Robertson wrote: 1. ‘De Dysenteria regionum calidarum,’ 1817. 2. ‘Medical Topography of New Orleans, with an Account of the Principal Diseases that affected the Fleet and Army of the late unsuccessful Expedition against that City,’ 1818. 3. ‘A Lecture on Civilisation,’ 1839. He also contributed to Sir John Forbes's ‘Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine,’ 1833–5, 4 vols.
[Proceedings of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, 1867, v. 46; Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1866, v. 305–6; Procedings of Royal Society, 1865, vol. xiv. p. xvii; British Medical Journal, 1865, i. 16.]
ROBERTSON, BARTHOLOMEW (fl. 1620), divine, was probably of Scottish origin. In March 1620 he was granted a pass by a ‘member of parliament to be employed about my necessary and spiritual affairs and business in and about London and elsewhere’ (State Papers, Dom. James I, cxx. 58). The member is doubtless one of the patrons to whom Robinson dedicated his books. He wrote: 1. ‘The Heavenly Advocate, or a Short Direction for the Speedy Understanding of the New Testament,’ London, 1617 (dedicated to Sir James Fullerton, gentleman of the bedchamber). 2. ‘The Crown of Life, containing the Combat betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit,’ London, 1618 (ded. to James I's queen Anne). 3. ‘The Soules Request, or a most sweet and comfortable Dialogue between Christ and the Soule,’ London, 1618 (ded. to Sir William Howgill). 4. ‘A Heavenly and Comfortable Mould of Prayers,’ 1618. 5. ‘A Meditation of the Mercy and Justice of God’ (ded. to Sir William Alexander). 6. ‘The Anatomy of a Distressed Soul,’ London, 1619 (ded. to Sir Robert Naunton [q. v.]). 7. ‘A Line of Life, pointing to the Immortality of a Virtuous Name’ (anon.), London, 1620.
[Robinson's Works in the Bodleian; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
ROBERTSON, DAVID (1795–1854), bookseller, son of a farmer, was born in the parish of Kippen, Perthshire, in 1795. He received a fair education in his native district, and in 1810 was apprenticed to William Turnbull, bookseller, Trongate, Glasgow. On the death of Turnbull in 1823, Robertson carried on the business for seven years, in partnership with Thomas Atkinson. In 1830 the partnership was dissolved, and Robertson opened new premises in a different part of Trongate. His gift of story-telling, his love of Scottish poetry, and his tact and shrewdness, soon won him valued friendships and success, and his place of business became a rendezvous for local men of letters. To his ordinary trade as bookseller he gradually added publishing. As a citizen he was highly appreciated, and in 1842 his portrait, painted by Sir Daniel Macnee, was publicly presented to him. He died of cholera on 6 Oct. 1854, and was buried in Glasgow necropolis, where his friends placed a memorial obelisk, with medallion portrait. He married, in 1826, Frances Aitken, daughter of a prominent Glasgow builder. Three daughters and a son David, who succeeded to the business, survived him.
In 1832 Robertson published the first issue of ‘Whistle Binkie,’ a collection of contemporary Scottish lyrics. This he followed up with four similar series, and in 1846 with a separate volume of ‘Songs for the Nursery,’ which was highly praised by Lord Jeffrey in a letter to the publisher (Whistle Binkie, i. 89, ed. 1890). The whole were reissued in one volume in 1848, in two volumes in 1853, and again, with considerable additions, in 1878 and 1890. Two series of ‘The Laird of Logan,’ graphic and characteristic Scottish stories narrated by Robertson himself and others, appeared in 1835 and 1837, and a complete enlarged edition, dedicated to the prince consort, in 1841. New issues, with additions, were published in 1845 and 1854, and frequently reprinted. Robertson also published William Motherwell's ‘Poems’ (1832, 1847, 1849) and Henderson's excellent collection of ‘Scottish Proverbs’ (1832), besides the ‘Western Supplement’ to ‘Oliver and Boyd's Almanac,’ from 1824 onwards.
[Information from Robertson's son, Mr. David Robertson, Glasgow; Whistle Binkie, ed. 1878 and 1890; Strang's Glasgow and its Clubs; Aird's Sketches of Glasgow Notabilities; Mackay's Through the Long Day; Hedderwick's Backward Glances.]
ROBERTSON, DONALD (fl. 1644–1660), tutor of Struan or Strowan, was the second son of Robert Robertson, tenth baron of Strowan, Perthshire, by his wife Agnes, daughter of Macdonald of Keppoch. On the death of his elder brother Alexander in 1636, he became tutor to his nephew Alexander, twelfth baron (father of Alexander, thirteenth baron [q. v.]), during whose long minority he held command of the clan. In April 1644 he joined the Marquis of Huntly in Aberdeenshire, with sixty of his clan (Spalding, Memorialls, ii. 343), and shortly afterwards was sent by him on an expedition into Angus (ib. p. 346). In the attack on the town of Montrose he and ‘some highlandmen’ did ‘brave service with their short guns’ (ib. p. 348). With other anti-covenanting leaders he was in 1645 declared by the
