136 
ROB 
Is’t not enough to break into my garden. 
And, like a thief, to come to rob my grounds, 
But thou wilt brave me with these sawcy terms. 
Shakspeare. 
The water-nymphs lament their empty urns, 
Boeotia, rob'd of silver Dirce, mourns. Addison. 
To set free; to deprive of something bad. (Ironical.) 
Our house is hell, and thou, a merry devil, 
Did'st rob it of some taste of tediousness. Shakspeare. 
To take away unlawfully. 
Nor will I take from any man his due; 
But thus assuming all, he robs from you. Dry den. 
Oh double sacrilege on things divine, 
To rob the relick, and deface the shrine ! Dry den. 
ROBALI, a village of Abyssinia; 75 miles south of 
Mine. 
ROB ARES, rocks near the south coast of Ireland; 3 miles 
south-east of Galley Head. Lat. 51. 31. N. long. 8. 50. W. 
ROBBEN ISLAND, or Seal Island, a barren island on 
the coast of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope, at the 
entrance into False bay, about 6 miles in circumference. It 
serves as a place of exile for-criminals sent from the Cape or 
the Indies, who are compelled to labour, and are guarded by 
24 soldiers, under the command of a serjeant. No woman 
is allowed to live on the island. Lat. 33. 40. S. long. 18. 
20. E. 
RO'BBER, s. One that plunders by force, or steals by 
secret means; a plunderer; a thief. 
These hairs, which thou dost ravish from my chin, 
Will quicken and accuse thee ; I’m your host; 
With robbers hands my hospitable favour 
You should not ruffle thus. Shakspeare. 
Thou,—like a robber, stripp’dst them of their robes. 
Milton. 
RO'BBERY, s. [ roberie , old Fr.] Theft perpetrated by 
force or with privacy. 
Thieves for their robbery have authority. 
When judges steal themselves. Shakspeare m 
ROBBERY, is defined in Law, a felonious and forcible 
taking away another man’s goods or money, from his person, 
presence, or estate, by putting him in fear, &c. I Hawk. 
P. C. 95. 
A mere attempt to rob was held to be felony, so late as 
Henry the Fourth’s time (1 Hal. P. C. 532.); and afterwards 
it was only a misdemeanor, and punishable with fine and 
imprisonment, till the stat. 7 Geo. II. cap. 21. which makes 
it a felony, transportable for seven years, unlawfully and 
maliciously to assault another, with any offensive weapon 
or instrument, or by menaces, or by other forcible or violent 
manner, to demand any money or goods, with a felonious 
intent to rob. If the thief, having once taken a purse, 
returns it, still it is a robbery. The previous putting in fear 
is the criterion that distinguishes robbery from other larce¬ 
nies; and yet this putting in fear does not imply any great 
degree of terror or affright in the party robbed; it is suffi¬ 
cient that so much force, or threatening by word or gesture, 
be used, as might create an apprehension of danger, or 
oblige a man to part with his property without or against 
his consent. (Fost. 128.) Thus, if a man be knocked down 
without previous warning, and stripped of his property while 
senseless, though strictly he cannot be said to be put. in fear, 
yet this is undoubtedly a robbery ; or, if a person with a 
sword drawn beg an alms, and I give it him through mistrust 
and apprehension of violence, this is a felonious robbery. 
1 Hawk. P. C. 96. 
This is sometimes also called violent theft, and its 
punishment, be the value of the thing taken ever so small, 
is death. 
This species of larceny is debarred of the benefit of clergy 
by 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 1. and other subsequent statutes; not 
ROB 
indeed in general, but only when committed in or near the 
king’s highway. A robbery, therefore, in a distant field or 
foot-path, was not punished with death (1 Hal. P. C. 535), 
but was open to the benefit of clergy, till the stat. 3 & 4 
W. & M. cap. 9. which takes away clergy from robbery 
wheresoever committed. 
RO'BBINS, s. [raaband, a rope T band.] Small ropes- 
which fasten sails to the yards. Linen which women wear 
round the wrist. 
ROBBINSTON, a township of the United States, in Wash¬ 
ington county, Maine; 490 miles north-east’ of Boston. 
Population 365. 
ROBBSTOWN, a township of the United States, in West¬ 
moreland county, Pennsylvania. 
ROBE, a river of Ireland, which runs into Lough Corrib ; 
12 miles west of Ballinrobe. 
ROBE, s. [ roobe, Fr. robba, Ital. rauba, low Lat.] A 
gown of state; a dress of dignity. 
The last good king, whom willing Rome obey’d, 
Was the poor offspring of a captive maid; 
Yet he those robes of empire justly bore. 
Which Romulus, our sacred founder, wore. Dry den. 
To ROBE, v. a. To dress pompously; to invest. 
There in long robes the royal magi stand; 
The sage Chaldaeans rob'd in white appear’d. 
And Brachmans. Pope. 
Robed in loose array she came to bathe. Thomson. 
ROBECQ, a village of France, department of the Pas de 
Calais, near the small river Clearance. Population 2300 ; 
4 miles south-west of St. Vincent. 
ROBEL, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of 
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, on the lake of Muritz, Population 
1800; 20 miles wed of Strelitz, and 28 west-south-west of 
New Brandenburg. 
ROBEN, a market town in the north-west of Hungary, in 
the palatinate of Neutra, inhabited by the descendants of 
Germans. 
PiO'BERDSMAN, or Ro'bertsman, s. In the old 
statutes, a sort of bold and stout robbers, or night thieves, 
said to be so called from Robinhood, the famous robber, but 
more probably, a corruption of Robber's-man. 
ROBERGIA (so named in honour of Roberg, Professor 
of Medicine at Upsal), in botany, a genus of the class 
decandria, order pentagynia, natural order of terebintaceae, 
(Juss.J Generic Character.—Calyx: perianth one-leafed, 
five-parted, permanent; segments roundish, concave. Co¬ 
rolla : petals five, roundish, the length of the calyx. Sta¬ 
mina : filaments ten, inserted into the receptacle, the length 
of the corolla. Anthers roundish. Pistil: germ roundish, 
villose, superior. Styles five, capillary. Stigmas thickish, 
grooved. Pericarp: drupe ovate, more convex ou one side, 
very slightly hollowed on the other. Seed : nut the form of 
the drupe, one-celled, with a two-valved shell. Essential 
Character .—Calyx five-parted. Petals five. Drupe with 
a one-seeded nut, and a two-valved shell. 
Robergia frutescens. — This is a shrub five feet in 
height. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, four-paired; 
leaflets petioled, oblong, acuminate, quite entire, veined, 
smooth above, tomentose underneath; the lower leaflets are 
smaller. Flowers white. Panicle, corymbed axillary and 
terminating, much shorter than the leaf.—Native of the woods 
of Guaina, flowering and fruiting in the month of August. 
The flowers have a smell sweeter than that of the lilac. 
ROBER1NDALE, a village of England, in Lancashire , 
8J miles east-north-east of Lancaster. 
RO'BERT, s. An herb; stork-bill; geranium. 
ROBERT the Short, see Germany. —ROBERT CA¬ 
PET, see France.— ROBERT BRUCE, see Scotland. 
—ROBERT OF NAPLES, see Naples. 
ROBERT (Claude), a French ecclesiastic and chronologisf; 
of some celebrity, was born at Cheslay, a village between 
Bar-sur-Seine and Tonnerre, on the borders of Burgundy, in. 
the year 1564. From some seminary in the province just 
mentioned 
