as Master in 1824 and 1845 and was Lodge Treasurer from 1828 to 1843. He served the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts as Junior Grand Warden, 1837.
Senior Grand Warden, 1838 through 1840, and Deputy Grand Master, 1841 through 1843. He was elected Grand Master of all Masons in Massachusetts in 1846 and served for three years.
He was greeted in Boston Council, Royal and Select Masters, in 1828 and served as Principal Conductor of the Work in 1840.
Minutes of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, note the issuance of a dispensation to confer the Thirtieth to Thirty-second Degrees on then Grand Master Robinson. He was elevated to the Thirty-third Degree on August 25, 1851. This was an interesting period in Scottish Rite Masonic history.
There were several bodies at various times in the mid-nineteenth century purporting to be authorized Supreme Councils and conferring versions of the degrees.
Foreign the details of this era, we look to other histories. He attempted briefly to revive the Raymond Council in December 1866, until resigning command, as a lost cause, in May 1867.
He died at his Lexington residence on October 16, 1868. Interment was at Mount Auburn Cemetery.
A Freemason"s Lodge, Simon West Robinson Lodge, Air Force&Department of Administration and Management, was dedicated to him in 1870 in the town of Lexington, Massachusetts in the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
That Lodge continues to meet in Lexington, and is the second largest Masonic Lodge in Massachusetts.
