bishop of St. Davids (see Besse, Sufferings of Friends, fol. edit. i. 221), and suffered much persecution otherwise. On the other hand, Bishop Nicholson of Gloucester befriended him. They amicably discussed together their theological differences, and on one occasion when the bishop, his chancellor, and twenty clergymen proceeded to Tetbury, in the neighbourhood of Siddington, for an episcopal visitation, the party called and drank ale at Roberts's house, George Bull, the rector, alone refusing, saying the ale was ‘full of hops and heresy.’ The bishop was also interested in Roberts's apparent telepathic power, in the way of tracking lost cattle and the like, which he ascribed chiefly to the exercise of common-sense. The bishop's opinion of him was that he was ‘a man of as good metal as any he ever met with, but quite out of tune.’ Roberts retorted that it was quite true, for he could not ‘tune after the bishop's pipe.’ Roberts died in February 1683–4, and was buried in a burying-ground he had given the quakers in his orchard.
Roberts married, in 1646, Lydia, the orphan daughter of Thomas Tyndale of Melksham Court, Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire. The lady's cousin, Matthew Hale [q. v.], afterwards lord chief justice, drew the marriage settlements. She died in 1698. By her Roberts had six children.
The youngest son, Daniel Roberts (1658–1727), who, with a brother, was in 1683 committed to Gloucester Castle for holding a conventicle, was allowed by the gaoler to visit his father during his last illness, and remained with him until his death. He was released after some months' further detention, Justice George himself discharging all the fees. Daniel settled at Chesham, Buckinghamshire, in 1685, and wrote in 1725 the ‘Memoir of the Life’ of his father. He died at Chesham on 16 Feb. 1727, having married twice, and leaving a son Axtel (d. 1759). His ‘Memoir of John Roberts’ was first published at Exeter, 1746, 8vo; second edition, Bristol, 1747, and reprinted over thirty times. An edition of 1834 was edited with a preface by William Howitt. It was republished under the title, ‘Some Account of Persecutions,’ &c., Philadelphia, 1840, and edited by T. Dursley as ‘The Bishop and the Quaker,’ London, 1855, 8vo. An edition issued in London in 1859, small 8vo, contains, with some notes and additions by Oade Roberts (d. 1821), great-great-great-grandson of the author, an engraving of Roberts's house at Siddington. The house still stands, but is falling into decay.
The chief interest attaching to Daniel Roberts's ‘Memoir’ of his father lies in the recitals of John Roberts's humorous conversations. He delighted in smart repartee and in pointed illustration. Of the literary value of the ‘Memoir,’ Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: ‘The story is so admirably told, too, dramatically, vividly; one lives the whole scene over, and knows the persons who appear in it as if they had been his townsmen. … It is as good as gold, nay, better than gold, every page of it;’ and Whittier observes: ‘Roberts was by no means a gloomy fanatic; he had a good deal of shrewdness and humour, loved a quiet joke, and every gambling priest and swearing magistrate stood in fear of his sharp wit.’
[Memoir by Daniel Roberts, ed. 1834, with preface by William Howitt; Whittier's Old Portraits and Modern Sketches in Collected Works (London, 1889); a humorous poem (‘The Library’) in Sketches of Scarborough, 1813, and illustrated by Rowlandson, which deals incidentally with Roberts's memoirs; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, ii. 496–8; Stratford's Good and Great Men of Gloucestershire; Rudder's Gloucestershire, p. 659; Fosbrooke's Gloucestershire, ii. 484.]
ROBERTS, JOHN (1712?–1772), politician, was possibly son of Gabriel Roberts of St. Anne's, Westminster, M.P. for Marlborough from 1713 to 1727, and a brother to Lieutenant-colonel Philip Roberts, royal horse guards. The latter's eldest son, Wenman, assumed the name of Coke on inheriting the estates of his uncle, the Earl of Leicester, in 1759. Roberts was born about 1712 (cf. Bromley, p. 268); he early in life came under the notice of Henry Pelham. In June 1735 he received a grant, jointly with Edward Tuffnell, of the sinecure office of collector of the customs at Southampton, and worth 125l. 6s. 8d. per annum (Gent. Mag. 1735; cf. Chamberlayne, Present State, 1741). In July 1743 he became secretary to Henry Pelham, when the latter was appointed first lord of the treasury, and he held that confidential position until Pelham's death in March 1754. During this period Roberts dispensed large sums of secret-service money. It is said that he paid each ministerial member from 500l. to 800l. per annum, and that he distributed these sums in the court of requests on the day of each prorogation, entering the names of the recipients in a book seen only by the prime minister and the king. George II is stated to have burned the volumes after Pelham's death (Wraxall, Memoirs).
Roberts's services were rewarded by a series of sinecures. He was receiver-general of the revenues of the post office from December 1745 to September 1746, when he was appointed principal inspector of the out-
