Joseph Robertson

Joseph Robertson (May 17, 1810 - December 13, 1866) was a Scottish historian and scholar. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on May 17, 1810. His father, having tried his luck in England, returned to his native county, where he was first a small farmer and then a small shopkeeper in Woolmanhill, Aberdeen. His mother remained a widow when Joseph was only seven years old, and he was educated at a parish school in Udney under Mr. Bisset, where James Outram was one of his comrades, and then at the gymnasium and Marischal College in Aberdeen, where he received a good knowledge of Latin, but more different physical than mental abilities. John Hill Burton, a historian of Scotland, was his contemporary at school and university and his lifelong friend. At the end of Marishal College, he was a student of a lawyer, since lawyers are called in Aberdeen, but soon showed a taste for literature, wrote in Aberdeen magazine in 1831 and published under the name of John Brown, coachman Deeside, in 1835, a Guide to Deeside, and in 1838 - Aberdeen travel guide titled The Bon Chord Book. In this book, although it was never completed, he first proved his exact knowledge of antiquities, and there is no better description of his hometown. His Deliciæ Literariæ, published next year, showed a cultural taste in literature, and the collection of masterpieces in it helped shape his own style.