Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/135

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KOBERTSON


ROBERTSON


of the South Carolina legislature passed a vote of thanks in the fall of 1864, soon aftex* meeting. He subsequently took part in the engagements at Little Britain, Tulafinuy, Coosa vvhatchie and Honey Hill or Pocotaligo. He engaged in the protection of the rear of Gen. Joseph E. Johns- ton's army when pursued bj- Sherman through the Carolinas, and surrendered with him at Dur- ham, N.C. After the war. General Robertson engaged for three j'ears in farming in Amelia county, Va.; had charge of branch offices of the Equitable Life Assurance company at Chicago and Wasliington, D.C., 1873-84, and in 1884 en- gaged in real estate business in Washington, D.C., where he was still in business in 1903.

ROBERTSON, Charles Franklin, 2d bishop of Missouri and 89th in succession in the Ameri- can episcopate, was born in New York city, March 3, 1835; son of James and Mary A. Robert- son. He was educated in private schools and engaged with his father in business, which he abandoned in 1855 to prepare for the ministry. He was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1859, A.M., 1863, and at the General Theological seminary. New York city, in 1863; was ordered deacon, June 29, 1863, and advanced to the priesthood, Oct. 33, 1863. He was married, Aug. 7, 1861, to Carrie R. Brisbin of Sherburne, N.Y.; and secondly, in Si'ptember, 1865, to Rebecca Duane of Malone, N. Y. He was rector of St. Mark's, Malone, 1863- 68, St. James's, Batavia, N.Y., in 1868. and was the same year elected second bishop of Missouri. He was consecrated in Grace church. New York city, Oct. 35, 1868, by Bishops B. B. Smith, Mc- Coskry and Johns, assisted by Bishops H. W. Lee and Horatio Potter. He was vice-president of the St. Louis Social Science association and of the National Conference of Charities and Cor- rections, and a member of the Virginia, Mary- land, Southern Missouri and Wisconsin historical societies. He received the degree D.D. from Columbia in 1868, and from the University of the South in 1883, and LL.D. from the University of Missouri in 1883. He is the author of papers on Historical Societies in Relation to Local Histori- cal Effort (1883): The American Revolution and the 3Iississi2)pi Valley (1884); The Attempt to separate the West from the American Union (1885), and The Purchase of the Louisiana Terri- tory in its Influence on the American System (1885). He died in St. Louis, Mo., May 1, 1886.

ROBERTSON, Edward White, representative, •was born near Nashville, Tenn., June 13, 1833; grandson of James and Charlotte (Reeves) Robert- son. He removed to Iberville parish. La., with his parents in 1835; attended the University of Nashville, and studied law, 1845-46. He served as orderly sergeant of 3d Louisiana volunteers in the Mexican war in 1846; was a representative


in the state legislature, 1847-49 and 1857-63, and was graduated at the University of Louisiana, LL.B. in 1850, settling in practice in Iberville parish. In March, 1863, he entered the Confede- rate States army as captain of Louisiana infantry, and was engaged in the Vicksburg campaign, and in the siege of Vicksburg, after which he saw no active service. He resumed practice at Baton Rouge, La., in 1865; was a Democratic representative in the 45th-47tli congresses, 1877- 83, and in the 50th congress, Marcli- August, 1887. He died in Washington, D.C., Aug. 3. 1887.

ROBERTSON, George, jurist, was born in Mer- cer county, Ky., Nov. 18, 1790; son of Alexander and Margaret (Robinson) Robertson; grandson of James Robertson, and great-grandson of James Robertson, who emigrated from Coleraine, Ire- land, to America about 1737, and settled in Vir- ginia. His father removed to Mercer county, Ky., in 1779; was a member of the Virginia con- vention to consider the United States constitu- tion and of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1788. George Robertson was fitted for college under Joshua Fry; attended Transylvania uni- versity, 1805-06, and was an assistant in the Rev. Samuel Finley's classical school at Lancaster, Ky., 1807-08. He studied law under Gen. Martin D. Hardin at Frankfort and Samuel McKee of Lan- caster; was admitted to the bar in 1809; was married in November, 1809, to Eleanor, daughter of Dr. Peter and Eleanor (Mcintosh) Bainbridge of Lancaster, Ky., and settled in practice in Lan- caster. He was a representative from Kentucky in the 15th and 16th congresses, 1817-31, serving as chairman of the committee on public lands and as a member of the committees on the judiciary and internal improvements. He drew up and in- troduced the bill to establish a territorial govern- ment in Arkansas, to which John W. Taylor (q.v.) offered the amendment interdicting slaverj-. He also introduced the system of selling public lands to actual settlers in small lots at a cash price of $1.35 per acre. He declined the office of attorney- general of Kentucky and judge of the Fayette circuit and also the chair of law in Transylvania university in 1831. He represented Garrard county in the state legislature, 1833-37, where he opposed the relief act intended to make the de- preciated notes of the state banks legal tender. He was speaker of the house in 1823, and 1835-37. He declined the appointment of governor of Ar- kansas Territory offered by President Monroe, the office of U.S. minister to Colombia in 1834, and of that to Peru in 1838, and also the nomination for governor of Kentucky in 1827. He was secretary of the state of Kentucky in 1828; a justice of the court of appeals of Kentucky in 1829, and cliief justice of the court of appeals, 1830-43, resuming active practice at the bar in 1843; was professor