orator than as a writer. Several of his sermons have been preserved from shorthand reports, and are published in Guthrie's biography of him; but they give little idea of the magnetic influence he exercised in the pulpit. Three of his lectures-Martin Luther,''German Student Life,' and 'Poetry 'were published in one volume in 1892. Numerous poems, hymns, and letters are included in Dr. Brown's 'Life of Robertson.' elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. At Brighton he interested himself in politics and municipal affairs. He served for a time as chairman of the Brighton town council, besides acting as J.P. for Brighton and Sussex. He was chosen chairman of the Brighton Conservative Association in 1880, and in 1886 he was returned to parliament unopposed as a representative for that borough. He received the honour of knighthood in 1888. He died suddenly on 5 Oct. 1889. He married, in 1855, Élizabeth Ann, daughter of John Leavers of The Park, Nottingham, by whom he had four sons. [Obituary notice in the British Medical Journal, 1889, ii. 848.] D'A. P. ROBERTSON, MRS. WYBROW (1847– 1884), actress. [See LITTON, MARIE.] [Dr. James Brown's Life of William B. Robertson, D.D.; McKelvie's Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church; Dr. John Ker's Scottish Nationality and other Papers; Professor William Graham's Essays, Historical and Biographical; United Presbyterian Magazine, vol. for 1886; Arthur Guthrie's Robertson of Irvine.] A. H. M. ROBERTSON, SIR WILLIAM TINDAL (1825-1889), physician, eldest son of Frederick Fowler Robertson of Bath, and of Anne Tindal his wife, was born in 1825. He ROBETHON, JOHN (d. 1722), secretary was educated at King Edward VI's grammar to George I, was a Huguenot refugee of school at Grantham, and he afterwards be- humble origin. He came to England about came a pupil of Dr. H. P. Robarts of Great 1689, and, having been in correspondence Coram Street, and a student of University with several of the statesmen at The Hague College, London. He matriculated at the (by whom he had probably been employed London University in 1846, but he does not as a spy), and being a good linguist, he was appear to have graduated. He obtained a employed by William III, first in a humble license to practise from the Apothecaries' capacity, and afterwards as secretary of Company in 1848, and was admitted a mem-state for the small principality of Orange. ber of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1850. He acted as resident medical officer at the Middlesex Hospital in 1848-9, and he became a resident surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital in 1850. He afterwards proceeded to Paris to complete his medical studies, and in 1853 he graduated M.D. at Edinburgh. He commenced to practise in Nottingham in the following year, and for nearly twenty years he acted as physician to the Nottingham General Hospital. An able speaker and an excellent organiser, he soon made his influence felt in Nottingham. Largely owing to his energy, the town now holds a conspicuous position among the great teaching centres of the north of England, for it was through his exertions that the Oxford local examinations were introduced into the town. The Literary and Philosophical Society also owed its origin largely to his endeavours, and he helped to found the Robin Hood rifles. He was a member of the Nottingham town council, and acted as a local secretary when the British Association met in the town in 1866. He also delivered the address on medicine at the meeting of the British Medical Association in 1857. His eyesight began to fail, and he soon became blind from glaucoma in 1873. He retired to Brighton, and in 1874 he was Among William's correspondents, Robethon commended himself most to the Duke of Zell, and when the latter visited England in 1701 the Duke of Portland, who had a high opinion of Robethon's influence and attainments, asked the secretary to further his interests in that quarter. On William's death, Robethon transferred his services to George William, duke of Zell; George William died in 1705, leaving his secretary as a legacy to his son-in-law, George Lewis, afterwards George I of England. Robethon now gathered into his hands the threads of a vast European correspondence. The leading whigs in England kept themselves constantly in touch with the house of Brunswick, and all the letters from the elector's family to their supporters in England were drafted by Robethon. Marlborough supplied him with large sums of money in return for valuable information touching the intrigues of Louis XIV at the court of Saxony. Robethon also worked hard to assist Marlborough to neutralise Charles XII [see under ROBINSON, JOHN, 1650-1723] and to expose the illusory character of Louis' overtures to the allies in 1707. He was very active in obtaining information about the court of St. Germains, and during 1714 Marlborough and other whig leaders insisted in their letters to him that his master should pay a visit to England as a counterpoise to the