E-mail from Hugh Thomson 29.3.2000 email hugh@@thrl.demon.co.uk

Ufort I lost all my email with Ruben Robertson I help him to trace is
ancestors most came from Shetland I got a letter and here is the text:

2614 31st Street,
N.W. Washington, DC 20008
(202) 965-2614 (home)
(202) 232-1015 (work)
(202) 232-4757 (fax)
rbr3@@essential.org (email)
Note: this email address is no longer valid

Mrs. J A Dumbreck
2/9 Grandville
Craighall Road
Edinburgh, EH6 4TH

Dear Mrs. Dumbreck,

I understand you recently had a call from Hugh Thomson of Dunfermline,
and I am writing to follow up on his enquiry. Hugh has kindly been
helping me with some long-distance family research. Although my
great-great grandmother was a Dumbreck, I have very little information
about her or her forebears, as she died at a young age, and I am hoping
that you might be able to provide more information or see a connection
to your Dumbrecks.

Christina Dumbreck, born 31 March 1812, married Thomas Robertson of
Walls, Shetland, on 8 August 1837. She was 25 years old, and said to be
quite pretty. My great-grandfather Charles Dumbreck Robertson was their
only child, born 6 March 1839 also in Walls, and his mother died at
their home a few days later. Charles left Shetland as a young man and,
after working in India for 5 years, he arrived in New York in September
1863. He ultimately settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a
well-respected lawyer (barrister) and judge. Charles of course never knew
his mother Christina but treasured a few keepsakes and an Episcopal
prayer-book that had been hers and were given to him.

This past weekend I went to Asheville, North Carolina, where my
Robertson grandparents lived, and searched through some ancient family
memorabilia and scrapbooks kept by my cousin there. In that search we
found a letter dated 11 September 1916 from great-grandfather Charles to
his daughter-in-law Hope Thomson Robertson, passing on what he
remembered of his Dumbreck roots:

Text of Charles Dumbreck Robertson's letter:

" My mother died three days after my birth. My father made her
acquaintance in Shetland, where she was visiting at the Rectory of an
Episcopal Church ministry. Her home was then in or near Edinburgh. She
had a sister who visited her in Shetland after her marriage. -- The Town
of 'Dumbreck' near Edinburgh I was told was named after my mother's
father; all I ever heard of my mother's family came to me through my
step-mother. My mother's family or ancestors were said to have been
among those followers and admirers of 'Mary' and migrated with her from
France to Scotland.

"About 20 years ago I tried to track the Dumbreck family and found one
who was a barrister in Edinburgh and one lady who was a cousin of mine
-- my mother's sister's daughter; she was a teacher in Edinburgh. She
painted for me a very pretty picture of what she called 'Lover's Lane',
but it got ruined in the transit to America and about a month ago, I
got, sent to me from New Zealand, a clipping showing her death in
Edinburgh. I got the impression that the family had been influential and
highly regarded. That's about all I know of my ancestry on my mother's
side -- not much is it?"

End quote:

We are thrilled to find this new information, sparse as it may be. Does
anything here sound familiar? Since my great-grandfather was named
Charles Dumbreck Robertson, and Charles was not a name used previously
in our Robertson family, it is not unlikely that his maternal
grandfather (Christina's father) was a Charles Dumbreck, or that her
mother was a Charlotte -- a name later given to Charles Robertson's
younger half-sister.

Have you ever heard of a place in Scotland named Dumbreck? Hugh has
found a housing estate so named in SW Glasgow, adjacent to Bellahouston
Park. Charles's letter speaks of the town near Edinburgh called
Dumbreck, but that was third-hand information, at best, which he was
recalling almost 60 years after he left Scotland, so he could have the
location wrong. What about the Episcopalian connection -- does that
ring a bell, so to speak? And were your Dumbrecks linked somehow with
"Mary" -- I assume that's Mary, Queen of Scots -- in coming over from
France?

Any information you may have about the Dumbrecks would be most
interesting to me. If you know of any person or organization who is
familiar with the Dumbreck family tree, I would like to get in touch
with them.

I hope to hear from you when you get a chance.

