became registrar of the zillah of Bakarganj, in 1814 he officiated as judge and magistrate of Shahabad, and in 1820 he was appointed judge and magistrate of Cawnpore. In 1823 he was sent to Chittagong, and there he became involved in the opening hostilities of the first Burmese war. In 1825 he accompanied Sir Archibald Campbell's force to Ava as civil commissioner, and had a principal share in framing the treaty which terminated the war. In 1827 he sailed to England, on a furlough. Returning to India in 1830, he was appointed a commissioner of the revenue. In 1835 he became a judge of the Sadr Diwáni, and in 1838 was constituted a member of the supreme council. He obtained the post of lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces in 1840, and at the same time was nominated to fill provisionally the post of governor-general in case of any sudden vacancy. As lieutenant-governor he distinguished himself by his efforts to conciliate native sentiment in opposition to the policy of the younger school of Indian civilians. He especially sought to prevent the wholesale dispossession of the talukdars, who had risen in many cases from the position of hereditary revenue contractors to that of proprietors of the soil. The severe treatment of this class has since been regarded as one of the causes that brought about the acute discontent which culminated in the mutiny, and it is universally admitted that a more conciliatory policy would have been wiser. The state of Robertson's health obliged him to retire from the service in 1843. On his return to England he devoted himself chiefly to literary pursuits. He died in Eaton Square, London, on 6 July 1863. While at home, in 1830, he married Amelia Jane, daughter of the Hon. John Elliot; she died in 1837, leaving three children. In 1852 he married Emma Jane, daughter of J. Anderson, esq., who survived him.
He was author of:
- ‘Remarks on several Recent Publications Concerning the Civil Government and Foreign Policy of British India,’ London, 1829, 8vo.
- ‘Political Incidents of the First Burmese War,’ London, 1853, 12mo.
- ‘Political Prospects of British India,’ London, 1858, 8vo.
[Private information; Kaye and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny, i. 118; Kaye's Lives of Indian Officers, 3rd edit. ii. 130; Dodwell and Miles's Bengal Civil Servants, p. 428.]
ROBERTSON, THOMAS WILLIAM (1829–1871), actor and dramatist, the son of William Robertson, an actor, came of an old theatrical stock, and was born on 9 Jan. 1829 at Newark-on-Trent. His great-grandfather, James Robertson, came from Perth, became the principal comic actor of the York Theatre, was praised as a ‘comedian of true merit’ by Tate Wilkinson [q. v.], published a volume of ‘Poems’ by ‘Nobody,’ retired in 1779 after forty years' service, and died in York in 1795, aged 82. Of James Robertson's three sons, Thomas became manager of the Lincoln circuit; the second, James, married a Miss Robinson, stepdaughter of Mr. Wrench, well known as Corinthian Tom in ‘Tom and Jerry.’ William, one of seven children, the offspring of this marriage, was articled to a solicitor at Derby, and subsequently joined the Lincoln company of Thomas, his uncle, and married in 1828 Miss Margaret Elizabeth, or Margaretta Elisabetha Marinus, a young actress of the company. A large family was the result of the union. Thomas William was the eldest child, and Margaret or Madge (Mrs. Grimston, better known as Mrs. Kendal) the youngest. Two younger sons also went on the stage. Of these, Frederick Craven Robertson (1846–1879) began his career at the Amphitheatre, Liverpool, in 1867, in his elder brother Thomas William's ‘For Love;’ joined the company of Frederick Younge; gave an acceptable performance of Captain Hawtree in ‘Caste;’ and for a time after Younge's death managed the ‘Caste’ company. Another son, Edward Shafto Robertson (1844?–1871), who made his first appearance as an actor in London in 1870, was accidentally killed next year while proceeding from Melbourne to India in the steamship Avoca.
Thomas William Robertson was educated by the wife of his great-uncle, Thomas Robertson; on the death of the husband, on 31 Aug. 1831, his widow became manager of the Lincoln circuit. On 13 June 1834, at the theatre, Wisbech, he played, as Master T. Robertson, Hamish, Rob Roy's son, in ‘Rob Roy, or Auld Lang Syne.’ In the various towns of the Lincoln circuit he afterwards played childish parts, including Cora's Child in ‘Pizarro’ and the Count's Child in the ‘Stranger.’ About 1836 he was sent to a school at Spalding, kept by Henry Young, and about 1841 to a second school at Whittlesea, kept by one Moore. He played occasionally during his holidays, and on leaving Moore's school in 1843 became factotum of the Lincoln company, to the management of which his father appears to have succeeded. He painted scenery, prompted, wrote songs for the company, adapted ‘The Battle of Life’ and the ‘Haunted Man’ of Charles Dickens, both played at Boston, and acted a