design of bringing the pretender to St. James's, which was confidently attributed to Harley. But Robethon had always opposed such projects in the past, and he now wisely pointed out the offence which such a visit would give Queen Anne. A man of address, with a wide knowledge of the world and a fair acquaintance with English political parties, Robethon obtained much influence with George I, though he was held by the ladies of the court to be sly and, when he tried to be pleasant, quite insupportable' (LADY COWPER, Diary, passim). Robethon was named among those who were to accompany the king to England in 1715, being designated domestick secretary and privy counsellor.' Like the majority of the Hanoverian courtiers, he was necessitous, and the English statesmen soon found him presumptuous. Sunderland used him and Bothmar as instruments wherewith to alienate the king from Walpole and Townshend in 1716. Upon his resignation Walpole remarked bitterly, 'I have no objection to the king's German ministers, but there is a mean fellow (of what nation I know not) who is anxious to dispose preferments.' Robethon had, it appears, obtained a grant of a reversion, and wanted to sell it to Walpole for 2,5001. Upon the return of Walpole to power, Robethon's influence diminished. His ability as a linguist was displayed in 1717 when he translated Pope's Essay on Criticism' into smooth French verse (ELWIN, Pope, Index, s.v. 'Roboton' and 'Robotham'). The work appeared simultaneously in Amsterdam and in London. He was in 1721 governor of the French hospital of La Providence in East London (Misc. Geneal. new ser. iii. 64). He died in London on 14 April 1722. His wife, who from the squatness of her person and her croaking voice was known as Madame Grenouille,' survived him. The pair seem to have had a pension from the Prince of Wales as well as one from the king. The Mrs. Robethon, one of the bed-chamber belonging to the Princess Amelia,' who died on 5 July 1762, after forty years' service in the royal family, was probably a daughter. 6 6 A portion of Robethon's correspondence is in the eleven quarto volumes of Hanoverian correspondence among the Stowe MSS. at the British Museum (Nos. 222-32; the items are fully described in the Catalogue, 1895, i. 287-321). The nucleus of this collection was formed by the papers of the electress Sophia, which were entrusted to Robethon by George I upon his mother's death in 1714. They were afterwards sold by the executors VOL. XLVIII. of the secretary's son, Colonel Robethon, in 1752, to Matthew Duane, and while in his hands were examined by James Macpherson [q. v.] They were subsequently purchased by Thomas Astle [q. v.], and in 1803 by the Marquis of Buckingham (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. iii. p. 15). Volume xi., entitled 'Rebelles,' is specially curious. [Hist. Reg. 1722, Chron. Diary, 22; Gent. Mag. 1762, p. 342; Tindal's Cont. of Rapin, 1745, iv. 503; Macpherson's Orig. Papers, passim; Strickland's Queens of England, v. 345; Coxe's Walpole, i. 153, 210; Coxe's Marlborough, passim ; Wentworth Papers; Kemble's State Papers, pp. 58, 144, 480, 506, 512; Legrelle's Succession d'Espagne; Agnew's Protestant Exiles, 1874; Wolfgang Michael's Englische Geschichte im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, 1896, i. 423-4, 446-8, 772-3; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. App. pp. 193, 220.] T. S. ROBIN OF REDESDALE (A. 1469), rebel captain, is difficult to identify. After Edward IV's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, the consequent political disaffection centred in the north of England. There were two risings in 1469. One was headed by Robert Hildyard; the other, instigated by Warwick and Clarence, was led by Robin of Redesdale.' It was probably thought convenient to have a popular fictitious name as a watchword [see HOOD, ROBIN], and Robin of Redesdale seems to have been the pseudonym adopted by a member of the Conyers family, which was very widely spread in Yorkshire at this time. He was doubtless either Sir William Conyers (d. 1495) of Marske or his brother, Sir John Conyers, who was a knight of the Garter, and, as the head of his family, lived at Hornby, Yorkshire. Warkworth identifies Robin with Sir William (Chron. pp. 6, 44–5), and is followed by Mr. Gairdner. But Sir John and his son (also Sir John) took a prominent part in the rebellion. The two Sir Johns seem to have marched south with the rebels, and at Edgecote in Northamptonshire, on 26 July 1469, helped to defeat the Earl of Pembroke and his brother, Richard Herbert, but the younger Sir John was slain there. A year later, when Edward went into the north after his victory over rebels in Lincolnshire, at the battle of Lose Coat Field, the elder Sir John Conyers and Hildyard came in to him. The former lived until 1490, and was much favoured by Henry VII (cf. CAMPBELL, Materials for the Reign of Henry VII, Rolls Ser., i. 63, 277, &c.), to whom he was a knight of the body. He married Margery, daughter of Philip, lord