Roberts, Thomas W., a Presbyterian minister, was l)orn in Montgouieryshire, North Wales, Oct. 10, 1830. His early eilucation was good, and liis parents emigrating to tlie United States, he graduated at the Theological Seminary at Anl)nrn, N. Y., and was licensed and ordained at New York Mills Nov. 14, 1856. He ex-
ercised his gifts as a minister among the Welsh Con- gregationalists until 1860, when he joined the Cayuga Presbytery, with a view of laboring within the bounds of that presbytery; and it was while travelling in be- half of his mission that he was injured on the New York and Erie Railroad, and died soon after (Sept. 26, 1860). Jlr. Roberts was a humble, unassuming man, and a de- voted, energetic minister of the Gospel. See Wilson, Presh. Hist. A Imanac, 1862, p. 191. (J. L. S.)
Roberts, William Hayward, D.D., a clergy- man of the Church of England, was born in 1745, and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He was for some time undermaster at Eton, became prov- ost of King's College in 1781, chaplain to the king, and rector of Farnham Royal, Bucks, and died in 1791 . His we)rks are. Poetical Essity (Loud. 1771, 4to): — Judah Restored, a poem in six books (ibid. 1774, 2 vols. 8vo) : — besides other Poems, Sermons, etc. See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Ame?: Auth. s. v.
Robertson, Frederick William, an English clergyman, was born in London, Feb. 3, 1816. At the age of nine he was sent to a grammar-school in Bever- ley, Yorkshire, where he remained a few years, and then accompanied his parents to the Continent. In 1832 he entered the Edinburgh Academy, and the next year proceeded to the Edinburgh University. He was orig- inally designed for the bar, but the scudy of law did not please him, and he would gladly have been a soldier. Certain difficulties intervening in the way of obtaining a commission, Mr. Robertson entered Brasenose College, Oxford (1836), to study for tlie Church. The purity of his life and the depth of his religious feeling prepared him to enter upon this new career without regret. His first appointment was to the curacy of St. Maurice and St. Mary Calendar; but his health failed in the course of a year, and he was compelled to visit the Continent. On his return to England, he was for a time curate to the incumbent of Christ Church, Ciieltenham. In the beginning of 1847 he removed to St, Ebbes, Oxford, and was just attracting the notice of the undergraduates, when he was offered the incumbency of Trinity Chapel, Brighton. Here his eloquence and originality always attracted large and intellectual audiences. He was ac- cused of not being very orthodox in his belief and teach- ing. This is supposed to have hastened his death, which took place Aug. 15, 1853. He was the author of Lect- ures and A ddresses on Literary and Social Topiics (Lond. 1858, 1861): — Expository Lectures on Corinthians (ibid. 1859) : — Sermons, four series (1855-63; new ed., with Jfemoir, Boston, 1870, 2 vols.). His IJfe and Letters have been edited by S. A. Brooke (1865, 2 vols.). See Chambers's Encyclop.s. v.; Appletons' Cyclop, s. v. ; Meth. Quar. Rev. Oct. 1866; Boston Rev. July, 1866.
Robertson, James (of Ellon), D.D., a minister of the Established Churcli, Scotland, was born in Pitsligo, a parish in tlie north of Alierdeenshire, in 1803. He graduated in due time at ilarischal College, Aberdeen, and afterwards served as private tutor, as parish school- master in his own parish, and eventually as head-master of a hospital in Aberdeen for the education of boys. In 1832 he was appointed minister of the parish of Ellon, where he remained until 1843, caring for his parish with assiduity and thoroughness. In the great controversy in the Scottish Kirk he was an earnest and indefatigable " JModerate," opposed to the Veto Act and to Drs. Chal- mers, Candlisli, Cunningham, and the other Non-intrn- sionists. When these withdrew in the great secession of the Free Church, it was natural that Mr. Robertson should -be designated to occupy sfime one of the posts they left empty. In 1843 — the year of the disruption — Dr. Robertson became jirofessor of divinity and Church history in the Uiiiversiry of Edinburgh. He was one of the central minds of the Establislied Church, and toiled inilefatigably in a great endowment scheme — a kind of adaptalion or revival of the Clinrch-exteusion scheme of Dr. Chalmers. He died in Edinburgh, Dec.
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2, 1860. He published pamphlets on The lifoderate Side vfthe Scotch Church Contra rersf/. See Alliboiie, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Auth. s. v. ; Charteris, Life of Rob- ertson (luliub. 1863, 8vo) ; The Header, May"9, 1863.
Robertson, John Jay, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Washington, Ga., in 18'22. lie graduated at the University of East Tennessee in 1845, entered the Union Theological Seminary in 1846, and graikiated in 1848. He was ordained in 1850, and tilled the pulpit of tlie Presbyterian Church at jNIaryville, Tenn., as a stated supply. In the years 1851-52 he was professor in the JIarjville College, and from the last date until 18G2 he was chaplain in the Confederate army. From 1862 to 1865 he was a stated supply of the church in Itogersville, Tenn. He died in August, 1866, while in that relation. (W. P. S.)