Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/422

 1764 and 1785. He also wrote in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and produced a learned work on the authenticity of the ‘Parian Chronicle’ (London, 1788, 8vo), which was answered by John Hewlett [q. v.]

Robertson died of apoplexy on 19 Jan. 1802, in his seventy-sixth year. His wife, a daughter of Timothy Raikes, chemist, of London, survived him, but his children all died in infancy. Robertson was tall, handsome, and urbane in manner.

Besides separate sermons, a translation of Fénelon's ‘Telemachus’ (1795), and the works already mentioned, Robertson's chief publications were: 1. ‘A Letter to Sauxay on the Case of Miss Butterfield, a Young Woman charged with Murder,’ London, 1775, 8vo, with ‘Observations on the same,’ 1776, 8vo. 2. ‘Essay on Culinary Poisons,’ London, 1781, 8vo. 3. ‘Introduction to the Study of Polite Literature,’ London, 1782, 12mo; other edits. 1785, 1799, and 1808. 4. ‘An Essay on Punctuation,’ London, 1785, 8vo; 5th edit. London, 1808, 8vo; answered by David Steel in ‘Remarks on an Essay,’ &c., London, 1786, 12mo. 5. ‘Observations on the Act for augmenting the Salaries of Curates,’ published under the name of Eusebius, Vicar of Lilliput, London, 1797, 8vo. 6. ‘An Essay on the Education of Young Ladies,’ 1798, 12mo. 7. ‘Essay on the Nature of English Verse,’ London, 1799, 8vo; 5th edit., 1808, 12mo.

[Reuss's Register of Living Authors; Rose's Biogr. Dict.; Gent. Mag. February 1802, p. 108; Monthly Mag., March 1802, p. 133; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; European Mag. July 1788 p. 24, and April 1797 p. 260; English Review, April 1788, p. 275; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 557, iii. 392, 251–5, 298, 299, 500–6, iv. 540, viii. 157, 483–4.] 

ROBERTSON, JOSEPH (1810–1866), Scottish historian and record scholar, was born in Aberdeen on 17 May 1810. His father, having tried his fortune in England, had returned to his native county, where he was first a small farmer, and afterwards a small shopkeeper, at Wolmanhill, Aberdeen. His mother was left a widow when Joseph was only seven, and he was educated at Udny parish school under Mr. Bisset, where James Outram [q. v.] was one of his comrades, and afterwards at the grammar school and Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he acquired a sound knowledge of Latin, but was more distinguished for physical than mental ability. John Hill Burton [q. v.], the historian of Scotland, was his contemporary at school and university, and his lifelong friend. On leaving Marischal College he was apprenticed to an advocate, as solicitors are called in Aberdeen, but soon showed a taste for literature, writing in the ‘Aberdeen Magazine’ in 1831, and publishing under the name of John Brown, a Deeside coachman, in 1835, a ‘Guide to Deeside,’ and in 1838 a guide to Aberdeen, called ‘The Book of Bon Accord.’ In this book, though never completed, he first proved his exact knowledge of antiquities, and there is no better account of his native city. His ‘Deliciæ Literariæ,’ published in the following year, showed a cultivated taste in literature, and the collection of the masterpieces in it helped to form his own style. The foundation in 1839 of the Spalding Club, which was due to Robertson and his friend Dr. John Stuart, for the publication of historical records and rare memoirs of the north of Scotland, gave Robertson his opportunity; and although the club had many learned editors, none surpassed him in fulness and accuracy. His chief contribution was the ‘Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff,’ 1842, which formed the preface to ‘Illustrations of the Topography and Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff’ (vol. ii. 1847, vol. iii. 1858, vol. iv. 1869). This is the most complete series of records, public and private, which any county in Scotland has yet published. He also edited, for the same club, the ‘Diary of General Patrick Gordon, A.D. 1635–1699,’ in 1862, and in 1841, along with Dr. Grub, ‘Gordon of Rothiemay, History of Scots Affairs from 1637 to 1641.’ He paid a short visit to Edinburgh in 1833 and engaged in historical work, but found it so unremunerative that he returned to Aberdeen, and supported himself chiefly by writing for the ‘Aberdeen Courier,’ afterwards the ‘Aberdeen Constitutional,’ which he edited for four years. In 1843 he went to Glasgow, where he edited the ‘Glasgow Constitutional’ down to 1849, when he moved to Edinburgh as editor of the ‘Courant’ (1849–53).

The political principles of Robertson, and of all the papers he edited, were conservative; but he had many friends of other views, and received from the whig Lord-advocate Moncreiff—it is said, at the instance of Lord Aberdeen—the appointment of historical curator of the records in the Edinburgh Register House in 1853. ‘The Ultima Thule of my desires would be a situation in the Register House,’ he wrote to his friend Hill Burton in 1833. He had to wait twenty years, to the great loss of Scottish history. Although the office received a new name, Robertson's work was practically a continuation of that begun by William Robertson (1740–1799) [q. v.] and Thomas Thomson [q. v.] as deputy clerk-register. In his new