The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [796]
Robertson, Dr William (1721–93), historian and Church of Scotland minister; among the first members of the Select Society (1754); later member of the Poker Club; author of The History of Scotland (2 vols., 1759) and The History of America (2 vols., 1777); historiographer for Scotland (1763); principal of Edinburgh University (1762–93): 166, 279, 290, 294, 296, 384–6, 405, 408, 616, 669, 674, 702–5, 713, 741, 808, 982
Robertson, John (fl. 1760–90), printer and publisher of the Caledonian Mercury; prosecuted by the Society of Procurators: 16, 835–6
Robinson, Dr Richard (1709–94), ist Baron Rokeby, Archbishop of Armagh: 330
Robinson, Sir Thomas (\joo?-jj), ist Baronet, architect and collector; commissioner of Excise (1735–42); governor of Barbados (1742-7); fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1735); keen collector of sculpture; influential figure at the Royal Society of Arts: 230, 329
Rochefoucauld, Francois, Duc de la (1613–80), French classical author who had been one of the most active rebels of the Fronde before he became the leading exponent of the maxime, a French literary form of epigram: 134
Rochester, bishops of, see Horsley, Dr Samuel; Pearce, Dr Zachary; Sprat, Dr Thomas
Rochester, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of (1647–80), poet and courtier; famous affair with Elizabeth Barry; gentleman of the bedchamber (1666); ranger and keeper of the royal hunting park at Woodstock (1674); adulterer and rake; critically savaged by S.J.; poetry famous for its obscenities; last years beset by insanity and religious conversions: 534
Rochford, William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of (1717–81): 14, 171
Rockingham, Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquis of (1730–82), prime minister (1765-6, 1782); court Whig; leader of the Rockingham party; Lord Lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the West Riding of Yorkshire and of the county of the city of York, and custos rotulorum of the North Riding (1751–62); lord of the bedchamber to George II (1751); fellow of the Royal Society (1751); fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1751); vice-admiral of Yorkshire (1755); knight of the Garter (1760); first lord of the Treasury (1765-6, 1782); Privy Councillor (1765); poor public speaker; premiership of little consequence: 356
Rodney, Sir George Brydges (1719–92), ist Baron Rodney; Admiral, RN: 476
Rogers, Revd John Methuen (c.1749–1834), rector of Berkeley, Somerset: 990
Rokeby, 1st Baron, see Robinson, Dr Richard
Rollin, Charles (1661–1741), French historian: 936
Rolt, Richard (1725? –70), historian and writer; New and Complete Dictionary of Trade and Commerce (1756) prefaced by S.J.; author of a New History of England^ vols., 1757) and A History of the Late War (1766); more admired for his histories than his less substantial poetry: 15, 191–2 and n. a, 446
Romney, George (1734–1802), painter; increasingly a Reynoldsian imitator; the most fashionable portrait painter in London for the last quarter of the eighteenth century; close friend of the poet William Hayley; radical sympathies perhaps prevented royal appointment; posthumous reputation has see-sawed with the vicissitudes of public taste: 541 n. b
Roper, William (1497–1578), biographer of Sir T. More: 159
Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of (c. 1637–85), poet: 12, 108, 976
Ross, DrJohn (1719–92), bishop of Exeter: 914
Rosslyn, Earl of, see Loughborough, Alexander Wedderburne, ist Baron
Rothes, Mary, Dowager Countess of (c. 1743–1820), wife of Bennet Langton: 30, 175, 191, 271, 301, 332, 338 n. a, 575, 685, 712, 895, 911
Rothwell, Mr (fl. 1768), perfumer: 286
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (1712–78), French philosopher, writer and political theorist whose treatises and novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic generation: 232, 266, 299, 374, 923
Rowe, Elizabeth (1674–1737), poet and devotional writer; translated Tasso; her elegy ‘On the death of Mr Thomas Rowe’ admired by Pope; turned to devotional writing after the death of her husband; author of Devout Exercises of the Heart in Meditation and Soliloquy, Prayer and Praise (1737); style admired