ROBBINS, Ashur, senator, born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, 26 October, 1757; died in Newport, Rhode Island, 25 February, 1845. After his graduation at Yale in 1782, he was tutor at the College of Rhode Island (now Brown university) front 1783 till 1788, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in Providence. He removed to Newport in 1795, was appointed United States district attorney, and was a member of the legislature from 1818 till 1825. He was elected to the United States senate as a Whig in place of James D'Wolf, serving from 5 December, 1825, till 3 March, 1839, after which he served again in the Rhode Island legislature. Brown gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1835. He was an accomplished classical scholar and orator, and published several addresses and orations.--His nephew, Royal, clergyman, born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, 21 October, 1788; died in Berlin, Connecticut, 26 March, 1861, was graduated at Yale in 1806, stud-led theology, and was ordained pastor of the Congregational church at Kensington parish, Berlin, Connecticut, in 1816, serving until 1859. He contributed to the "Christian Spectator" and other journals, to several works compiled by Sameul G. Goodrich, and was the author of brief biographies of the poets James G. Percival and John G. C. Brainard, prefixed to editions of their writings; many published sermons; & text-book entitled "Outlines of Ancient and Modern History" (Hartford, 1839); and a "History of American Literature," intended as a supplement to Robert Chambers's "History of English Literature" (Hartford, 1837).