Abraham Wildey Robarts

London banker, partner in Robarts Curtis (a predecessor of RBS), son of Abraham Robarts (1745-1816, MP for Worcester 1796-1816 'West India factor and East India Company director'), MP for Maidstone (1818-37), mortgagee of the Maccoucherie estate and trustee of Springfield, both in Dominica. The partners in the firm also counterclaimed the compensation for two claims in Jamaica associated with William Shand, presumably as creditors.

1. Rubinstein shows A.W. Robarts as MP, partner in Watney Combe Reid, and banker in the entry for his father and as 'Banker' in his own. Robarts' father, Abraham Robarts (1745-1816) [Rubinstein 1816/22] left £350,000 as an eminent banker, loan contractor, West Indian factor and director of the East India Company, Royal Exchange Insurance and a partner in Lechmere's bank in Worcester; A.W. Robarts' brother William Tierney Robarts (1786-1820) [Rubinstein 1820/24] was a partner in the bank, inherited £30,000 from his father and left £120,000; another brother was James Thomas Robarts [Rubinstein 1831/2].

2. Abraham Wildey Robarts married Charlotte Anne Wilkinson (daughter of Edmund Wilkinson of Potterton Lodge Yorkshire) 20/01/1808 St George Hanover Square; buried 09/04/1858 at All Souls Kensal Green aged 79 of 26 Hill Street. Left £300,000. Between 1827 and 1857 he had occupied what later became Manresa House Roehampton (utilised as a Jesuit seminary - attended by Gerard Manley Hopkins - shortly after Robarts' tenancy ended). The 1841 shows Robarts at 'Bessborough Cottage' in Roehampton.

3. Rubinstein shows one son, Abraham G. Robarts, also a banker in the family firm [1860/37, left £200,000] and 'several daughters'.

4. The family has a collective entry in the ODNB as 'bankers'.

T71/881 Dominica claim nos. 320A&B (Maccoucherie) and 288 (Springfield); Lawrence Taylor, 'Robarts. Abraham', http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/robarts-abraham-1745-1816 [accessed 02/01/2015].

1. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 MS, reference 1858/43 for Abraham Wildey Robarts; Ibid. Volume One reference 1816/22 for Abraham Robarts; William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? 1860- (Volumes 3 and 4, manuscripts in preparation), reference 1860/37 for Abraham George Robarts.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online]. Children, all baptised at St Georges, Hanover Square, are from Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online]; Dorian Gerhold, Villas and mansions of Roehampton and Putney Heath Wandsworth Historical Society 1997; 1841 census online.

3. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volumes Three and Four (forthcoming) reference 1860/37.

4. Peter M. Claus, ‘Robarts family (per. c.1780–1914)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48044, accessed 2 Jan 2015]

We are grateful to Sean Creighton for his help with this entry.