William Shaftoe Robertson


William Shaftoe Robertson was a British actor and theatre manager. He was the nephew of Fanny Robertson, manager of the Lincoln theatre circuit, and her husband Thomas Shaftoe Robertson.

Life and career

Robertson was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He became a lawyer, as a young man, then performed with his family in the eight Lincolnshire and nearby theatres that they managed. His first appearance at the Georgian theatre in Wisbech, was as Rover in the comedy Wild Oats opposite Mrs T. Robertson as Lady Amaranthe on 4 June 1824.
In 1828 he married the Danish-born actress Margharetta Elisabetta née Marinus. Her father taught languages in London, and she spoke English with no trace of a foreign accent. At the age of 17, she had joined the Robertsons' company, where she met Robertson. They had a reported 22 twenty-two children, many of whom appeared in juvenile roles on the stage. Of these, T. W. Robertson, Madge Kendal, Edward Shaftoe Robertson, James Robertson, Georgiana Robertson and Craven Robertson carried on the profession into adulthood.
When his aunt Fanny Robertson retired in 1843, Robertson succeeded her as manager of the Robertson company of actors and their Lincolnshire theatres. In early 1850, the family performed in Colne and then moved on to Burnley, Lancashire. for a week in a temporary theatre, the Temperance Hall, in which they presented The Stranger, King Lear, She Stoops to Conquer and William Tell. In 1851, the family was back in Burnley.
By this time, Lincolnshire theatres were gradually becoming financially unviable, and, in the early 1850s, Robertson moved his family to London, where he became joint manager of the Marylebone Theatre. The family moved to Bristol in 1855. Over the next decade, the Robertsons and their children played steadily in provincial theatres. His last appearance was with his wife and his daughter Fanny in Planché's Plot and Passion on 28 January and Sheridan's The School for Scandal on 30 January 1867, in Boston, Lincolnshire.
In 1871, Robertson was living with his wife, daughter Fanny and a granddaughter in St Pancras, Middlesex.
He died on 4 December 1872 at his residence in Russell Square, London, at the age of 73.