Background
Thomas Robbins was born on August 11, 1777 in Norfolk, Connecticut, grandson of the Rev. Philemon Robbins, for nearly fifty years pastor at Branford, and ninth child of the Rev. Ammi Ruhamah and Elizabeth (LeBaron) Robbins.
Thomas Robbins was born on August 11, 1777 in Norfolk, Connecticut, grandson of the Rev. Philemon Robbins, for nearly fifty years pastor at Branford, and ninth child of the Rev. Ammi Ruhamah and Elizabeth (LeBaron) Robbins.
His father, in addition to his pastoral duties, prepared boys for college, and Thomas received his English and classical training from him. He entered Yale in 1792, but in his senior year transferred to Williams College, chartered in 1793, of which his father was trustee, with the understanding that he should nevertheless receive his degree in course from Yale. Accordingly, he was graduated from both institutions in 1796.
During the next two years after graduation he taught in Sheffield, Massachussets, and Torringford, Connecticut, at the same time studying theology under several New England divines.
On September 25, 1798, he was licensed to preach by the Litchfield North Association of Congregational Ministers. After supplying the church in Marlboro, Connecticut, for a few months, he made a missionary tour into Vermont.
He taught an academy in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1800, preaching as opportunity offered in the neighborhood, and in 1801-02 made a missionary journey into the newly settled districts of New York. In May 1803 the Missionary Society of Connecticut appointed him missionary to the Western Reserve, Ohio, and in June he was ordained at Norfolk, Connecticut After more than two years of strenuous service he returned to Norfolk broken in health.
From 1809 to 1827 he was pastor in what is now South Windsor, Connecticut; then, after supplying various churches, was installed in Stratford, Connecticut, Feburary 3, 1830, but remained there only until September 15, 1831.
His last pastorate, during the first four years of which he was colleague of his uncle, Lazarus LeBaron, was in the town now called Mattapoisett, Plymouth County, Massachussets.
He was one of the original members of the Massachusetts board of education and served thereon until he left Mattapoisett; from 1842 to 1853 he was one of the corporation of Williams College.
Throughout all his ministerial vicissitudes, Robbins fostered a keen interest in history and research. While in Danbury he delivered and published An Oration Occasioned by the Death of General George Washington (1800), which went through several editions; also A Century Sermon, which reviewed the most remarkable events of the eighteenth century. He contributed articles to the press and beginning in 1811 wrote for the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine a series of biographical articles, published in 1815 under the title, An Historical View of the First Planters of New England.
He also edited a number of works, among them the first American edition, 1820, of Cotton Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana. In connection with his historical researches he began to collect books and pamphlets.
In 1809 he found that he had 130 of these, and resolved to add at least 100 a year from that time on; by 1830 the number had increased to 1600 or more. This library was known to contain much that was rare and valuable, and various institutions coveted ultimate possession of it.
Finally, in June 1844, the Connecticut Historical Society, which Robbins had helped to found in 1825 and which had been revived under the leadership of his friend Henry Barnard, invited Robbins to place his library in the Society building at Hartford, and become librarian of the organization, at an annual salary of $300. Two years later ownership of the library passed to the Society, which settled a life annuity of $600 on Robbins. He served as librarian until 1854, when he retired because of age.
He died at the home of a niece in Colebrook, Connecticut, but was buried in Hartford near the library which had been his life work. His journal, Diary of Thomas Robbins, edited by Increase N. Tarbox, was published in two volumes, in 1886-87.
He had never married .