Roberts, John L., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Strafford, Yt., March 18, 1818. He was converted and united with the Church in 1845, joining the Yermont Conference in 1849. In this conference he continued to labor until October, 1802, when he became chaplain of the Fourth Regiment Yermont Yolunteers. In 1800 he took a supernumeraiy relation to the Troy Conference, and took up his resi- dence in Washington, D. C, filling several important government offices. He died at Ocean Grove, N. J., June 24, 1873. See Minutes of Annucd Coiferences, 1874, p. 70.
Roberts, John "Wright, missionary bishop of the jMethodist Episcopal Church for Africa, was born of colored parents at Petersburg, Ya., and was converted and joined the Church while in the United States. He early emigrated to Liberia, where he was admitted among the missionaries. The Liberia Conference elect- ed him to elder's orders in 1841, and in the same year he came to the United States and was ordained. In 1800 he was elected to the oflfice of missionary bishop, and was ordained in St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, New York, June 20, 1800. He left for Lil)eria June 25. From that time on he labored faithfidh' for the edification and enlargement of the Church in the republic of Liberia and the adjacent territorv. He died Jan. 30, 1875. Bishop Roberts was endowed with ex- cellent mental gilts, which, under the circumstances of his early condition, were exceedingly well trained. He was a gentleman by nature and culture, a Christian in faith and life. See Simpson, Cyclop, of Methodism, s. v.
Roberts, Joseph, a missionarj- to India, who
went out to that country in 1818, under the patronage of the Wesleyan iNIissionary Society. After nearly fom-- teen years' residence among the llindfis, he returned to England, and gave to the public Oriental Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures, collected from the Customs, Manners, Rites, Superstitions, etc., of the Hindus, an<l noted on the spot by himself (Lond. 1835, 1844, 8vo). The work was published under the patronage of the Royal Asiatic Society of (ireat Britain and Ireland, of which the author was a corresponding member. His Illustrations are arranged in the order of the books, chapters, and verses of the Bible, and contain satisfac-
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tory explanations of many doubtful or obscure passages. See most of these in Bush's Hcrqitui-e Illustrations.
Roberts, Palmer, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born March 15, 1780, and was converted in September, 1804. He commenced travel- ling under the presiding elder in 1810, and joined the East Genesee Conference in 1811. He located in 1834, but was readmitted to conference in 1837. In 1839 he was supernumerary, and since about that time was su- perannuated until his death, at Seneca Falls, N. Y., April 19, 1858. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1858, p. 207.
Roberts, Peter, a clergyman of the Church of England, was a native of North Wales, and was edu- cated at Trinity College, Dublin. On entering into orders he became rector of Halkin, Flintshire, where he died in 1819. Among his works are, Observations on Chrhlian Morality (Loud. 179(5, 8vo) : — Christianity Vindicated against Volney (ibid. 1800, 8vo) : — Harmony of the Epistles (ibid. 1800, 4to) : — Manual of Prophecy (ibid. 1818, 8vo}: — Jievien) of the Policy, etc., of the Church of Rome (ibid. 1809, 8vo). See AUibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uthors, s. v. ; Darling, Cycloj). JJibliofj. s. V.
Roberts, Robert, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1832. He experienced religion at the age of fifteen years, and at eighteen became a local preacher, and four months after a travelling preacher, among the Primi- tive ^lethodists. He travelled four j'ears until received into full connection, and then came to the United States. He was received into the New York East Conference as a probationer in 185G. His last appointment was Cook Street, Brooklyn, in which he died, January, 18(55, after an illness of two weeks. See Minutes of Annual Con- ferences, 1865, p. 82.
Roberts, Robert Richford, bishop of the ^feth- odist Episcopal Church, was born in Frederick County, Md., Aug. 2, 1778. He removed while a child to Lii;- onier Valley, Pa., and was converted when he was about tifteen years old. He was admitted on trial in the Baltimore Conference in 1802, and was ordained deacon in 1804. He was soon placed in charge of im- portant stations in Baltimore, Alexandria, Georgetown, and Philadelphia. In 1815 he was appointed presiding elder of Schuylkill district, embracing the city of Phila- delphia; and owing to the death of bishop Asbury, he was elected to preside over the Philadelphia Conference in the spring of 1816. At the following session of the CJeneral Conference (Jlay, 1816) he was elected to the office of bishop, being the first married man in America who filled that position. He made his first residence in (Jheuango (now Mercer) County, Pa., but in 1819 set- tled in Lawrence Comity, Ind. The record of his last year's service will serve to give an idea of the extent of his labors \vhile bishop. In that year he preached in six different states and among four Indian tribes in the West, presided at four annual conferences, and travelled nearly 5500 miles. In the spring of 1843 his disease, the asthma, greatly increased upon him, and he died JIarch 2(5. His body was buried on his own farm, but in .January, 1844, in pursuance of a resolution of (he Indiana Conference, it was removed to Green Castle. Bishop Morris writes of him : '• He possessed by nature the elements of an orator — an imposing person, a clear and logical mind, a ready utterance, a full-toned, melo- dious voice. ... He was always patient and pleasant; above all, unpretending." See Simpson, Cyclop, of Meth- odism, s. V. ; Sprague, .1 nnals of the A mer. Pulpit, vii, 387.