This he sold, and, coming to London with his wife Mary (or Joan) Robins, was known in 1650 to Lodowicke Muggleton (1609–1698) and John Reeve (1608–1658) as someone claiming to be something greater than a prophet.
Robins put forward a scheme for leading a host of 144,000 persons to the Holy Land; Joshua Garment was to be his Moses for this expedition; the volunteers were prepared by a vegetarian diet of dry bread, raw vegetables, and water.
[2] Robins acted as a cult leader and promised his followers he would lead them to the Mount of Olives in the Holy Land of Jerusalem where he would feed them on manna from heaven.
[2] On 24 May 1651 Robins, his wife, and eight of his followers were apprehended at a meeting in Long Alley, Moorfields, and jailed in the New Bridewell at Clerkenwell, where three other disciples were sent to join them.
Robins reduced his former claim to one of inspiration, and rested his hopes of salvation on the merits of our Lord; his followers stoutly maintained his higher pretensions.
On 5 February 1652, Reeve and Muggleton, who had just received their own "commissions" as prophets, visited Robins in his Clerkenwell prison, and passed sentence of eternal damnation upon him.