Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/130

 ROBERTS

ROBERTS

successful. He practised hiw in Wasliington, D.C., from date of retirement to date of death. He died in Washington. D.C, Jan. 29, 1875.

ROBERTS, Edmund, iliplomatist, was born in Portsmouth. N.II.. June 29, 1784; son of Edmund and Sarah (Griffitlis) Roberts. His father died when he was but two or three years old, and his mother, when he was sixteen. He was offered an apjxiintment as midshipman in the U.S. navy in 1797. but his mother begged him never to leave her. By his father's will, in the event of his mother's death, he was to go to his uncle, Capt. Joshua Roberts, a bachelor, at Buenos Ayres. He was married, Sept. 11, 1808, to Katherine Whipple, daughter of Woodbury and Sarah (Sherburne) Langdon of Portsmouth, N.H., and upon the death of his uncle the same year he became his heir and an extensive owner of ships. Later he lost heavily by the Spanish and French priva- teers. In 1S27 he chartered the ship Mary Ann and sailed for Zanzibar, meeting the Sultan of Muscat there, and establishing a friendship that afterward developed into treaty relations with the United States. Making further voyages to the ports of the Indian ocean, he studied the pos- sible openings to American trade. On his return home, with the assistance of Levi Woodbury, sec- retary of the navy, his suggestions were brought before congress, and in consecjuence the United States sliips Peacock and Boxer were sent out in 1832 to convey Mr. Roberts as special diplomatic envoy to make treaties with Muscat, Siara and Cochin Ciiina. His treaties with Siani and Mus- cat were duly ratified by congress, and in 1835 lie was ordered to go out witii the Peacock and the conipaniiju shij) Enterprise, to exchange the ratifications made with Siam and Muscat, and also with ordei-s to go as far east as Japan, with the hope of making successful treaties with that nation. After the ratification of the treaties with Mascat and "Siam, he was taken ill off the coa-st of China as the Peacock was en route to Japan, and he died at Macao. A monument was erec«'td by the Americans in that place over his grave; and. later, a memorial window in St. John's church, Portsmouth, N.H., was presented by liis granddaughter, Mrs. John V. L. Pruyn of Albany, N.Y., to keep alive the memory of the first American- diplomatist in Asia. His unfinished work was consummated many years later by Commodore Matthew Perry and Townsend Harris. The successes of his first eniba.ssy during a voyage of twenty-six months are detailed in iiis posthumous volume, Emhassy to Eastern Courts (1837); and an account of the secon<l embassy and of Mr. Roberts's death is given in "Voyage Around the World, Including an Embassy to Muscat and Siam in 1835, 1836, 1837" (ia3.8),by W. S. W. Ruscbenberger, M.D.,

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surgeon of the U.S. ship Peacock. Mrs. Roberts died in 1829. Mr. Roberts left a family of eight children, and of the daughters who survived him, Katherine Whipple became the wife of Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody (q.v.), and Harriet ' Lang<lon married Hon. Amasa J. Parker (q.v.). He died at Macao, China. June 12, 1836.

ROBERTS, Ellis Henry, representative, was born in Utica, N.Y.. Sept. 30, 1827; son of Wat- kin andGwen (Williams) Roberts, who emigrated from Merionethshire, Nortli Wales, in 1821. Ellis learned the printer's trade by which he paid for his support and ed- ucation; attended Whitestown semi- nary in 1847, and en- tered Yale as a sopho- more, graduating with second honors, A.B., 1850, A.M., 1853. He was princi- pal of the Utica Free academy and teacher of Latin at Utica Fe- male seminary, and was married. June 24, 1851, t6 Elizabeth, daughter of David E. and Ann (Lewis) Mor- ris of Utica. He was editor and part proprietor of the Utica Morning Herald, 1851-54, and sole pro- prietor, 1854-93. He was elected a Republican representative in the state assembly in 1866; was a representative in the 42d and 43d congresses, 1871-75, and was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1861, 1868 and 1876. In 1868 and 1873 he traveled extensively in Europe. He was assistant treasurer of tiie United States under appointment of President Hariison, 1889- 93; president of the Franklin National bank. New York city. 1893-97, and was appointed by President McKinley treasurer of the United States, July 1, 1897, which office he still held in 1903. He was a trustee of Hamilton college, 1872--1900, received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Hamilton in 1 869, and from Yale in 1884. He delivered a course of lectures at Cornell university and Hamilton college in 1884, and addresses at Syracuse university and Union college; also on financial topics before the American Bankers' association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and several State Bankers' associations. He is the author of: Government Revenue, Especially the American System (1884); The Planting anclGrou-th of the Empire State (1887), and several letters and lectures.

ROBERTS, Ernest William, representative, was born in East Madison, Maine. Nov. 22, 1858;