Life

Born at Knipe

Knipe

Knipe may refer to:Surname:*Alden Knipe, football coach*Humphry Knipe, author*Joseph F. Knipe, brigadier generalPlace:*De Knipe, village in Heerenveen in the province Friesland of the Netherlands...

, Westmoreland

Westmoreland

Westmoreland is a historic county in England. It may also refer to:-Places:Australia*Westmoreland County, New South WalesCanada*Westmorland County, New BrunswickJamaica*Westmoreland, Jamaica, a parishNew Zealand...

, on 28 August 1726, he was the son of a maltster from a family of Rutter

Rutter

- As surname :* Barrie Rutter : English actor and theatre director* Brad Rutter : US quiz show host* Dale Rutter : birth name of US pornographic actor Dale DaBone...

, Appleby

Appleby

-Europe:* Appleby, North Lincolnshire, a village in England* Appleby Magna, a village and parish in Leicestershire, England** Appleby Parva, a village in the parish of Appleby Magna* Appleby-in-Westmorland, a town in Cumbria, England...

. His mother was the only daughter of Edward Stevenson of Knipe, a relative of Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson was a British divine and jurist.-Early life and career:He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford...

. Robertson was educated at the free school at Appleby, and on 17 March 1746 matriculated from The Queen's College, Oxford

The Queen's College, Oxford

The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...

. He graduated B.A. on 19 Oct. 1749, and took holy orders about 1752, being appointed curate to Dr. Sykes at Rayleigh, Essex

Rayleigh, Essex

Rayleigh is a market town and civil parish in the District of Rochford in Essex, England, located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea. It lies to the east of central London. It has a population of 30,196, having expanded rapidly in the 1960s.-Toponymy:...

. In 1758 he was presented to the living of Herriard

Herriard

Herriard is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England, situated between Alton, and Basingstoke. At the 2001 census it had a population of 247...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, and married. He became rector of Sutton, Essex

Sutton, Essex

Sutton is a civil parish in the District of Rochford in Essex, England. It is located between the River Roach and the adjoining Borough of Southend on Sea, and includes the Hamlet of Shopland...

, in 1770, and in 1779 vicar of Horncastle

Horncastle

Horncastle is a market town of some 6,090 residents in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, 22 miles east of Lincoln.-Geography:...

, Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, by the gift of his relative Edmund Law

Edmund Law

Edmund Law was a priest in the Church of England. He served as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, as Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge from 1764 to 1769, and as bishop of Carlisle from 1768 to 1787....

.

Robertson died of apoplexy

Apoplexy

Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...

 on 19 January 1802, in his seventy-sixth year. His wife, a daughter of Timothy Raikes, chemist, of London, survived him, but his children all died in infancy.

Works

Robertson was a prolific writer with a reputation as a critic. In 1772 he revised for the press Gregory Sharpe's posthumous sermons, and in the same year edited Algernon Sidney's ‘Discourses on Government,’ at the request of Thomas Hollis

Thomas Hollis

Thomas Hollis was an English political philosopher and author.-Early life:Hollis was educated at Adams Grammar School until the age 10, and then in St. Albans until 15, before learning French, Dutch and accountancy in Amsterdam. After the death of his father in 1735, his guardian was a John...

. In The Critical Review

The Critical Review

The Critical Review was first edited by Tobias Smollett from 1756 to 1763, and was contributed to by Samuel Johnson, David Hume, John Hunter, and Oliver Goldsmith, until 1817....

he contributed over 2,600 articles between 1764 and 1785. He also wrote in the Gentleman's Magazine, and produced a learned work on the authenticity of the Parian Chronicle

Parian Chronicle

The Parian Marble or Parian Chronicle is a Greek chronological table, covering the years from 1581 BC to 264 BC, inscribed on a stele...

(London, 1788), which was answered by John Hewlett

John Hewlett

John Hewlett was a prominent biblical scholar in nineteenth-century Britain.Hewlett was born in Chetnole, Dorset to Timothy Hewlett. After becoming a minister, he was admitted as a sizar to Magdalene College, Cambridge. After graduating, he established a school in Shackelford, Surrey...

.

Other works included sermons, a translation of Fénelon's ‘Telemachus’ (1795), and:

• ‘A Letter to Sauxay on the Case of Miss Butterfield, a Young Woman charged with Murder,’ London, 1775, with ‘Observations on the same,’ 1776.
• ‘Essay on Culinary Poisons,’ London, 1781.
• ‘Introduction to the Study of Polite Literature,’ London, 1782; other editions 1785, 1799, and 1808.
• ‘An Essay on Punctuation,’ London, 1785; 5th edit. London, 1808; answered by David Steel in ‘Remarks on an Essay,’ &c., London, 1786.
• ‘Observations on the Act for augmenting the Salaries of Curates,’ published under the name of Eusebius, Vicar of Lilliput, London, 1797.
• ‘An Essay on the Education of Young Ladies,’ 1798.
• ‘Essay on the Nature of English Verse,’ London, 1799; 5th edit., 1808.