Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/394

  essays on ‘Paganism and Popery,’ and on subjects connected with missions.

Roberts died, after a few days' illness, on 14 April 1849, at Palaveram, near Madras.

 ROBERTS, LEWES or LEWIS (1596–1640), merchant and economic writer, son of Gabriel Roberts by his wife Ann, daughter of John Howard of Appleton in Yorkshire, was born at Beaumaris, Anglesey, in 1596. Compelled ‘by adverse fortune or cross fate’ to devote himself to commerce, he sought service with the East India Company in 1617. He was employed by that company, of which he afterwards became a director, and by the Levant Company, at Constantinople and other places. He returned to England before 1638, enjoyed the society of Izaak Walton and other literary men, and died in London in March 1640. He was buried in St. Martin's Outwich on 12 March 1640. His wife Anne died on 24 Feb. 1665, and is buried beside him.

Roberts married, on 27 Nov. 1626, at St. Magnus's Church, London, Anne, daughter of Edward Williams or Williomett, mercer, of London, by whom he had issue Gabriel (aged five in 1634), who was sub-governor of the African Company, and was knighted on 14 Jan. 1677–8; William; Delicia, who married John Nelson, a Turkey merchant; and Anne, who married George Hanger of Dryfield. A portrait is prefixed to the first edition of the ‘Merchants Mappe of Commerce.’

Roberts published:
 * 1) ‘The Merchants Mappe of Commerce; wherein the Vniversall Manner and Matter of Trade is compendiously handled,’ &c., London, 1638, fol. As one of the earliest systematic treatises on its subject in English, this gave Roberts a wide reputation; prefixed are commendatory verses by Izaak Walton; 3rd edit. enlarged, London, 1677, fol. … to which is annexed ‘Advice concerning Bills of Exchange,’ &c. [by T. Marins]; with … Engglands Benefit and Advantage by Foreign Trade, demonstrated by T[homas] Mun;’ 4th edit. London, 1700, fol.
 * 2) ‘Warre-fare epitomized,’ 1640, 4to.
 * 3) ‘The Treasure of Traffike, or a Discourse of Forraigne Trade, &c. Dedicated to the High Court of Parliament now assembled,’ London, 1641, 4to; reprinted in M'Culloch's ‘Select Collection of Tracts on Commerce,’ &c., London, 1856, 8vo. Some verses by a ‘Lod. Roberts,’ probably the merchant, are prefixed to Fletcher's ‘Purple Island.’

 ROBERTS, MARY (1788–1864), author, born at Homerton, London, on 18 March 1788, was daughter of Daniel Roberts, a merchant of London, by his wife Ann, daughter of Josiah Thompson of Nether Compton, Dorset; her grandfather was the quaker botanist, [q. v.], and her paternal great-great-grandfather was Daniel Roberts [see under, 1623?–1684]. In 1790 her parents removed to Painswick in Gloucestershire. There she developed an intense love of nature to which she soon gave literary expression. Some passages in her ‘Annals of my Village, being a Calendar of Nature for Every Month in the Year’ (London, 1831, 8vo), fall little short of the descriptive power of Richard Jefferies [q. v.] Although born and brought up a quaker, Mary Roberts left the society after the death of her father, when she removed with her mother to Brompton Square, London. She died there on 13 Jan. 1864, and was buried in Brompton cemetery.

Besides her ‘Annals’ Miss Roberts published (in London) many works of similar character. The chief are: 1. ‘Select Female Biography,’ 1821, 12mo. 2. ‘The Wonders of the Vegetable Kingdom displayed in a Series of Letters,’ 1822, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1824, 12mo. 3. ‘Sequel to an Unfinished Manuscript of H. Kirke White's, to illustrate the Contrast between the Christian's and the Infidel's Close of Life,’ London, 1823, 8vo. 4. ‘The Conchologist's Companion,’ 1824, 12mo; another edit. 1834, 8vo. 5. ‘An Account of Anne Jackson, with particulars concerning the Plague and Fire in London, edited by M. R.,’ 1832, 12mo. 6. ‘Domesticated Animals considered with reference to Civilisation and the Arts,’ 1833, 8vo. 7. ‘Sister Mary's Tales in Natural History,’ 1834, 8vo. 8. ‘The Seaside Companion, or Marine Natural History,’ 1835, 8vo. 9. ‘Wild Animals, their Nature, Habits, and Instincts, with Incidental Notices of the Regions they Inhabit,’ 5th edit. 1836, 8vo. 10. ‘The Progress of Creation considered with reference to the Present Condition of the Earth,’