Sampson Paul Robins was born on January 27, 1833, in Faversham, Kent, England.

He was an educator. The son of two preachers, he was educated at home and the local schools. He moved to Peterborough, Canada, with his family in 1846. He was granted one of the first provincial certificates issued to teachers in Upper Canada. He taught at the Toronto Normal School, and in 1854, he was appointed a Headmaster of the Central School at Brandford. He became the first Professor of Mathematics at the McGill Normal School at its inception in 1857. While teaching, he also focused on his work as Superintendent of the Protestant Schools of Montreal. He served as the President of the Teachers’ Association. He graduated from McGill University (B.A., 1863; M.A., 1868). In 1883, he became Principal of the McGill Normal School and stayed in the position until 1907. It was under his principalship that women were first appointed to positions of unprecedented influence. Robins both witnessed and influenced a gradual rise in the qualifications of the province’s teachers through better and more academic and professional training. McGill University conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. (1880) and Bishops’ College, the honorary degree of D. C. L. (1900).

In 1854, he married Elizabeth Hore (1833–1867), and in 1871, he married Jane Dougall (1842–1926). He died on February 9, 1930, in Montreal, Quebec.