Background
John Robertson was born on 13. 04. 1787 in Virginia, United States, son of William and Elizabeth (Bolling) Robertson, and brother of Wyndham and Thomas Bolling Robertson
congressman jurist author debater
John Robertson was born on 13. 04. 1787 in Virginia, United States, son of William and Elizabeth (Bolling) Robertson, and brother of Wyndham and Thomas Bolling Robertson
After graduating from the College of William and Mary, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Richmond, whither his parents had removed about 1803.
His personal charm combined with his industry, his ingenuity and ability of intellect, and his high sense of honor to win him rapid distinction; he served three terms, 1816-19, in the legislature; and in 1823 was made attorney-general of the state, filling this office conscientiously and well for eleven years. A "doctrinal Democrat of the Jefferson school, " he was too independent to be a thrall to party and in 1834 was elected as a Whig to succeed Andrew Stevenson in Congress. Relected to the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth congresses, he made himself known as a stinging and aggressive debater, a stickler for the Constitution, and an uncompromising critic of Jacksonian policy. His candor and veneration for truth gained him a reputation for eccentricity, for he is said never to have cloaked a thought. On March 18, 1841, he was appointed judge of the twenty-first Virginia judicial circuit, to administer the chancery side of the superior court of law and chancery. Upon the reorganization of the judiciary ten years later, he became judge of the circuit court of Richmond and Henrico. Over both courts he presided with a dignity approaching severity, but with recognized impartiality and discernment. As the break between North and South threatened, Robertson, although a stern exponent of the inviolability of his state's domestic system, so earnestly deprecated violent measures that in January 1861 he was chosen commissioner from Virginia to urge forbearance upon the seceding states, pending the proposed peace convention. His overtures failing and Virginia having subsequently seceded, Governor Letcher commissioned him to invite Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, and other Virginians holding federal military or naval appointments, to transfer to the service of their state. A similar interview with his former college-mate, Winfield Scott, proved unsuccessful. His public career ended with his duties in the Virginia Senate, 1861-62 and 1862-63, but he continued an active supporter of the Confederacy, giving his Richmond home as a soldiers' hospital, and dying an unreconstructed and "unrepentant rebel. " Besides occasional speeches, he published at widely separated intervals four volumes, three of them deriving largely from pride in and love for his family and his state, and too local, too definitely dated to have enduring appeal save to antiquarian or genealogist. These were a translation of Robert Bolling's memoirs of the Bolling family from the French (published in 1868 under the title: A Memoir of the Bolling Family in England and Virginia); a metrical romance, Virginia, or the Fatal Patent (1825), dealing with the separation of the colony from the British crown; and, shortly before his death at Mount Athos in Campbell County, a miscellany, Opuscula (1870), which, while primarily concerned with Virginian affairs, looses numerous satirical barbs at New England intolerance and guile. More significant artistically was Riego, or the Spanish Martyr (1850), based on the revolution in Spain in 1820. A conventionally romantic five-act tragedy, in correct if undistinguished verse, it was superior to the average American play of its time and proved fairly popular in print, although Robertson was destined to be disappointed in his hope that Boucicault would produce it.
He made himself known as a stinging and aggressive debater, a stickler for the Constitution, and an uncompromising critic of Jacksonian policy. His candor and veneration for truth gained him a reputation for eccentricity, for he is said never to have cloaked a thought.
He married Anne, daughter of Col. John Archer Trent of Cumberland County.