[1] Her parents were Rowland Richard (1872–1960) and Rosa Marion Robbins (nee Harris).

Her father was a farmer and he was a Councillor on the Middlesex County Council.

[2] She took her doctorate at London University with a treatise on Andrew Marvell.

Robbins became an instructor in British history at Bryn Mawr College in 1929.

[1] She married Stephen J. Herben Jr., who was also a professor at Bryn Mawr, in 1932.