Darcy, and was succeeded in his estates by his grandson William (b. 1468), son of the Sir John who was killed at Edgecote. FF [Ramsay's Lancaster and York, ii. 338-51; Oman's Warwick, pp. 183-4; Whitaker's Richmondshire, ii. 41; Gairdner's Introd. to vol. ii. of the Paston Letters, p. xlix; Chron. of Rebellion in Lincolnshire, ed. Nichols; Three Fifteenth-Cent. Chron. pp. 183-4; Bishop Percy's Folio MS. pp. 246, 257; Visit. Yorkshire (Harl. Soc.), pp. 74-7; Testamenta Vetusta, p. 298; Tonge's Visitation of Yorkshire (Surtees Soc.), passim; Wills and Invent. (Surtees Soc.) i. 78; Surtees's Durham, vol. ii.] W. A. J. A. [See DAVIES, ROBIN DDU O'R GLYN. ROBIN AB GWILYM DDU. [See WIL- ROBINS, BENJAMIN (1707-1751), mathematician and military engineer, only son of John Robins (1666-1758), a quaker in poor circumstances, was born at Bath in 1707. At an early age he evinced mathematical ability. On leaving school, at the suggestion of Dr. Henry Pemberton [q. v.], to whom a paper by Robins had been shown, he came to London, and within a short time ceased to be a quaker. To prepare for teaching he applied himself to modern languages and the higher mathematics. Without assistance he made a demonstration of the last proposition of Sir Isaac Newton's Treatise of Quadratures, which was printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society' (No. 397) in 1727. In the following year Robins published in 'The Present State of the Republic of Letters' for May 1728 a masterly confutation of a dissertation by Jean Bernouilli on the laws of motion in bodies impinging on one another. Bernouilli had vainly endeavoured to establish Leibnitz's theory. Robins's admitted victory over the veteran mathematician procured him many scholars, whom he instructed individually and not in classes. He continued for some years teaching pure and applied mathematics and physical science; but, chafing against the confinement entailed by such a life, he gradually gave it up and became an engineer. He now devoted himself to the construction of mills and bridges, the drainage of fens, the making of harbours, and the rendering of rivers navigable. He also studied the principles of gunnery and of fortification. In this new departure he received considerable assistance from his friend, William Ockenden, and travelled in Flanders in order to gain some acquaintance with the fortification of its strong places. On returning from one of these excursions in 1734, he found learned society in London interested in Bishop Berkeley's treatise against mathematicians, called 'The Analyst. By way of reply, Robins printed in 1735' A Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Newton's Methods of Fluxions and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios.' In 1739 he published Remarks on M. Euler's Treatise of Motion; on the Compleat System of Optics written by Dr. Smith, master of Trinity College, Cambridge; and on Dr. Jurin's Discourse of Distinct and Indistinct Vision.' In the same year he published three able political pamphlets in the tory interest, viz. 'Observations on the Present Convention with Spain;' 'A Narrative of what passed in the Common Hall of the Citizens of London assembled for the election of a Lord Mayor;' and 'An Address to the Electors and other Free Subjects of Great Britain occasioned by the late Secession; in which is contained a particular Account of all our Negociations with Spain and their Treatment of us for above ten Years past.' These pamphlets brought Robins into political notice. The last of the three, published anonymously, was an apology for the defection of certain members of parliament, including Pulteney and Sandys, who, disgusted with the Spanish Convention, declined for a time to attend the House of Commons. By those whose conduct Robins defended, he was appointed secretary of the secret committee nominated by the House of Commons to examine into, and report upon, the past conduct of Walpole. The committee made two reports. In 1741 Robins was an unsuccessful candidate for the appointment of professor of fortification at the royal military academy recently established at Woolwich. In 1742 he published his best known work, New Principles of Gunnery,' which he had begun by way of supporting his candidature. This work, the result of many experiments which he had made on the force of gunpowder, and the resisting power of the air to swift and slow motions, was preceded by an account of the progress of modern fortification, of the invention of gunpowder, and of what had already been observed of the theory of gunnery. Robins's book was translated into German by Euler, who wrote a critical commentary on it (Berlin, 1745). Euler's commentary was translated into English, and published by order of the board of ordnance, with remarks and useful tables by Hugh Brown of the Tower of London. 