preaching of Whitefield drew him to the Calvinistic methodists; he dates his dedication to a religious life from 24 May 1752, his complete conversion from 10 Dec. 1755. Shortly before he came of age Anderson renounced his indentures, giving him a high character, but adding that he was ‘more employed in reading than working, in following preachers than in attending customers.’
Robinson began preaching at Mildenhall (1758), and was soon invited to assist W. Cudworth at the Norwich Tabernacle. Shortly afterwards he seceded, with thirteen others, to form an independent church in St. Paul's parish, Norwich. Early in 1759 he received adult baptism from Dunkhorn, baptist minister at Great Ellingham, Norfolk. On 8 July 1759 he preached for the first time at Stone Yard Baptist Chapel, Cambridge; after being on trial for nearly two years, he made open communion a condition of his acceptance (28 May 1761) of a call, and was ordained pastor (11 June). The congregation was small, the meeting-house, originally a barn, was ruinous, and Robinson's stipend for the first half-year was 3l. 12s. 5d. His preaching became popular; a new meeting-house was opened on 12 Aug. 1764, and Robinson's evening sermons, delivered without notes, drew crowded audiences. He had trouble with lively gownsmen (who on one occasion broke up the service); this he effectively met by his caustic discourse (10 Jan. 1773) ‘on a becoming behaviour in religious assemblies.’
He lived first at Fulbourn, some four miles from Cambridge, then in a cottage at Hauxton, about the same distance off, removing in June 1773 to Chesterton, above a mile from his meeting-house. Here he farmed a piece of land, bought (1775) and rebuilt a house, and did business as a corn merchant and coal merchant. In 1782 he bought two other farms, comprising 171 acres. His mercantile engagements drew the censure of ‘godly boobies,’ but, while securing his independence, he neglected neither his vocation nor his studies. On Sundays he preached twice or thrice at Cambridge; on weekdays he evangelised neighbouring villages, having a list of fifteen stations where he preached, usually in the evening, sometimes at five o'clock in the morning. His volume of village sermons exhibits his powers of plain speech, homely and local illustration, wit and pathos. The sermons, however, were not actually delivered as printed, for he invariably preached extempore.
In politics a strong liberal, and an early advocate for the emancipation of the slave, Robinson showed his theological liberalism by the part he took, in 1772, in promoting the relaxation of the statutory subscription exacted from tolerated dissenters. At Cambridge he was in contact with a class of men, several of whom were on the point of secession from the church as unitarians. In opposition to their doctrinal conclusions he published, in 1776, his ‘Plea for the Divinity of our Lord,’ which at once attracted notice by resting the case on the broad and obvious tenour of scripture. He was offered inducements to conform. ‘Do the dissenters know the worth of the man?’ asked Samuel Ogden (1716–1778) [q. v.]; to which Robinson rejoined, ‘The man knows the worth of the dissenters.’ He had sent copies to Theophilus Lindsey [q. v.] and John Jebb, M.D. [q. v.], with both of whom he was on friendly terms. Francis Blackburne (1705–1787) [q. v.], who thought it unanswerable, twitted the unitarian Lindsey with the silence of his party. Not till 1785 did Lindsey publish his (anonymous) ‘Examination’ in reply. By this time Robinson had begun to recede from the position taken in his ‘Plea,’ which was in fact Sabellian, ‘that the living and true God united himself to the man Jesus’ (Plea, p. 68). His change of view was due to his researches for a history of the baptist body, and to the writings of Priestley, to which he subsequently referred as having arrested his progress ‘from enthusiasm to deism.’ In a letter (7 May 1788) to John Marsom (1746–1833) he scouts the doctrines of the Trinity and of the personality of the Spirit. But in his own pulpit he did not introduce controversial topics.
In 1780 Robinson visited Edinburgh, where the diploma of D.D. was offered to him, but declined. His history of the baptists was projected at a meeting (6 Nov. 1781) of his London friends, headed by Andrew Gifford [q. v.] Robinson was to come up to London once a month to collect material, Gifford offering him facilities at the British Museum, and expenses were to be met by his preaching and lecturing in London. The plan did not work, and Robinson's services in London, popular at first, soon offended his orthodox friends. After 1783 he took his own course. Through Christopher Anstey [q. v.] he had enjoyed, from 1776, the use of a library at Brinkley, two miles from Cambridge. Of this he had availed himself in compiling the notes to his translation of Claude's ‘Essay,’ a publication undertaken as a relief under disablement from a sprained ankle in May 1776. He now obtained the privilege of borrowing books from Cambridge University Library. In 1785 he transferred his farming and mercantile engagements to Curtis, his son-in-law, and
