The rugged frontier appearance of this village, thirty-five years after its founding by the British American Land Company, illustrates the lack of progress made in the St. Francis Tract of Compton County. The site of the company's local headquarters, Robinson had a model school (that is, a superior elementary school), two churches, a store, post office and public house, as well as several mechanics' shops and mills, but we can see that relatively little progress had been made in clearing land nearby. The French-Canadian reformers in the Legislative Assembly had in effect won partial revenge because the Rebellion of 1837-38 had caused British immigration to decline temporarily, making it impossible for the company to replace English settlers who had quickly departed for the United States. The company's lavish expenditures in the area were largely wasted, for by 1840 the village of Victoria was deserted the storehouses in Gould were falling into ruin, and Robinson was abandoned by all but four families. Not only did every sawmill, forge, and pearlashery lie idle, but many of the roads had already become impassable. Unable to meet its payments, the company was forced to relinquish more than 200,000 hectares of the St. Francis Tract to the crown in 1841. Never again did it pay much attention to its remaining Compton townships, concentrating instead on developing its valuable Sherbrooke property and crown reserve lots further west. Because of poor soil in the vicinity of Victoria, that village remained a ghost town, but Robinson's survival was ensured by the arrival of the International Railroad in the mid-1870s. The village is shown here in a drawing from the Canadian Illustrated News (February 11, 1871).
