Born into a prominent family in Virginia, he attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. He left in 1780 or 1781 to join the loyalist cause in New York. In June 1781 he was commissioned ensign in the Queen’s Rangers under the command of John Graves Simcoe. He served until the surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, Oct. 1781. The Queen’s Rangers were moved north to Nova Scotia, settling in what is now the parish of Queensbury in New Brunswick. In 1782, Robinson retired on half pay.
In 1784 he married Esther Sayre, daughter of Rev. John Sayre, who came to the Colonies on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
Looking for better opportunities, in 1788 the family moved to Quebec and began he articaling to become a lawyer. In 1792, Simcoe, now Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, offered him a post as a minor surveyor general and he moved to Kingston.
In 1794, he received his license to practice law and, in 1796, he was elected to the 2nd Parliament of Upper Canada representing Ontario & Addington. In 1797, he played a role in establishing the Law Society of Upper Canada.
No record of the proceedings of the assembly survives for his period of service, except for the 1798 session. Robinson played an active role that year and sponsored a bill, which never became law, “to enable persons migrating into this province to bring their negro slaves”.
Of better family and education than most of the loyalists who came to Canada, Christopher Robinson was nevertheless able to obtain official preferment only because of his link with Simcoe. He seems always to have been disappointed that the more comfortable life to which he felt his birth, education, and loyalty entitled him did not materialize. One of the few Robinsons from Virginia who supported the loyalist cause, he was cut off from most of the family.
Financial difficulties followed Robinson throughout his life. He acquired property through land grants, but at the time of his death in 1798 he was indebted after moving to New York that year.
Robinson died suddenly on 2 Nov. 1798 after returning to York from a long trip on horseback. The cause of his death is uncertain, but his son John Beverley remembered it as an acute attack of gout aggravated by cold and exposure.
Christopher Robinson is mentioned on the plaque erected in 2000 at the Old Garrison Burying Ground in Toronto, where he is interred, at Victoria Square, a block of land south east of King and Bathurst Streets
His son was Sir John Beverly Robinson, Chief Justice of York. His son Peter is considered founder of Petersborough, ONT. a veteran of the War of 1812. , representative of the provincial parliament, member of the Legislative Council, and Commissioner of Crown Lands for Upper Canada. His nephew was Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson. His son William Benjamin Robinson married Elizabeth Ann, daughter of William Jarvis (Upper Canada official), and his daughter Mary married Major Stephen Heward, formerly of the Grenadier Guards and later Auditor-General of Upper Canada. His daughter Esther married D'Arcy Boulton (1785–1846), the son of G. D'Arcy Boulton, who built The Grange (Toronto) and also served as Auditor-General of Upper Canada.