William Robertson (historian)

This article is about the Scottish historian. For other people of the same name, see William Robertson (disambiguation).

William Robertson (1721-1793)

William Robertson (from a 1777 German edition of his History of America)

William Robertson FRSE FSA (19 September 1721 – 11 June 1793) was a Scottish historian, minister of religion, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh. "The thirty years during which [he] presided over the University perhaps represent the highest point in its history."

Life

He was born at the Manse of Borthwick, Midlothian, and educated at Borthwick Parish School, Dalkeith Grammar School, and at the University of Edinburgh (1733–41), where he studied divinity (DD 1759). He became minister at Gladsmuir (East Lothian) in 1743 and later at Lady Yester's Kirk and Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. A staunch Presbyterian and Whig, he volunteered to defend the city against the Jacobites led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1745.

He became Royal Chaplain to George III (1761), Principal of the University of Edinburgh (1762), Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1763, and Historiographer Royal in 1764, reviving a role within the Royal household in Scotland that had been in abeyance from 1709 until 1763. He was also a member of The Poker Club. His most notable work was perhaps his History of Scotland 1542 - 1603, begun in 1753 and first published in 1759. He was a significant figure in the Scottish Enlightenment and also of the moderates in the Church of Scotland.

He is buried at Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh and he now gives his name to the nearby William Robertson Wing of the Old Medical School buildings at the University of Edinburgh on Teviot Place, home to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology.

Books by William Robertson

• The situation of the world at the time of Christ's appearance
• The history of the reign of Charles V (1769) 4 volumes
• The history of America Books 1-8 (1777) 3 volumes
• The history of Scotland (1759) 2 volumes
• An historical disquisition concerning the knowledge which the ancients had of India (1791)
• The history of America Books 9-10 (1796)

Further reading

• Brown, S. J. (ed.), William Robertson and the Expansion of Empire, Cambridge, 1997

External links

• William Robertson at James Boswell - a Guide

Preceded by John Gowdie

Principal, University of Edinburgh 1762–1793

Succeeded by George Husband Baird