ROBINS, or Robyns, John, an old English astronomer, was born in Staffordshire about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and was educated at Oxford for the church. His almost unrivalled excellence in "the pleasant
Robinson. studies of mathematics and astrology" introduced him in course of time to the favour of royalty itself. Henry VIII. made him canon of his college in 1582, and canon of Windsor in 1543. Queen Mary also appointed him her chaplain, and continued to hold him in great respect till his death in 1558. Robins is now known by several treatises in manuscript. His De Portentosis Cometis may be seen in the British Museum; and his De Culminatione Stellarum Fixarum, his De Ortu et Occasu Stellarum Fixarum, and a part of his Annotationes Astrologicae are preserved in the Bodleian Library. (Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.)