Robertson wrote verses to his wife in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ July 1736, p. 416. John Disney [q. v.] assigns to him ‘Electheria,’ 1768, a poem dedicated to Catharine Macaulay [q. v.], and states that in 1767–8 he contributed to the ‘Monthly Review.’
[Life by Disney, based on an autobiographical sketch, in Gent. Mag. Sept. 1783; Biography by Joshua Toulmin in Monthly Repository, April and June 1806; Lindsey's Historical View, 1783, pp. 477 sq.; Burdy's Life of Skelton, 1792, pp. 157 sq.; Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey, 1812, pp. 164 sq.; Turner's Lives of Eminent Unitarians, 1843, ii. 5 sq.; Munimenta Universitatis Glasguensis, ii. 569 sq. iii. 431 sq.; Simms's Bibliotheca Staffordiensis, p. 377; information from W. Innes Addison, esq., assistant clerk of senate, Glasgow.]
ROBERTSON, WILLIAM (1721–1793), historian, eldest son of William Robertson, was born in the manse of the parish of Borthwick, Midlothian, on 19 Sept. 1721. His father, the son of William Robertson of Brunton, was descended from the Robertsons of Gladney in Fifeshire, a branch of the Robertsons of Struan or Strowan in Perthshire [see art. Robertson, Alexander] (Douglas, Baronage of Scotland, 1798, pp. 407, 413, 414).
William Robertson the elder was licensed by the presbytery of Kirkcaldy on 14 June 1711, and was for a time minister of the presbyterian church of London Wall in London, but was in September 1714 called to Borthwick in the presbytery of Dalkeith, whence he was transferred first to Lady Yester's chapel (16 Oct. 1733) and then to the Old Greyfriars (28 July 1736) in Edinburgh. He was in 1742 appointed a member of the committee of the General Assembly which compiled the ‘Translations and Paraphrases’ of 1745, he himself contributing three paraphrases to the collection (cf. Julian, Dict. of Hymnology). He died on 16 Nov. 1745, having married, on 20 Oct. 1720, Eleanor, daughter of David Pitcairne of Dreghorn, who died six days after her husband, leaving issue, besides the historian: Robert; Mary, who married James Syme and was grandmother of Lord Brougham; Margaret; David; Elizabeth, who married James Cunningham of Hyndhope; Patrick, a prosperous jeweller in Edinburgh, who died on 8 Sept. 1790; and Helen (d. 1816), who gave information respecting her brother to George Gleig [q. v.] James Burgh [q. v.], the moral and political writer, was the historian's first cousin, his mother being the elder Robertson's sister. More enlightened than the bulk of his fellow ministers, the elder Robertson was solicitous about the education of his children, and showed a taste for historical research by employing his leisure in investigating the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.
William was educated first at the parochial school at Borthwick, and then at Dalkeith grammar school under John Leslie, a teacher of repute. In 1733 the father moved to Edinburgh, and in the autumn of that year the son William entered Edinburgh University. He attended the lectures of Sir John Pringle and Colin Maclaurin, but owed more to the prelections of Dr. John Stevenson, the professor of logic (cf. Dalzel in Scots Magazine, 1802). His chief friends among the students were John Erskine (1721?–1803) [q. v.] and John Home, author of ‘Douglas.’ His commonplace books from 1735 to 1738, all of which bear the motto ‘Vita sine literis mors est,’ testify to his industry and to the literary bent of his aspirations. After completing his studies at the university, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Dalkeith in June 1741, and in 1743 was presented by the Earl of Hopetoun to the living of Gladsmuir in the presbytery of Haddington, where he succeeded his uncle, Andrew Robertson. Two years later he lost both his father and mother almost simultaneously, and thereupon undertook the support and education of his sisters and a younger brother, who went to live under his roof at Gladsmuir. His income was at this time considerably under 100l. a year, and his devotion to his family involved the postponement for six years (until 21 Aug. 1751) of his marriage to his cousin Mary, daughter of James Nisbet (1677–1756), minister of the Old Church, Edinburgh. Her mother, Mary (d. 1757), was daughter of David Pitcairne of Dreghorn.
When, in 1745, the Pretender's army was approaching Edinburgh, Robertson left his manse to join the volunteers; and when the city surrendered to the chevalier, he went with some others to Haddington to offer his services to Sir John Cope, but Cope prudently declined to admit the undisciplined band into his ranks. Apart from this interruption, Robertson's life was one of unremitting study. In 1746 he was elected a member of the general assembly, and his talent for public speaking, combined with his reputation for scholarship, soon gave him sure promise of advancement, although for many years his progress was slow. In 1753 he commenced his ‘History of Scotland,’ at which he worked diligently for five years. In 1754 there was started, by Allan Ramsay [q. v.], the painter, a debating club, called the ‘Select Society,’ which assembled every Friday during the meetings of the
