Life of the Rev. Abraham Robertson, D.D. 399 



gentle, and unassuming, and entirely devoid of pedantry. 

 Though w ell qualified to write for the public, he appears 

 to have been unambitious of literary fame ; and hence his 

 published writings are few. His work on Conic Sections has 

 been described as a highly creditable and useful production. 



It was an admirable trait of his character, and one which 

 evinced that, in the prosperous condition to which he had 

 been raised so singularly by Providence, he was still in- 

 fluenced by the Christian precepts which he had been no 

 doubt taught in his youth — that being informed that his 

 step-mother, by whom he had been ill treated, was, after 

 the death of his father, reduced to indigence, he devoted to 

 her relief a sum of money which was the first-fruits of his 

 successful exertions at Oxford. At a later period of his life 

 he exhibited a similar act of benevolence, by investing for 

 behoof of five poor relations in Dunse a handsome sum of 

 money, the benefit of which they enjoyed till their deaths. 

 Dr. Robertson, died at an advanced age, about the end of 

 1826. 



To supplement this information, I have obtained through 

 the friendly interposition of Dr. Acland, Regius Professor 

 of Medicine, Oxford, a copy of the Matriculation Register 

 of Dr. Robertson, from the Rev. Dr. Griffiths, Wadham 

 College ; and also a letter addressed to Dr. Acland by the 

 same gentleman, containing some interesting circumstances 

 not known to the previous narrator. I give them entire. 

 The two accounts appear irreconcilable ; but when Robert- 

 son went to Oxford, he may have acted both as tutor and 

 servant to his master's sons, and even waited at table. 

 Differences of rank may not have been so strictly observed 

 in those patriarchal times. 



" From the Register of Matriculation of the University of 

 Oxford. 



Termino Michaelis, 1775. 



Dec. 7. Aed. Christ. Abraham Robertson, 22. Abraham 

 de Duns, Com. Berwick. Pleb. Fil. 



A true extract made April 7th, 1875, by John Griffiths, 

 D.D., Keeper of the Archives." 



" Wadham College, April 7th, 1875. 

 My Dear Acland, 



I send you an extract from the Matriculation 

 Register concerning Dr. Robertson. 



It 



