Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roberts, Samuel (1763-1848)
ROBERTS, SAMUEL (1763–1848), author and pamphleteer, known as the ‘Pauper's Advocate,’ born at Sheffield on 18 April 1763, was the second son of Samuel Roberts, manufacturer and merchant, by his wife, Mary Sykes. At the age of fourteen he entered his father's manufactory of silver and plated goods, passing through every department. Here he remained until 1784, in which year Roberts and a brother apprentice established what rapidly became a most successful business in silver and plated ware in Sheffield.
At the age of twenty-seven he published his first essay in the local press, being a satire on the then new fashion of hiding the chin in voluminous neck bandages. This was well received, and he was encouraged to pursue a literary career, which extended over the remainder of his life, but was never allowed to interfere with his business habits or his duties as a citizen. His leading motive was benevolence, and he rigidly carried out his early formed resolutions, never to publish anything that he was not convinced was favourable to morality and religion, and never to publish for profit (Autobiography, p. 45).
Roberts was the author of an immense number of books, pamphlets, broadsheets, and contributions to the press, dealing with such subjects as war, capital punishment, game laws, slave trade, lotteries, drunkenness, poor laws, child labour, chartism, and all that he thought unjust or tyrannical.
Roberts died at his residence, Park Grange, Sheffield, on 24 July 1848, in his eighty-sixth year, and was buried at Anston. He married Elizabeth, the only daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Wright, of North Anston, on 22 Oct. 1794, by whom he left one son and three daughters, including Mary, author of ‘Royal Exile,’ 1822 [see under Roberts, Mary, (1788–1864)]. An engraving from his portrait, by William Poole, appears as a frontispiece to many of his publications. His bosom friend, James Montgomery the poet, wrote a brief obituary notice of Roberts for the local press.
Roberts's chief works are: 1. ‘Tales of the Poor, or Infant Sufferings,’ 1813; 2nd ser. 1829. 2. ‘Blind Man and his Son,’ &c., 1816. 3. ‘State Lottery, a Dream,’ 1817. 4. ‘Defence of the Poor Laws,’ 1819. 5. ‘Life of Queen Mary’ (in the ‘Royal Exile’), 1822. 6. ‘Tom and Charles,’ 1823. 7. ‘Negro's Friend, or the Sheffield Antislavery Album,’ 1826. 8. ‘World of Children,’ 1829. 9. ‘Parallel Miracles, or the Jews and the Gypsies,’ 1830. 10. ‘The Gypsies, their Origin, Continuance, and Destination,’ 1836; 5th edit. enlarged, 1842. 11. ‘Yorkshire Tales and Poems,’ 1839. 12. ‘Milton Unmasked,’ 1844. 13. ‘Memoirs of Elizabeth Creswick Roberts,’ 1845. 14. ‘Lessons for Statesmen,’ 1846. 15. ‘Autobiography and Select Remains,’ 1849.
[Autobiography, 1849; Memoirs of James Montgomery, by John Holland and James Everitt, 7 vols. 1856; Reminiscences of Old Sheffield, ed. R. E. Leader, 1876; Life of John Holland, by W. Hudson, 1874; Sheffield newspapers, 29 July 1848; information supplied by a grandson, Samuel Roberts, esq., M.A.]