US Congressman. He was born near Maysville, Kentucky, and was educated in local common public schools. He later moved to Rush County, Indiana, and was engaged in the mercantile business in Milroy, Indiana. On April 3, 1838, he married Sarah Pearl Carmichael and they had a daughter named Gertrude who had been born out of wedlock a month earlier on March 8, 1838. He then entered public service and served as a County Clerk of Rush County, Indiana, from 1841 to 1845. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected. A member of the Democratic Party, he then served Indiana's 7th District (Thirtieth Congress, Thirty-First Congress, and Thirty-Second Congress) in the United States House of Representatives from 1847 to 1853. While in the United States Congress he served as Chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals representing the Thirty-First Congress and the Thirty-Second Congress. After his term in the United States Congress expired on March 3, 1853, he was succeeded in office by United States Representative Cyrus Livingston Dunham. Following his term in the United States Congress, he was personally selected by then-President Franklin Pierce to serve as a United States Marshal for the Southern District of Indiana in 1853. He also served as a Brigade Inspector of the Fourth Military District of Indiana in 1854, and as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Indiana in 1856. He lastly served as a Trustee of Indiana University from 1856 to 1859 and was appointed by then-President James Buchanan to serve another term as a United States Marshal for the Southern District of Indiana in 1858. He passed away following a short illness of only a few weeks on March 21, 1860, at the age of 46, and was buried in the East Hill Cemetery in Rushville, Indiana. His wife Sarah passed away on April 28, 1890, at the age of 75, and his daughter Gertrude passed away on November 14, 1926, at the age of 88, and she is buried near her father in the same cemetery. One of his newspaper obituaries of the time said of Robinson, "He was a man of great energy of purpose, warm in friendships, violent in his dislikes, and not personally popular, yet he had many sterling traits of character-amongst which his frankness in the expression of his convictions was prominent and praiseworthy. Those who were but lately his political enemies will now, since he is gone, breathe a sigh for his memory."