'New Principles of Gunnery' was translated into French by Le Roy for the Academy of Sciences of Paris in 1751. Robins invented the ballistic pendulum, a very ingenious contrivance for measuring the velocity of a projectile, and in 1742 he read a paper on the subject before the Royal Society, of which he was admitted a fellow on 16 Nov. 1727. He also read several papers on gunnery questions, and in 1746 and the following year exhibited to the society various experiments. In 1747 he received the Copley medal. There appeared in 1747 his 'Proposal for increasing the Strength of the British Navy by changing all the guns from the eighteenpounders downwards into others of equal weight but of a greater bore.' A letter which he addressed on the subject to Admiral Lord Anson was read before the Royal Society on 9 April 1747. In this year the Prince of Orange invited Robins to assist in the defence of Bergen-op-Zoom, then invested by the French, but it was taken on 16 Sept. 1747, just after Robins arrived at the headquarters of the Dutch army. Lord Anson, who was a friend and patron of Robins, after returning from the voyage round the world in the Centurion, appears to have entrusted to Robins for revision the account of the voyage which had been compiled from the journals by his chaplain, Richard Walter [q. v.] There has been considerable dispute as to whether Robins or Walter wrote the book, which is entitled in the quarto edition of 1748 A Voyage round the World in the Years 17401744 by George Anson, Esq., published under his direction by Richard Walter, M.A.' [see ANSON, GEORGE, LORD ANSON.] Dr. James Wilson, who published in 1761 a collected edition of the works of Robins, circumstantially states, on the authority of Glover and Ockenden, friends of Robins, that the printed book was twice as long as Walter's manuscript, which merely consisted of bare extracts from the journals kept during the voyage; that Robins worked them into shape, wrote an introduction, and added dissertations. In an indenture between Robins and the booksellers, John and Paul Knapton, Robins was treated as the sole proprietor. On 22 Oct. 1749 Lord Anson wrote to Robins from Bath to ask whether he intended to publish the second volume before he left England, and Lady Anson, in a letter to Dr. Birch, asks if Robins's second volume is ready. On the other hand, the widow and children of Walter claimed that the work was written by him. It seems probable that Robins revised and edited the work, and was especially entrusted with the second volume, containing the nautical observations; the manuscript he took with him to India, and when he died in that country it could not be found. Robins's reputation as a pamphleteer caused him to be employed on an apology for the battle of Prestonpans, which formed a preface to the 'Report of the Proceedings and Opinion of the Board of General Officers on their Examination into the conduct of Lieutenant-general Sir John Cope,' 1749. On 4 May 1749 a paper by Robins on 'Rockets and the Heights to which they ascend' was read before the Royal Society, and on 13 Dec. 1750 an account of some experiments made by Robins and others on the flight of rockets. By the favour of Lord Anson, Robins was able to continue his experiments in gunnery, the results of which were published from time to time in the Philosophical Transactions.' He also contributed to the improvement of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich by inducing Lord Anson to procure a second mural quadrant and other instruments. In 1749 Robins was given the choice of going to Paris as one of the British commissioners for adjusting the boundaries of Acadia or of going to India as engineer-general to repair the forts of the East India Company. He chose the latter. His precedence in India was to rank with the third in council. He was entrusted with the appointment of all his subordinates, and given ample funds. Lord Anson expressed regret that he was leaving England. Robins set out at Christmas 1749, taking with him a complete set of astronomical instruments, and also instruments for making observations and experiments. After a narrow escape from shipwreck, he arrived at Madras on 13 July 1750. He immediately designed complete projects for Fort St. David and the defence of Madras. In September he was attacked by fever. In 1751 he fell into a low state of health, and died, unmarried, on 29 July 1751 at Fort St. David, with the pen in his hand, while drawing up a report for the board of directors. In manner unostentatious, without pedantry or affectation, Robins was a lively and entertaining conversationalist. He was always ready to communicate to others the result of his studies and labours. He left the publication of his works to his friend Martin Folkes, president of the Royal Society; but Folkes, owing to a paralytic attack, was unable to act, and Thomas Lewis, Robins's executor, entrusted the work to Dr. James Wilson, who, in 1761, published Mathematical Tracts' (London, 2 vols. 8vo), containing 'Principles of Gunnery,' together with many other pieces and a memoir of Robins. The book became a text-book, and Dr. Charles Hutton issued a new edition in 1805. Besides the papers mentioned, he contributed