William Robertson

(1721-1793)
Historian, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh

No gallery of benefactors of Edinburgh University Library would be complete without a portrait of William Robertson, Principal of the University from 1762 until his death. Born in Borthwick, Midlothian and educated at the University of Edinburgh, he was ordained in the Church of Scotland and held charges at Gladsmuir East Lothian and at the Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh which he continued to hold during his Principalship. Other offices included Chaplain to His Majesty in Scotland, Chaplain to Stirling Castle, and Historiographer Royal for Scotland.

His fame as a scholar extended across the western world, and attracted a range of others of high renown to Edinburgh, hence his soubriquet 'Leader of the Enlightenment'. It also attracted students to the University from far and wide, including Prince Paul Dashkov whose mother, Princess Ekaterina Daschkova, presented the University with an important set of commemorative medals and was instrumental in awarding Robertson an honorary degree from the Academy of Arts and Sciences in St Petersburg.

As well as presenting copies of his own works to the University Library, as did most of the professors of the time, Robertson established the Library Fund in the University from the fees paid by students at matriculation. He was also assiduous in claiming newly-published books for the Library from all parts of the United Kingdom under the University's legal deposit privilege (which continued until 1837 when it was commuted to an annual payment from the Treasury), and he fairly be said to have established the Library as the current resource for scholarship that it is to this day.

Portrait by permission of the University of Edinburgh.