While in college, Robbins also began collecting books, a passion that would eventually define his life.

In 1803, the Connecticut Missionary Society, the evangelistic arm of the Connecticut General Association of Congregational ministers, sent him to a new settlement on the Western Reserve, Ohio where he spent three years organizing churches before returning to New England in poor health.

Lemuel Le Baron, as Congregational minister in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, preaching his first sermon there September 25, 1831.

[11] "He commenced his collection while in college, by preserving his textbooks, and in 1809 made a formal beginning of a permanent library, by making a catalogue of his entire stock, consisting of one hundred and thirty volumes, with a determination that he would add at least one hundred volumes a year as long as he should live."

The seeds were sown in 1822 when Robbins publicly suggested the creation of a historical society in Connecticut.

A notable part of the collection was the 385 volume Journal des sçavans, the earliest published scholarly periodical.

[13] Never having married, he revised his Last Will several times in an effort to assure his library was sustained after his death.

[1] His portrait, painted by Reuben Moulthrop in 1801, is located in Hartford at the Connecticut Historical Society's museum.