In 1803 he was appointed president judge of the 5th judicial district of Pennsylvania, which office he held until his death. He published " A Digest of Select. British Statutes, etc., which appear to be in Force in Pennsylvania." a work of value (Pitts- burg. 1*1 T: 2d t-di. Philadelphia, 1847).
ROBERTS, Solomon White, civil engineer, b.
in Philadelphia, Pa., 3 Aug., 1811 ; d. in Atlantic-
City, N. J., 20 March, 1882. He was educated at
the Friends' academy in Philadelphia. When lie
was sixteen years old' he became an assistant to his
ancle, Josiali White, who was directing the works
of the Lehigh coal and navigation company in the
construction <>f tin- Mauch Chunk railway, the sec-
ond of importance that was built in the country,
lie also assisted in the construction of the canal
from Mauch Chunk to Easton. Entering the state
service, he had charge of building a division of a
canal on Conemaugh river, and then was principal
a-Mant to Sylvester Welch in locating and con-
structing the "Portage railroad over the Alleghany
mountains. Mr. Roberts's division was on the west
side, including a tunnel 900 feet long, the first
railroad tunnel in the United States, and the fine
stone viaduct over Conemaugh river, near Johns-
town, is his design and construction. While tins
road was in operation it was one of the wonders of
tin country. I'avid Stephenson, the English en-
gineer, says of it in his "Sketch of the Civil En-
gineering' of North America" (Lou. Ion. is:;s) :
" America now numbers among its many wonder-
ful artificial lines of communication a mountain
railway which, in boldness of design and difficulty
of execution, I can compare to no modern work I
have ever seen, excepting, perhaps, the pa.- "I
the Simplon and Mont Cenis in Sardinia." IvY-
rniiining in the state service several years, Mr.
Roberts became in 1838 chief engineer of the Cata-
Lssa railroad, in 1842 was president of the Phila-
delphia, Germantown, and Xorristown railroad.
- ,nil fnnii l"it
- ', to I* Hi pre-ideiit of the Schuylkill
navigation company. During the latter year he was chosen to the legislature, and from 1*48 till 1856 he was engaged in locating, constructing, and op- erating the railroad from Pittsburg to Crestline, a distance of 188 miles. He located and named the towns of Crestline and Alliance. In 1856 he was chosen chief engineer and general superintendent of the North Pennsylvania railroad, which po-t In- resigned in 1879. ' He was a member of many learned societies, contributed numerous papers to the transactions of the American philosophi- cal society and to scientific journals, and wrote " Reminiscences of the First Railroad over the Al- le.'hany Mountains," in the "Pennsylvania Maga- zine of History" (1878). He also published " The De-tinyof Pittsburg and the Duty of her Young Men " (Pittsburg, 1850). His wife, Anna Smith, , I. b. in PhUadelphia, Pa., 23 Dec., 1827; d. there, 10 Aug., 1858, was the daughter of Randall H. Rickey, and married Mr. Roberts in 1851. She contributed poems to the " Columbian and Great West" in 1850-'!. which were collected in "Forest Flowers of the West" (Philadelphia, 1S51 1.
ROBERTS, William, clergyman, b. in Llanerchymedd, Wales, 25 Sept.. ISO!) ; d. in 1892. He was educated at the Presbyterian collegiate institute in Dublin, after which he was pastor and principal oi the academy at Holyhead. Wales, pastor of the
Countess of Huntingdon's chapel in Runcorn, England, in 1848-'55, and had charge of Welsh Presbyterian churches in New York city from 1855 till 1868, in Scranton, Pa., from 1868 till 1875, and in
Utica, N. Y., since 1875. Several times he had served as moderator of the United States Welsh Presbyterian general assembly, and as a representative in councils of the alliance of the Reformed
churches. The University of the city of New York
gave him the degree of D. D. in 186'3. He edited
- he " Tract hodydd " in New York from 1857 till
.861, and had conducted the " ( 'yfaill " in Scranton, Pa., and Utica, N. Y., since 1871. He is the author of "The Abrahamic Covenant" (New York, 1858), and " The Election of Grace " (1859), both of which are written in Welsh.
ROBERTS. William Charles, clergyman, b.
.n Alltmai, near Aberystwith, Wales, 23 Sept.. is:)- 1 ,
tie was educated in the Evans high-school in Wales,
and was graduated at Princeton in 1855, at the
Theological seminary in 1858. and in that year be-
came pastor of the 1st Presbyterian church in Wil-
mington, Del. He was called in 1862 to the 1st
Presbyterian church, Columbus, Ohio, to a church
.a Elizabeth, N. J., in 1864, and to the Westminster
church in that city in 1866. He was elected cor-
responding secretary of the board of home mis-
sions in 1881, was chairman of the committee that
laid the foundations of Wooster university. Ohio,
and declined the presidency of Rutgers college in
1882. In 1887 he became president of Lake Forest
university. 111. He was a member of the first and
third councils of the Reformed churches that met
in Edinburgh and Belfast. From 1859 till 1863 he
was a trustee of Lafayette collc-ge, and he has held
the same relation to Princeton since 1866. He has
travelled extensively in Europe, including Pales-
tine, Turkey, and Egypt. Union college gave him
the degree of D. D. in 1872, and Princeton that of
LL. D. in 1887. Dr. Roberts is the author of let-
ters on the great preachers of Wales (Utica. 1868);
a translation of the shorter catechism into Welsh;
numerous occasional sermons; and magazine arti-
cle-; in English, Welch, and German.
ROBERTS, William Milnor, civil engineer, b. in Philadelphia, 12 Feb., 1810; d. in Brazil, South America, 14 July. 1881. His father was Thomas P. Roberts, treasurer of the Union canal,
the first work of that kind undertaken in Pennsylvania. In 1825 the son was employed as chainman on canal surveys under Canvass White. At the age of eighteen he was given charge of the most difficult division of the Lehigh canal, and two years later he was appointed resident engineer in charge of the Union railroad and Union canal feeder. In 1831-'4 he was senior principal assistant engineer
on the Allegheny Portage railroad. In 18:).