Sincerely,

Reuben Robertson

The Robertson family line continues in Shetland, USA, Australia, and New Zealand (info from James J. Robertson [e-mail hairball11@@hotmail.com] )

*********************************
Source www.ourrobertsons,org/4-C.html

IV. Charles Dumbreck Robertson, a product of Shetland culture and education in the mid-19th Century, left as a youngster of 18 to explore the far reaches of the world. During his lifetime, this engaging Shetland expatriate pursued interests and opportunities in an amazing variety of professions including engineering, journalism, medicine, insurance, and law. The virtues of hard work, resourcefulness and integrity that were ingrained from his upbringing brought recognition as a distinguished lawyer, jurist, civic leader and man of letters in his adopted land of America.


The only child of Christina Dumbreck and Thomas Robertson ( 3-C above), Charles was born on March 6, 1839 at Stove in Walls Parish, and was baptized there by Rev. Clarke, a Wesleyan Methodist minister. His mother died within a few days after his birth.(183)* His father Thomas Robertson was a merchant in Walls, where he owned a small fleet of fishing boats and operated a fish curing and smoking business that required frequent travel to mainland Scotland and Europe. Following Christina's death, Thomas employed a young woman from Unst named Margaret Mouat to live in the home and help take care of the child. Three years later, Margaret and Thomas were married; they eventually produced eight offspring of their own.


The first of many members of his family to emigrate from Shetland, Charles D. Robertson set out from Shetland to explore the world at the age of 18. He sailed first to India, where he found work as a surveyor and civil engineer on railway and bridge construction projects. Later he made his way to the United States, arriving there in September, 1863. Within four years he had married Cynthia Ann Buck (Hillman) and started a family. They settled in the bustling city of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the early 1870s, and here Charles forged a preeminent legal career. He died in 1919, at the age of 80.

Early Adventures

When young Charles was finishing his high school years, sailors home from the sea told of the discovery of gold on Canada's Vancouver Island, off the western coast of British Columbia. Some showed off gold nuggets they had brought back. Charles knew it was time for him to leave the comforts of home, braving the dangers of the high seas and the voyage around Cape Horn, to explore the Vancouver gold fields for himself. But money would be needed to make the trip. In 1842, when Charles was three, his father had built a 42' sailing sloop named the "Charles" and put the legal title in his name. The boat would have to be sold to pay for his passage to the New World.(184)**

With his father's reluctant approval, C.D. Robertson left home in 1857, armed with the Episcopal prayer book and watch that had belonged to his late mother. There was still a baby at home, born to his father and stepmother less than a year before; another half-sister was born three years later. It was the last time Charles would ever see his father.


When Charles arrived in mainland Scotland to board the ship for Vancouver, he learned that the scheduled departure had been delayed for several weeks. This gave him a chance to visit friends and relatives in Edinburgh in a "whirl of social enjoyment," as he later described it. But then another delay of the sailing date was announced, and his money began to run out. He was able to talk the ship's agent into refunding most of the ticket price and found work in Edinburgh to replenish dwindling funds. But the job -- door-to-door sale of subscriptions for an illustrated Bible being published in installments -- proved unrewarding, as Charles discovered how tough it was to separate skeptical Scots from their money for such a scheme.

Running out of options in Scotland, Charles made his way to London to seek advice and help from a business acquaintance of his father, who was a Member of Parliament.(185)

* His father's friend recommended that Charles get on the next ship to India, where he could find work on rail construction projects then being undertaken by the British government. He took the advice and soon was on a clipper ship bound for India.


The young man arrived in Bombay, the largest city of India, in May 1857. This was the beginning of five years of hard work, exotic life and wild adventure. On the first night ashore in this turbulent and lawless environment, the captain of his ship was killed in a hotel brawl.

India at that time had fallen into political and military turmoil, which soon led to the collapse of the East India Company that had controlled the subcontinent for over 250 years. A few days before Charles's ship landed, a bloody uprising that became known as the Sepoy Rebellion had broken out throughout India, in protest against foreign cruelty and domination of the Indian people. Hundreds of European men, women, and children were butchered by rioters and mutinous troops. When Charles landed, a secret plot had been hatched in Bombay to kill all European residents:


"There were only a handful of European soldiers in the city. ... Native detectives in the employ of the government had revealed the secrets, and were active with the real conspirators. The plans were complete, and the day and hour for the rising appointed; on the day preceding the appointed time, under pretext of some sort of a religious holiday and ceremony, most of the European women and children were taken on board the ships in the harbor. That night the European officers broke in on the conspirators, and the three leaders were captured and blown away from cannon mouths. They might have been shot or put out of existence by other more usual methods, but blowing them into eternity from a cannon had a wholesome influence on the natives. It cooled their ardor, and struck terror into their religious souls."

