Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/417

 governors of Gordon's Hospital in Aberdeen elected him headmaster. Through the duke's influence he was appointed, by the Earl of Aberdeen, to the church of Ellon in June 1832, and ordained on 30 Aug. following.

Taking a great interest in chemistry, Robertson adopted in 1841 Liebig's suggestion to farmers to dissolve bones in sulphuric acid before applying them to the soil as manure; and his experiments in Ellon led to the first application of dissolved bones to the soil of Great Britain. In 1841 he wrote the description and history of his parish for the ‘New Statistical Account of Scotland.’ On 30 May 1842 he was suspended with others by the general assembly from his judicial functions as a member of presbytery for holding communion with the deposed ministers of Strathbogie. Robertson was always an outspoken opponent of ‘Disruption’ principles, and afterwards became leader of the moderate party in the church of Scotland. In 1843 he was appointed a member of the poor-law commission, whose report was issued in 1844.

In October 1843 Robertson became professor of divinity and church history in the university of Edinburgh, as well as secretary to the bible board (or, as the commission reads, ‘Secretary for Her Majesty's sole and only master printers in Scotland’). Before he left the north, Marischal College, on 12 Oct. 1843, conferred on him the degree of D.D. He did not demit his parochial charge till 2 March 1844. This was accepted on 22 Dec., when he was admitted to his chair. He was appointed convener of the committee for endowment of chapels of ease by the assembly on 26 May 1847. It was in this capacity that Robertson was best known, and the ‘Endowment Scheme’ of the church of Scotland is inseparably associated with his name. For this purpose, before his death, he had obtained contributions amounting to about half a million sterling, endowing upwards of sixty-five parishes. On 22 May 1856 he was elected moderator of the general assembly. After a few days' illness, he died on 2 Dec. 1860. His remains were interred in St. Cuthbert's churchyard in Edinburgh. On 25 April 1837 he married Ann Forbes, widow of the preceding incumbent, Robert Douglass; and her three sons he brought up as his own. His wife and one of his stepsons survived him. Robertson was the author of: 1. ‘Free Trade in Corn,’ Edinburgh, 1825, 8vo. 2. ‘The British Constitution and Parliamentary Reform,’ Edinburgh, 1831, 8vo. 3. ‘Exposition of the Principles, Operation, and Prospects of the Church of Scotland's Indian Mission,’ Edinburgh, 1835, 8vo. 4. ‘On the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters of Religion,’ Edinburgh, 1835, 12mo. 5. ‘Observations on the Veto Act,’ Edinburgh, 1840, 8vo. 6. ‘Statement for the Presbytery of Strathbogie …,’ London, 1841, 8vo. 7. ‘Answers to the Remonstrance’ (Strathbogie), London, 1841, 8vo. 8. ‘Appeal for the Advancement of Female Education in India,’ Edinburgh, 1846, 8vo. 9. ‘Remarks and Suggestions relative to the Proposed Endowment Scheme,’ Edinburgh, 1846, 8vo. 10. ‘Letters to the Editor of the Northern Standard,’ Edinburgh, 1854, 8vo. 11. ‘Old Truths and Modern Speculations,’ Edinburgh, 1860, 8vo.

[Life, by Dr. A. H. Charteris, 1863 (with portrait); Hew Scott's Fasti, vi. 604–5.]  ROBERTSON, JAMES BURTON (1800–1877), historian, born in London on 15 Nov. 1800, was son of Thomas Robertson, who belonged to the clan of the Robertsons of Strowan, Perthshire. The father was a landed proprietor in the island of Grenada, West Indies, and there Robertson passed his early childhood. In 1809 his mother, who had been left a widow some years previously, brought him to England, and in the following year sent him to the Roman catholic college of St. Edmund, near Ware, which he quitted in 1819. In 1825 he was called to the bar. He made several visits to France, where, under the direction of his friends, the Abbé de la Mennais, and the Abbé (afterwards Monseigneur) Gerbet, he studied literature, philosophy, and the elements of dogmatic theology. After various preliminary essays he published in 1835 a translation in two volumes of Frederick Schlegel's ‘Philosophy of History,’ which passed through many editions, and was included in ‘Bohn's Standard Library’ in 1846. To this translation he prefixed a memoir of the life and writings of the author. Between 1836 and 1854 he was an assiduous contributor to the ‘Dublin Review.’

From 1837 to 1854 he resided with his friends in different parts of Germany and Belgium. During his abode at Würzburg he published his translation of Dr. Möhler's ‘Symbolism; or Exposition of Doctrinal Differences between Catholics and Protestants, as evidenced by their Symbolical Writings,’ 2 vols. London, 1843. To this translation he prefixed a sketch of the state of protestantism and catholicism in Germany during the previous hundred years, as well as a memoir of the life and writings of Dr. Möhler. This work, which went through several editions both in Great Britain and America, made a