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 involved severe suffering. He submitted to strict regimen, and was helped by the entire devotion of his wife. Surgical operations became necessary, and in the winter of 1883–1884 he was obliged to obtain assistance in lecturing. Repeated attacks in following years induced him to offer his resignation in 1888. The council refused to accept it until 7 May 1892, when continuance had become manifestly impossible. His wife had been suffering from a fatal disease for some time, and died, after making every possible arrangement for her husband's future, on 29 May. Robertson was attempting to take up some of his old work, but was much weakened, and a slight chill was too much for his remaining strength. He died on 20 Sept. 1892. His friends were profoundly impressed by the heroic cheerfulness with which he bore the sufferings and anxieties of his later years, and carried on his work to the last moment at which it was possible. Though his health prevented him from finishing any considerable work, his influence in promoting philosophical studies in England, both by his lectures and his editorial labours, was probably unsurpassed by that of any contemporary. In philosophy his affinities were chiefly with the school represented by the Mills and Professor Bain; but he was widely acquainted with philosophical literature of all schools, and singularly impartial and cautious in his judgment.

Robertson wrote some articles in reviews, gave a few popular lectures, and contributed to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ and to this dictionary. Most of these and his chief articles in ‘Mind’ were collected as ‘Philosophical Remains,’ 1894, edited by Professor Bain and Mr. T. Whittaker, Robertson's assistant in the editorship of ‘Mind.’ A memoir by Professor Bain is prefixed. Two volumes of his lectures (1870–92), edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids, were published in 1896.

[Memoir by Prof. Bain, as above; personal knowledge.] 

ROBERTSON, JAMES (1720?–1788), governor of New York, born in Fifeshire about 1720, enlisted as a private, became a sergeant, and obtained an ensign's commission by his service at Carthagena in 1740. Having sailed to America in 1756, he was appointed major-general of the royal troops raised in America, and was also barrack-master at New York. In 1772 he received a colonel's commission, and in the engagement between the British troops and the colonists at Long Island in 1776 he commanded a brigade. He took a leading part in the negotiations with Washington for the release of André. In 1779 Robertson was appointed head of a board of twelve commissioners for restoring peace, and in May of the same year he became civil governor of New York. In May 1781 he was appointed commander-in-chief in Virginia. He thereupon sailed to Sandy Hook; but hearing that Cornwallis had arrived with a commission which would supersede his, he returned to New York. On 20 Nov. 1782 he was appointed lieutenant-general. In the following April he returned to England. He died in London on 4 March 1788.

Our knowledge of Robertson's character rests entirely on the testimony of Thomas Jones, the chief justice of New York, a malevolent and disappointed man, who wrote a history of New York during the revolutionary war. According to him, Robertson, when barrack-master, enriched himself by clipping the coins which passed through his hands, and when civil governor established arbitrary tribunals. He showed, says Jones, ‘the haughtiness, superciliousness, and contempt natural to the pride of a rich and opulent Scot,’ and, when appointed governor, was infirm, paralytic, and undignifiedly amorous.

[Jones's Hist. of New York; Gent. Mag. March 1788.] 

ROBERTSON, JAMES (1714–1795), orientalist, born in 1714 in the parish of Cromarty, studied for many years at Leyden University under Schultens, the celebrated Dutch orientalist, and was ‘called’ to his native parish as minister, having been licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh on 28 Nov. 1744. He never settled at Cromarty, but, after graduating at Leyden as ‘Britannus’ on 20 Jan. 1749, proceeded to Oxford to study under Thomas Hunt [q. v.], the regius professor of Hebrew. He was offered an advantageous post in Doddridge's academy at Northampton; but the town council of Edinburgh, in response to a petition from the divinity students, elected him about May 1751 to the chair of Hebrew in the university of Edinburgh. He received the fees of students only, his superannuated predecessor, Professor Dawson, retaining the salary for life. Dr. Johnson, who visited Edinburgh in August 1773, was delighted with the conversation of the professor of oriental tongues (, ed. 1848, p. 277). Robertson was infirm during the last few years of his life, and died at Middlefield, Leith Walk, on 26 Nov. 1795. Professor Baird was appointed as joint Hebrew professor in 1792. A medallion of Robertson by James Tassie is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. 