His father traced his ancestry from his father’, David Franklin Robinson, to Thomas Robinson who came to Guilford from England in 1667, and from his mother, Anne Seymour Robinson, to William Brewster (one of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1620), Richard Treat (a patentee of the Connecticut charter), and to Governor John Webster.

[2][3][4] He graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1889, from Yale University in 1893, and received his legal education by studying law in his father's office.

His whole life was spent in Hartford with work, civic activities, and a variety of social interests, all of which by nature he entered into with zest and enjoyment.

He was chairman of the Republican town committee from 1903 to 1906 and served as the executive secretary to Governor George P. McLean between 1901 and 1903.

He was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1904 and from 1908 to 1912 he was United States attorney for the District of Connecticut.