Robert Bisset (c. 1759 – 14 May 1805) was a Scottish writer, best known as the biographer of

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...

and of

Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richar ...

Richard Steele Sir Richard Steele (bap. 12 March 1672 – 1 September 1729) was an Anglo-Irish writer, playwright, and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine ''The Spectator''. Early life Steele was born in D ...

and other contributors to ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

''.

Life

Robert Bisset was the son of Rev. Dr. Bisset, minister of Logierait, Perthshire. Though he studied for the church in Edinburgh, Robert Bisset eventually became a Doctor of Laws and moved to England. He was editor of the short-lived ''The Historical Magazine; or Classical Library of Public Events'' from November 1788 to December 1792. Bisset's ''Biographical Sketch of the Authors of the Spectator'', the first volume of an eight-volume edition of the ''Spectator'', included sketches of Addison, Steele,

Thomas Parnell Thomas Parnell (11 September 1679 – 24 October 1718) was an Anglo-Irish poet and clergyman who was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. He was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Parnell (died 1685) of Maryborough, Queen' ...

, John Hughes,

Eustace Budgell Eustace Budgell (19 August 1686 – 4 May 1737) was an English writer and politician. Life and Death Born in St Thomas near Exeter, he was the son of Gilbert Budgell, D.D. by his first wife Mary, only daughter of Bishop William Gulston of Bri ...

, Laurence Eusden,

Thomas Tickell Thomas Tickell (17 December 1685 – 23 April 1740) was a minor English poet and man of letters. Life The son of a clergyman, he was born at Bridekirk near Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was educated at St Bees School 1695–1701, and in 1701 ente ...

and

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

. His ''Life of Edmund Burke'' (1798) praised Burke highly, defending his political consistency against detractors. Bisset also wrote two novels, two proslavery tracts, "and a spate of polemical, antidemocratic writing".

Works

*''A Biographical Sketch of the Authors of the Spectator''. Volume I of Bisset, ed., ''Spectator'', 8 vols, London, 1793–1794. *''Sketch of Democracy'', London, 1796. *''The Life of Edmund Burke'', London, 1798. *''Douglas; or, The Highlander'', London, 1800. *''The History of the Reign of George III to the Termination of the Late War'', 6 vols, London, 1803. *''Modern Literature'', 3 vols, London, 1804. *''The History of the Negro Slave Trade in its connection with the commerce and prosperity of the West Indies, and the wealth and power of the British empire'', 2 vols, London, 1805.

References

External links

*
Works by Robert Bisset
at

Hathi Trust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

1750s births 1805 deaths British biographers {{scotland-writer-stub