ROBBERTSON, WILLIAM [SSNE 940]
- Surname
- ROBBERTSON, ROBERTSON, ROBBERTSSON
- First name
- WILLIAM, WILHELMUS
- Title/rank
- BURGESS
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Region
- INVERNESS
- Social status
- BURGESS
- Education
- Religion
Text source
Several references appear to the name William Robertson in Danzig between the 1630s and the 1670s. It is not clear if they are all to the same man or not, but research to date suggests they are the same man. The first reference comes from a letter of William Robertson of the Inches to his cousin John Robertson of the Inches on 17 March 1634. In that letter he noted that he was ill, yet intended to head for Danzig at the end of March. He ended his letter hoping God would see him strong enough and commending himself to 'your loving bedfellow, and family, to God's holy protection'. The PS thanks John for looking after his nephew. On the back there is a memorandum suggesting that the letter was actually sent later as it notes "from Poillonia". The next glimpse we have is from 1651 when a William Robertson in Danzig was amongst the Scots and English who subscribed to the subsidy for King Charles II in 1651. He paid 1020 florins. Later references not a William Robertson as a burgess in Danzig in 1664. In his will written in 1670, Robertson left a large amount of monies to various people and organisations. The minister was paid 8 thaler for the service, the Danzig Pox Hospital recieved 300 guilders and the Scottish poor fund another 300. His nephew, also called William Robertson recieved 20,000 Scottish merks in the form of a loan issued to a Scottish merchant named Archibald Campbell plus 2,438 thaler previously sent to Scotland through an intermediary, George Skene. The nephew also inherited all the moveables in Danzig owned by his uncle.Charles Fraser-Mackintosh (ed.), Letters of Two Centuries, chiefly connected with Inverness and the Highlands from 1616 to 1815 (Inverness, 1890), pp.33-34, william Robertson to John Robertson, 17 March 1634; A.B. Pernal and R.P. Gasse, The 1651 Polish Subsidy to the exiled Charles II, Oxford Slavonic Papers, vol xxxii (Oxford, 1999), p.37; Z. Guldon and L. Stepkowski, Szkoci i Anglicy w Koronie w polowie XVII wieku, Kieleckie Studia Historyczne, ii (1977); T. Fischer, The Scots in East and West Prussia (Edinburgh, 1903), pp.96-98, 196; M. Bogucka, 'Scots in Gdansk (Danzig) in the Seventeenth Century' in A. I. Macinnes, T. Riis and F. G. Pedersen (eds.), Ships Guns and Bibles in the North Sea and the Baltic States, c.1350-c.1700 (East Linton, 2000), pp.41-42.
Service record
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, PRUSSIA, DANZIG
- Arrived 1634-03-17
- Departed 1670-12-31
- Capacity MERCHANT BURGESS, purpose CIVIC, MERCANTILE, TRADE