12 Facts About Moses Robinson

Moses Robinson then served as one of the first two United States senators from Vermont.

Moses Robinson's father was an important leader in the New Hampshire Grants, and died while in England attempting to resolve a dispute over whether New Hampshire or New York had the right to grant land and town charters there.

Moses Robinson soon became an important citizen of Bennington in his own right, serving as town clerk from 1762 to 1781.

Moses Robinson farmed and speculated in land, and became active in the American independence movement, serving as a colonel in the Vermont militia during the American Revolution.

In 1778, when the government of Vermont was erected after Vermont declared independence in 1777, Moses Robinson became a member of the governor's council and chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.

Moses Robinson served on the governor's council until 1785 and as chief justice until 1789, when he became governor of Vermont, replacing Thomas Chittenden.

In 1789 Moses Robinson received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Yale University, and in 1790 he received the same honor from Dartmouth College.

Moses Robinson became associated with the anti-administration faction and, later in his term, with the beginnings of the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson.

Moses Robinson was the Democratic-Republican nominee in the 1797 and 1798 gubernatorial elections, losing both times to Federalist Isaac Tichenor.

Moses Robinson served in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1802.

Moses Robinson died in Bennington and is interred at the Old Bennington Cemetery.

Moses Robinson married Mary Fay, daughter of Stephen Fay, a leader of Green Mountain Boys, and sister of Joseph Fay and David Fay.