Linlithgowshire, which were yielding little or no profit, and about 1764 he removed with his family to Kenneil House, a ducal mansion which overlooked the Firth of Forth and went with the lease. Roebuck set to work to sink for coal, and opened up new seams; but his progress was checked by water flooding his pits, a disaster which the Newcomen engine employed by him was powerless to avert. It was this difficulty which led to one of the most interesting episodes of his career, his intimacy with and encouragement of Watt, then occupied in the invention of his steam-engine [see Watt, James]. Roebuck was intimate with Robert Black, then professor of chemistry at Edinburgh, who was a patron of Watt. Hearing from Black of Watt and his steam-engine, Roebuck entered into correspondence with him, in the hope that the new engine might do for the water in his coalpits what Newcomen's had failed in doing. Eventually Roebuck came to believe in the promise of Watt's invention, rebuking him for his despondency, and welcoming him to Kinneil House, where Watt put together a working model of his engine. Roebuck took upon himself a debt of 1,200l. which Watt owed to Black (Smiles, Industrial Biographies, p. 139), and helped him to procure his first patent of 1769. Watt admitted that he must have sunk under his disappointments if he ‘had not been supported by the friendship of Dr. Roebuck.’ Roebuck became a partner with Watt in his great invention to the extent of two thirds. But the engine had not yet been so perfected as to keep down the water in Roebuck's mines. Through the expense and loss thus incurred Roebuck became involved in serious pecuniary embarrassments. To his loss by his mines was added that from an unsuccessful attempt to manufacture soda from salt. After sinking in the coal and salt works at Borrowstounness his own fortune, that brought him by his wife, the profits of his other enterprises, and large sums borrowed from friends, he had to withdraw his capital from the Carron ironworks, from the refining works at Birmingham, and the vitriol works at Prestonpans to satisfy the claims of his creditors. Among Roebuck's debts was one of 1,200l. to Boulton, afterwards Watt's well-known partner. Rather than claim against the estate Boulton offered to cancel the debt in return for the transfer to him of Roebuck's two-thirds share in Watt's steam-engine, of which so little was then thought that Roebuck's creditors did not value it as contributing a farthing to his assets (Smiles, Life of Watt, p. 177).
Roebuck's creditors retained him in the management of the Borrowstounness coal and salt works, and made him an annual allowance sufficient for the maintenance of himself and his family. To his other occupations he added at Kenneil House that of farming on rather a large scale, and though, as usual, he made experiments, he was a successful agriculturist (Wight, Husbandry of Scotland, iii. 508, iv. 665). He died on 17 July 1794, retaining to the last his faculties and his native good humour. He married, about 1746, Ann Ward of Sheffield, but left her unprovided for. His third son, Ebenezer, was father of John Arthur Roebuck [q. v.] Another grandson, Thomas, is separately noticed.
Roebuck was a member of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and contributed to the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (vols. 65 and 66). Of two pamphlets of which he is said to have been the author, one is in the library of the British Museum, ‘An Enquiry whether the guilt of the present Civil War in America ought to be imputed to Great Britain or America? A new edition,’ London, 1776, 8vo. Roebuck's verdict was in favour of Great Britain.
Roebuck was both warm-hearted and warm-tempered, an agreeable companion, much liked by his many friends, and exemplary in all the relations of private life. When he received the freedom of the city of Edinburgh during the provostship of James Drummond, he was assured that the honour conferred on him was ‘given for eminent services done to his country.’ Certainly the establishment of the Carron ironworks and the improvements which he introduced into the iron manufacture were of signal benefit to Scotland. Not only did it originate in Scotland a new industry which has since become of great magnitude, but it gave an impetus then much needed to Scottish industrial enterprise. Even the works at Borrowstounness, though ruinous to himself, contributed to the same end, so that the mineral resources of the district were developed with a spirit unknown before. Roebuck's personal failure there is to be ascribed mainly to the ultra-sanguine views which resulted from his success elsewhere.
[Memoir of Roebuck in vol. iv. of Transactions of the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, communicated by Professor Jardine of Glasgow; R. B. Prosser's Birmingham Inventors and Inventions; Parkes's Chemical Essays, 2nd edit.; Scrivener's Hist. of the Iron Trade; Percy's Metallurgy, ii. 889; Smiles's Lives of Boulton and Watt; Hunter's Hallamshire, ed. Gatty, p. 310; Webster's Patent Cases; authorities cited.]
ROEBUCK, JOHN ARTHUR (1801–1879), politician, born at Madras in 1801, was fifth son of Ebenezer Roebuck, a civil servant
