Robinson, Andrew (ca. 1770–unknown)

Andrew Robinson, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, paid James Gaines to ferry him across the Sabine River into Texas in June 1821. The Robinson family may have been the first of the Austin colonists to cross the Brazos River. Towards the end of November 1821 they were camped west of the river near the La Bahía Road crossing at the site of future Washington-on-the-Brazos. In August 1823 and again in 1824 Robinson was captain of the colonial militia. His men made an attack on Karankawa Indians in September 1824. On July 8, 1824, Robinson received title to two sitios and a labor of land that is now part of Brazoria, Washington, and Waller counties; part of the headright was surveyed by Horatio Chriesman before October 1824. The census of 1826 listed Robinson as a farmer and stock raiser aged over fifty. His household included his wife, Nancy, a son, a daughter, and two slaves. The daughter, Patsy, married John W. Hall, and on May 20, 1831, Robinson gave the Halls a section of land on condition that they care for him in his old age. In July 1830 his house was a polling place for the election of state officials. By 1830 he had completed a ferry at the La Bahía crossing and had opened a hotel. He and Hall later had a saloon at Washington. In October 1833 William Barret Travis declined the administration of a Robinson estate, probably that of Andrew Robinson. It seems likely that it was Robinson's son, Andrew Robinson, Jr., who joined John W. Moore and Travis to march against the Mexican garrison at Anahuac in 1835 (see ANAHUAC DISTURBANCES).