Some of the Doctor's students becoming Unitarians, suspicion has been expressed as to the evangelical soundness of the views entertained by the tutor; but the evil appears to have been, that there was a sub-tutor who took the heretical side on disputed points, while the principal tutor, with all his love for truth, indulged his candour and kindness to excess. Dr. Priestley says "that Dr. Ashworth took the orthodox side of every question," and "that Dr. Ashworth was earnestly desirous to make me as orthodox as possible."
The Doctor was author of 'Reflections on the Fall of a Great Man—a Funeral Sermon on 2nd Sam. iii. 38, on the Death of Dr. Watts, 1749'; a funeral sermon for Mr. Floyd; also, a funeral sermon for Mr. Clark, of Birmingham, entitled 'The Regard Christian Congregations owe to their Deceased Ministers represented and urged, from Heb. xiii. 7'; 'A Collection of Psalm Tunes, with an Introduction to the Art of Singing;' also, 'A Hebrew Grammar, with complete Paradigms of the Verbs'; 'An Easy Introduction to Plane Trigonometry,' &c.
Mr. Robins was the next pastor and tutor. After the death of Dr. Ashworth, it became a matter of great anxiety amongst the friends of the academy who should be appointed his successor. There was one to whom many eyes were turned; but great fears were entertained, lest the extreme diffidence and modesty of his spirit should prevent him from acceding to the earnest requests that were presented to him. This was the Rev. Thomas Robins, who was at this time minister at West Bromwich, in Staffordshire. He was born at Keysoe, near Bedford; studied for the ministry under Dr. Doddridge, at Northampton; first settled at Stretton, in Warwickshire, 1755. The present minister's house at Stretton was built for him. He came to West Bromwich in 1761, where he continued until his removal to Daventry, in 1775.
At this period Job Orton wrote—"The death of Dr. Ashworth, though it has been long expected, has been a very painful event to me. Mr. Robins preached his funeral sermon last Lord's-day to a great auditory, from these words: 'Where is the Lord God of Elijah?' Coward's trustees, all the neighbouring ministers, and many in this and other neighbourhoods, think that no person is more proper to fill up this vacancy than Mr. Robins, especially as he is exceedingly acceptable to the congregation at Daventry. He hath been strongly urged to take up the prophet's mantle, but he has an unconquerable diffidence of his own abilities; I wish the many applications he hath received from ministers of all sentiments and denominations may overcome it. If he absolutely refuse, I know not who will be thought of. I pray God to direct in this very important concern." In another letter he writes—"You have heard by this time, August 31st, 1775, that Mr. Robins has accepted the invitation to Daventry. I had a great deal of trouble in writing to him, and engaging all my friends and correspondents to apply to him, who all concurred in thinking him the most proper person. I do not know a single objection, and I cannot hear of anyone else that makes one. The divines and the laity, of all principles and persuasions in these parts, are agreed in their opinion of him, and everybody is well pleased that he has accepted the office. I look back with pleasure and thankfulness on the pains I have taken in this affair, and firmly believe I shall never have reason to repent it."
Mr. Robins printed 'An Abridgement of Matthew Henry's Work on the Lord's Supper,' which was the only work he could be prevailed on to print, excepting some memoirs of Mr. Thomas Strange, of Kilsby, "one of the wisest and best of men." Mr. Palmer, of Hackney, says, "This was done on my earnest solicitation; and those who are the best judges on such a subject, and who best knew Mr. Strange, will concur with me in pronouncing this so excellent a performance, as to render it a matter of deep regret that the same pen should have been employed in no other original composition."
Robert Hall has written, in his 'Memoir of the Rev. T. N. Toller'—
Among many other mental endowments, Mr. Robins was remarkable for delicacy of taste and elegance of diction; and perhaps my readers will excuse my observing, that the first perceptions of these qualities which the writer of these lines remembers to have possessed, arose from hearing him preach at Northampton, on a public occasion. It is to be lamented that he has left none of those productions behind him, which a correct and beautiful imagination, embodied in language of the most classic purity, rendered so impressive and delightful. The qualities of his heart corresponded to those of his genius; and though long before his death his bodily infirmities obliged him to relinquish a commanding station and retire into obscurity, he retained to the last such an ascendancy over the minds of his former pupils, and such an interest in their affections, as nothing but worth of the highest order can command.
We may here correct an error into which Mr. Hall has fallen, in stating that Mr. Robins was first assistant to Dr. Ashworth. He did not come to reside at Daventry until the death of Dr. Ashworth, as his successor. But while the friends of Mr. Robins were delighting themselves in his ability and success, lo! in the midst of his days and his usefulness, he is compelled to resign all public services and retire into private life. After discharging his offices with increasing reputation and success for six years, his ministerial usefulness was suddenly destroyed, by imprudently preaching three times to a large congregation at Kettering one Sabbath whilst labouring under a severe cold, by which exertion he irrecoverably lost his voice; and being thus incapacitated for fulfilling the duties of the pulpit or the lecture-room, he relinquished his public engagements, and with great humility and contentment passed the remainder of his life in the secular employment of a bookseller and druggist. He died May 20th, 1810, and was buried in the Churchyard, where, on an upright stone, is inscribed a high eulogium, from the pen of his pupil and successor.
The Rev. T. N. Toller, of Kettering, who studied in the academy at Daventry, and spent the last year of his course under Mr. Robins, improved the death of his former tutor in a discourse delivered to his own people the next Sabbath morning, from 2 Kings ii. 12: "And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof! And he saw him no more."
It is a high gratification to the writer, and he trusts it will prove such to the reader, that he has the opportunity of enriching these 'Memorials' with Mr. Toller's description of the character of Mr. Robins, as given in the closing part of this sermon, having transcribed it from the author's manuscript,[4] never before published.