William Roberts (1767 – 21 May 1849) was an English barrister and legal writer, an evangelical journal editor and the first biographer of

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a s ...

Life

William Roberts was born in

Newington Butts Newington Butts is a former hamlet, now an area of the London Borough of Southwark, that gives its name to a segment of the A3 road running south-west from the Elephant and Castle junction. The road continues as Kennington Park Road leading to ...

. He was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

, St Paul's and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

, where he gained his BA in 1788 and MA in 1791. He toured the Continent (including

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) before returning to England and founding a short-lived biweekly journal, '' The Looker-on'' (1792-1793) under the pseudonym Rev. Simon Olive-Branch. Entering the law, he wrote several legal treatises. He married Elizabeth Anne Sidebotham, daughter of a Middle Temple barrister, who bore him ten children. From 1811 to 1822 he was editor of the '' British Review, and London Critical Journal'', founded by the evangelical lawyer

John Weyland John Weyland (1774–1854) was an English writer on the poor laws and Member of Parliament. Life Born on 4 December 1774, he was the eldest son of John Weyland (1744–1825) of Woodrising in Norfolk and Woodeaton in Oxfordshire, by his wife Eli ...

and published by John Hatchard, an evangelical Tory publisher with offices at Piccadilly. When Canto I of '' Don Juan'' made the facetious claim that

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

had "bribed my grandmother's review - the ''British''" to review the poem well, Roberts issued a solemn denial. Roberts published his four-volume biography of Hannah More in 1834: its hagiographic tone and editorial inaccuracy drew the scorn of John Gibson Lockhart in the '' Quarterly'' but the inclusion of extended extracts from More's letters has ensured its enduring interest to those interested in More. He retired from the law to

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, and later to

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

in Hertfordshire. His son Arthur Roberts wrote a biography in 1850.

Works

*''A treatise on the construction of the statutes, 13 Eliz. c. 5. and 27 Eliz. c. 4. relating to voluntary and fraudulent conveyances and on the nature and force of different considerations to support deeds and other legal instruments, in the courts of law and equity'', London, 1800 *''A treatise on the statute of frauds as it regards declarations in trust, contracts, surrenders, conveyances, and the execution and proof of wills and codicils : to which is prefixed a systematic dissertation upon the admissibility of parol and extrinsic evidence, to explain and controul written instruments'', London: J. Butterworth, 1805 *''A treatise upon wills and codicils with an appendix of the statutes, and a copious collection of useful precedents, with notes, practical and explanatory'', 1809 *(anon.) ''The Portraiture of a Christian Gentleman. By a Barrister'', London: J. A. Hessey, 1829. Republished under Roberts's name, 1831. *''Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More'', 4 vols, London: R. B. Seeley & W. Burnside, 1834. *''History of Letter-Writing, From the Earliest Period to the Fifth Century'', London: W. Pickering, 1843.

References

1767 births 1849 deaths English biographers English editors English barristers {{UK-writer-stub