William Robertson

William Robertson was born in 1721 at Borthwick, Mid-Lothian, where his father was the local Presbyterian minister. In 1733, the family moved to Edinburgh, and William was able to start his studies at the University of Edinburgh towards the end of that year.[1] Dugald Stewart, biographer of Robertson and an important figure of the Scottish Enlightenment in his own right, recognized the wide influence of Francis Hutcheson on the next generation:

Dr. Hutcheson of Glasgow, by his excellent writings, and still more by his eloquent lectures, had diffused, among a numerous race of pupils, a liberality of sentiment, and a refinement of taste, unknown before in this part of the island; and the influence of his example had extended, in no inconsiderable degree, to that seminary where Dr. Robertson received his education.[2]

After finishing his studies at the university, Robertson was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Dalkeith in 1741.[3] From there he went on to assignments in important Edinburgh churches.  He also dedicated himself to the professional study of history, resulting in his first major work, The History of Scotland, published in 1759. This work brought him considerable recognition, and he published five more significant books, making him an important historian. As a result, he was appointed Principal of the University of Edinburgh in 1762.

Church Leadership

Since 1751, Robertson had been participating in the politics of the Church of Scotland at their General Assemblies, and through his eloquence, he was gradually able to bring many of the members to his points of view, until he was elected Moderator in 1763.[4] Clearly, the prestige of his appointment as Principal of the university the previous year had been helpful. The importance of the role of the Moderator can be understood from the following statement:

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the minister or elder chosen to moderate (chair) the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which is held for a week in Edinburgh every year. After chairing the Assembly, the Moderator then spends the following year representing the Church of Scotland at civic events, and visiting congregations and project in Scotland and beyond. Because the Church of Scotland is Scotland's national church, and a Presbyterian church has no bishops, the Moderator is a prominent figure in the life of Scotland.[5]

Robertson had some opposition from some of more traditional members of the Assembly, but he was able to maintain his leadership, through his own personality and through the support of his friends:

[Robertson's] mild and conciliatory temper, which was afterwards, for a long course of years, so honourably employed, in healing the divisions of a church torn with faction, and in smoothing the transition from the severity of puritanical manners, to habits less at variance with the genius of the times."[6]

Dr. Robertson had for his assistants [not only] all the Moderate party in Edinburgh and the neighborhood, but many clergymen annually from the most distant Synods and Presbyters; who, now that the debates of the Assembly were carried on with freedom, though still with great order, were very good speakers and able debaters.[7]

Cultural Circles

From his prominent positions at the university and the church, Robertson became the natural leader of a circle of "enlightened" friends in Edinburgh. Hugh Blair and Adam Ferguson were faculty members at the university and Blair and Alexander Carlyle also had important church appointments. All of them had met while students at the university. Along with other intellectuals, the group was formalized into two cultural clubs. The first was the Select Society. Carlyle comments on Robertson role:

In this Society, which remained in vigour for six or seven years, Dr. Robertson made a conspicuous figure. By his means it was, and by the appearances made by a few of his brethren, that a new lustre was thrown on their order... It was observed of Dr. Robertson, who was one of those Presidents, that whereas most of the others in their previous discourses exhausted the subject so much that there was no room for debate, he gave only such brief, but artful sketches, as served to suggest ideas...[8]

Robertson chose to withdraw from church politics after 1780: "His retreat was deeply regretted and sincerely felt by his friends; nor was it less lamented by many individuals of the opposite party in the church, who, while they resisted his principles of ecclesiastical policy, loved his candour, and respected his integrity." He continued in his academic roles and historical publishing, and he also continued to preach until a few months before his death in 1793.[9]

[1] Dugald Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1802), 2.

[2] Ibid., 4-5.

[3] Ibid., 9.

[4] Ibid., 13-14.

[5] Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

[6] Dugald Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson,  16-17.

 [7] Alexander Carlyle, Autobiography of the Rev. Dr Carlyle, Second Edition (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860), 432.

[8] Alexander Carlyle, quoted in Dugald Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson, 212-213.

[9] Dugald Stewart, Account of the Life and Writings of William Robertson, 187, 200.