Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/380

 Compulsory Education for the Children of the Poorer Classes,’ 1865.

[Manchester Guardian, 28 Aug. 1876; English Independent, 31 Aug. 1876; Short Biogr. of Robert Halley, 1877, p. xliii; Slugg's Reminiscences of Manchester, 1881, pp. 50, 136; Royal Society Cat. of Scientific Papers; information supplied by Dr. D. Lloyd Roberts.]  ROBERTS, ABRAHAM (1784–1873), general in the Indian army, and colonel of the royal Munster fusiliers, born at Waterford, 11 April 1784, was son of the Rev. John Roberts, whose family had long been connected with that town, by his wife, whose maiden name was Sandys. His uncle, Thomas Roberts [q. v.], is noticed separately. His grandfather, John Roberts, who married Mary Susannah Sautelle, of French extraction, was architect of the cathedral catholic chapel, the leper hospital, and the town-hall in Waterford.

Abraham Roberts was appointed to the Waterford regiment of militia in 1801; in 1803 he became ensign in the 48th regiment; and in 1804 he joined the East India Company's service. In India he served with distinction under Lord Lake (1805), Sir William Richards (1814–15), and others. In 1828 Lord Amherst, governor-general, presented him with a piece of plate for departmental services. He was lieutenant-colonel in 1832, and in the first Afghan war (1838–42) was appointed brigadier-general. Roberts commanded Shah Shuja's force in 1840, but resigned and returned to India because the precautions he wisely advised were not adopted. He foresaw the danger at Kabul, and had his advice been accepted the disasters of 1841–2 might have been averted. From 1852 to 1854 he commanded the Pesháwar division, where his judgment and calm observation obtained the acknowledgment of the government of India. His service extended over fifty years, during which he received numerous medals and orders; he was made K.C.B. in 1865, G.C.B. in 1873, and died at Clifton in December of that year, aged 89. Roberts married in 1830, as a second wife, Isabella, widow of Major Maxwell, and daughter of Abraham Bunbury, by whom he became father of Frederick Sleigh, first Earl Roberts of Kandahar, Pretoria, and Waterford.

[Documents and information kindly supplied by Lord Roberts; Addiscombe, by Colonel Vibart; see under .] 

ROBERTS, BARRÉ CHARLES (1789–1810), antiquary, was second son of Edward Roberts, clerk of the pells in the exchequer, who died on 14 May 1835, aged 87. He was born in St. Stephen's Court, Westminster, the official residence of his father, on 13 March 1789, and received his first baptismal name from Colonel Barré, his father's early friend. From May 1797 to June 1799 he was educated under Dr. Horne at Chiswick, and from the latter date to the summer of 1805 under the Rev. William Goodenough at Ealing. He was entered as a commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, on 11 Oct. 1805, and at Christmas 1805 he was nominated as a student by the presentation of Dr. Hay, at the request of Lord Sidmouth. He graduated B.A. on 19 Nov. 1808.

Roberts was well versed in antiquities, especially topography and numismatics. His taste for collecting coins began in early youth; he confined himself to the coins of his own country, and his collection was based on that of Samuel Tyssen, which was dispersed in April and May 1802. It was acquired for the British Museum at the cost of 4,000l. His energy during his short life seemed inexhaustible. In 1805 and 1806 he learnt Spanish, and early in 1807 printed at Oxford fifty copies of a compendium of Spanish verbs. In February 1809, when he was not yet twenty, he contributed to the first number of the ‘Quarterly Review’ (pp. 112–31) a review of Pinkerton's ‘Essay on Medals.’ He wrote a second article for it on ‘The Travelling Sketches in Russia’ of Sir Robert Ker Porter [q. v.], but this was withdrawn at his own request. Mostly under the signature of ‘E. S. S.,’ the concluding letters of his name, he contributed several articles to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ on numismatics.

A lingering decline seized Roberts in the autumn of 1807, and he died at his father's house at Ealing on 1 Jan. 1810. On 8 Jan. he was buried in the parish church, where a tablet, with an inscription by his old tutor William Goodenough, his preceptor in youth, was placed to his memory. There appeared in 1814 a volume called ‘Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Barré Charles Roberts, with a Memoir of his Life,’ by a friend, which was noticed by Southey in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for January 1815 (pp. 509–519). All his published papers, with several additional articles on ‘Abbeys,’ ‘Mitred Abbots,’ ‘Antony Wood,’ ‘Tom Hearne,’ ‘Gibbon's “Dissertation on the Iron Mask,”’ and other antiquarian topics, were included in the volume.

[Memoir in 1814; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. vi. 252–4; Dibdin's Reminiscences, ii. 642–3; Gent. Mag. 1810 i. 93, 179, 1814 ii. 461–6, 567–70, 1835 ii. 92–3; Faulkner's Ealing, p. 197.]  197.] W. P. C.