Robinson abandoned Calvinism while at the academy, though for the time he maintained his
Trinitarianism. His first pastorate appears to have been at
Congleton,
Cheshire, in 1748, where he succeeded Joseph Bourn (1713–?1765), who had moved on to
Hindley in Lancashire. The
Congleton congregation already had
Socinian or
Unitarian leanings; Robinson's successors,
William Turner and
Benjamin Dawson, were certainly of that persuasion. While at Congleton, and in response to the final thwarting of the
Jacobite cause, Robinson preached and published a sermon:
The Mischievous intentions of popish projectors frustrated. After four years at Congleton, Robinson moved to the Old Chapel,
Dukinfield, Cheshire. He read his inaugural sermon on 12 November 1752. If his removal had been the result of a rift with his Congleton congregation, no record of it has yet come to light. However, he was clearly subject to outbreaks of bad temper while at Dukinfield. His instructions to the town constable to whip a begging tramp, was one factor among many behind a growing rift with his congregation. Two sermons that Robinson preached, and afterwards printed, on the artificial rise in the price of corn gained him the ill-will of interested speculators; but his Dob Lane congregation found fault with the consistency of his
Unitarianism as well as with his politics, and his congregation and hence his income soon fell away. As a result, he accepted some editorial work for a local bookseller, Robert Whitworth. Whitworth projected an edition of the Bible, to be sold in serial form. This would be more successful if Robinson could put some academic initials after his name on the title page. Consequently, Robinson persuade some acquaintances to sponsor an application to Edinburgh University, who appearing to mistake him for the more meritorious and academically distinguished
Robert Robinson of Cambridge awarded him a Doctorate in Divinity in January 1774. Finally exasperated with their belligerent preacher, on 14 December 1774 Robinson was handed a thirty-six-signature petition, signed by "eighteen subscribers and eighteen ciphers", demanding his resignation. Robinson's response was to point out that he had been in post some twenty years, and would remain till "August 1st, 1782, and as much longer as I then see cause"; and he published a pamphlet,
The doctrine of absolute submission discussed, or, the natural right claimed by some dissenters to dismiss their ministers at pleasure exposed. He had to get this printed in London, because Whitworth, his local publisher, not wishing to become involved in a local dispute, refused to print it. At the back of this pamphlet, and clearly to antagonize his
Unitarian congregation, Robinson advertised a further publication:
A Discourse in Vindication of the true and proper Divinity of our Lord, &c., with appendices. If it was ever written, it seems never to have been published. == Retirement ==