to the Transactions of the Royal Society' two on the Resistance of the Air, together with the Method of computing the Motions of Bodies projected in that Medium,' read June 1746; An Account of a Book entitled "New Principles of Gunnery," containing the Determination of the Force of Gunpowder and an Investigation of the Resisting Power of the Air to Swift and Slow Motions' (No. 469, p. 437); Experiments showing that the Electricity of Glass disturbs the Mariner's Compass and also nice Balances,' 1746; An Account of Experiments relating to the Resistance of the Air,' 1747; On the Force of Gunpowder, together with the Computation of the Velocities thereby communicated to Military Projectiles,' 1747; A Comparison of the Experimental Ranges of Cannon and Mortars, with the Theory contained in preceding Papers,' 1751; 'A Letter to the President of the Royal Society in answer to his, enclosing a Message from the Chevalier d'Ossorio, Envoy of the King of Sardinia,' 7 Jan. 1747; Of the Nature and Advantages of Rifledbarrel Pieces,' July 1747. [Watt's Bibliogr. Brit.; Journal des Sçavans, 1743 and 1755; Nova Acta Erudit. 1746; Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences à Paris, 1750 and 1751; Mém. des Sciences et Belles-Lettres à Berlin, 1755; Orme's Hist. of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan from 1745; Rose's Biogr. Dict.; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Biogr. Brit, Supplement; Martin's Biogr. Philos.; Hutton's Dict.; Barrow's Life of George, Lord Anson, 1839; The Analyst, or a Discourse addressed to an Infidel Mathematician, by George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, 1734; Coxe's Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole, 1800.] R. H. V. ROBINS, GEORGE HENRY (17781847), auctioneer, son of Henry Robins, an auctioneer in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, who died on 15 Sept. 1821, aged 68, was born in London in 1778. Before attaining the age of nineteen he was unexpectedly called on to officiate for his father at a sale in Yorkshire, and thenceforth, during a period of fifty years, conducted a large business. The tact with which every advantage connected with the property he had to describe was seized upon and turned to profit in his glowing descriptions, and his ready wit and repartee in the rostrum, caused him to be one of the most successful and persuasive advocates in seducing his auditors to bid freely that ever appeared at the auction mart. He wrote his own advertisements, and, high-flown and fantastic as they were, in no instance was a purchase repudiated on the ground of misdirection. Among his more remarkable sales was that of the twenty-seven years' lease of the Olympic Theatre, for the executors of Mr. Scott, when, on 20 June 1840, by his good management the price was run up from 3,500l. to 5,850. In 1842 he was commissioned by the Earl of Waldegrave to dispose of the contents of Strawberry Hill, including the valuable collections made by Horace Walpole. This sale, which attracted buyers from all parts of the world, commenced on 23 April 1842, and occupied twenty-four days, the proceeds being 29,6157. 88. 9d. Perhaps no man in his station was ever more courted by his superiors; they profited by his advice, and were amused by his eccentricities. In 1813 he gave a dinner to Lord Byron, Lord Kinnaird, Douglas Kinnaird, Sheridan, Colman, John Kemble, and other eminent men (MOORE, Life of Byron, 1847, pp. 182, 282). In conjunction with Mr. Calcraft, he in 1817 and 1818 exposed the bad management of the sub-committee of Drury Lane Theatre, and became the chief means of obtaining a new arrangement by which the house was released from debt; at a later period his exertions were instrumental in resuscitating the fortunes of Covent Garden. He was a great advocate of the claims of comedians and their families to public sympathy; for John Emery's wife and children he in 1822 obtained a competency, and Mrs. Bland and others were indebted to him for exertions in their behalf. Out of an income reputed to exceed 12,000l. a year, he devoted large sums to charity; once, at Margate, he was assisting the funds of the Sea Bathing Infirmary by holding a plate for contributions outside the church gate, when he, with others, was taken into custody as a rogue and a vagabond for begging, and was compelled to attend the Dover sessions, where, however, no evidence was offered. In an action which he instituted against the magistrates of Margate at the Maidstone assizes he obtained 507. damages. A tablet in the wall of the institution at Margate records his victory. In a work entitled D'Horsay, or the Follies of the Day, by a Man of Fashion' [i.e. John Mills], Robins is introduced under the name of Mr. George Bobbins, and there is a portrait of him standing in his rostrum in his sale-room (D'Horsay, 1844, pp. 46-52). Shortly before his death he was offered two thousand guineas and all his expenses to go to the United States of America to dispose of a valuable property in New York. |