William Roby (1766–1830) was an English Congregational minister.

Life

Born at Haigh, near

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

on 23 March 1766, he was the half-brother of the poet John Roby; his parents belonged to the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

. He was educated at Wigan grammar school, where his father Nehemiah Roby was master, and he himself became classical master at the grammar school of

Bretherton Bretherton is a small village and civil parish in the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, situated to the south west of Leyland and east of Tarleton. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 669. Its name suggests pre-con ...

, Lancashire. Roby owed a change of religious belief to the preaching of John Johnson. Beginning to preach in villages round Bretherton, Roby resigned his teaching position and entered

Trevecca College Trefeca (also Trefecca, Trevecca, and Trevecka), located between Talgarth and Llangorse Lake in what is now south Powys in Wales, was the birthplace and home of the 18th-century Methodist leader Howell Harris ( cy, Hywel Harris, italic=no). It w ...

; but only stayed six weeks. After preaching at

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and

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire ...

, he became Johnson's assistant at St. Paul's Chapel, Wigan. When Johnson moved on, in 1789, he became sole pastor, ordained in London on 20 September 1789. In 1795 Roby took on the Congregational church in Cannon Street, Manchester. He began with an attendance of 150, which he raised substantially. Benjamin Nightingale's ''Lancashire Non-Conformity'' documents his work in founding new churches. On 27 June 1797 Roby went to Scotland on a mission with

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. On 3 December 1807 a new chapel was opened for him in Grosvenor Street, Manchester, where he ministered for the rest of his life. He trained some 15 students for the ministry, financed by his friend Robert Spear;

Lancashire Independent College The British Muslim Heritage Centre, formerly the GMB National College, College Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, is an early Gothic Revival building. The centre was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974. History and descript ...

then built on these efforts. In 1815 he met Robert Moffat and became his mentor and in time recommended him to the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

. Robert and

Mary Moffat Mary Moffat born Mary Smith (1795 – 9 January 1871) was a British missionary who became a role model for women involved in missionary work. She was the wife of Robert Moffat, the mother of Mary Moffat Livingstone and David Livingstone was her s ...

would create a family of missionaries in southern Africa. Roby died on 11 January 1830, and was buried in his chapel-yard. His widow, Sarah Roby, died in 1835. The Roby schools at Manchester were erected in 1844 by way of memorial of him. William Gordon Robinson wrote his biography as ''William Roby (1766–1830) and the Revival of Independency in the North'' (1954). He is also commemorated by the modern name of Grosvenor Street which is Roby Street; the renaming was in 1831.Bradshaw, L. D. (1985). ''Origins of Street Names in the City of Manchester''. Radcliffe: Neil Richardson. ; p. 45-46

Works

Roby published sermons (from 1798) and pamphlets, including: * ''The Tendency of Socinianism'', Wigan, 1791. * ''A Defence of Calvinism'', 1810. * ''Lectures on … Revealed Religion'', 1818 * ''Anti-Swedenborgianism'', Manchester, 1819; letters to John Clowes. * ''Protestantism'', Manchester, 1821–2, two parts. * ''Missionary Portraits'', Manchester, 1826. * A selection of hymns (2nd edit., Wigan, 1799).

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Roby, William 1766 births 1830 deaths English Congregationalists People from Wigan