Eben William Robertson (17 September 1815 – 3 June 1874) was a British historian.

Life

Robertson was born near the Leicestershire- Derbyshire border at

Netherseale Netherseal (or 'Netherseale') is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire,OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :

, into a wealthy landowning family. He was a distant relative of 18th century Scots historian and academic William Robertson. He attended

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

, and received legal training at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

. His father died in 1852 and Robertson succeeded to the family's estates. As a legally trained landowner and gentleman, he was active in local administration, first as a justice of the peace. In 1862, he was appointed Deputy

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...

of Leicestershire, and in 1870, he became High Sheriff of Derbyshire. Robertson was married to Isabella Colgrave in 1838. They had one son and two daughters. He is best remembered as a historian of medieval Scotland. His 1862 work ''Scotland under her early Kings'' (2 volumes) was well regarded. He published a collection of essays, ''Historical Essays in connexion with the Land, the Church, etc.'' in 1874. In 1874 Robertson was injured attempting, unsuccessfully, to save his two nieces from a fire. Soon after he caught cold and died after a painful illness.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Eben William 1815 births 1874 deaths People from Leicestershire (before 1897) Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford 19th-century English historians Deputy Lieutenants of Leicestershire High Sheriffs of Derbyshire Historians of Scotland