Despite this upheaval, Charles was accepted for employment in the civil service. He was assigned to stay in Bombay City for a few months and worked to master the basics of Hindi, the official language of northern India. He was then sent to the interior to assist in the surveying, tunneling, grading, bridge building, and other work necessary for construction of the first rail lines across the Indian subcontinent.


A newspaper feature article many years afterward described C.D. Robertson's work experience during his time in India:


"He entered the engineering service of the British government, and in the unsettled state of the country the life of a British government employee there was one of adventure and almost continuous peril of death. Young Robertson became a civil engineer and helped to push the first railroads through the jungles and plains of the Indian continent. He became especially proficient in the building of bridges, and within five years rose to the head of that branch of the service. Many of the bridges of India were constructed under his direction."

There were many adventures and dangers during Charles's years in India. One that stands out started when the young man heard one afternoon that there was a tiger lurking in a culvert a mile or two from the camp. He grabbed a rifle and some ammunition, jumped on a horse and raced off to look for the tiger. It was not to be found, but he first saw and shot at a pair of hyenas that disappeared sneering into the jungle. Then glimpsed a large antelope through a clearing. Charles tied his horse to a tree and went charging after it on foot, hoping to get a shot. Running through the jungle, the young man finally realized that he had lost his bearings, and night was falling fast; panic began to set in. "Well," he thought, "here you are, lost in an Indian jungle, miles from any human habitation, with only the stars overhead, and surrounded with wild and ferocious animals." He ended up spending the night in the jungle, seated on a pile of stones with gun in hand, his imagination fired by visions of "the glaring eyes of the hyena from every bush, the crunching bloody jaws of the wolves from every rustling, falling leaf, and the wailing of the jackal, like that of lost spirits in Dante's Inferno." Fortunately, he survived to tell the tale fifty years later.


Charles Robertson continued working in India until 1862, when he became severely ill with malarial fever that quinine medication did not relieve. He had to get away from the interior's unhealthy tropical climate at once, or die. So Charles headed back to Bombay, first by ox cart and then by train, so weak and sickly that he had to be carried on a stretcher -- "a shivering, shaking, bronze skeleton," by his later self-description.

He was able to book passage on a steamship across the Indian Ocean to Suez, where he would connect with another ship to England, planning then to return home to Shetland. At sea his health rebounded. Charles became acquainted with a fellow passenger from America, on his way home to Boston, who told of great opportunities in the United States. By the time his ship reached England, Charles had decided to continue on to America instead of going back to Shetland.


He landed in New York on September 19, 1863, and began looking for work. At that time Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States, and the nation was engulfed in Civil War between northern and southern states. Having an aptitude for writing, Charles was hired to work on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune, run by the renowned newspaperman and anti-slavery crusader Horace Greeley. Impressed by the adventurous young Shetlander, Greeley employed him to help in the preparation of a running chronicle of the Civil War, entitled The History of the American Conflict.


In New York, Charles became friends with a family who invited him to stay in their home in Brooklyn Heights. This family had wealthy relatives in northern Ohio who met the agreeable young Shetlander on a visit and, impressed with his capability and charm, offered him employment in their business. Following Horace Greeley's famous advice -- "Go West, young man" -- C.D. Robertson accepted the invitation and moved to Norwalk, Ohio.

Norwalk was a small but flourishing town near the shores of Lake Erie, less than 50 miles from Cleveland. Charles later recalled Norwalk as "One of the ideal villages of the West with its broad and spacious Main Street for miles shaded with magnificent maples, and fringed on both sides with handsome, and sometimes elegant residences, interspersed with artistic churches and commodious schools." He was offered room and board with Judge and Mrs. Samuel Worcester in Norwalk, in a home that Charles considered "the most refined and aristocratic in that part of the State."


Perhaps influenced by Judge Worcester, Charles Robertson developed a strong interest in the law and began to think about a possible career in that profession. To pursue it, however, Charles felt he needed more formal education or training in other disciplines. He therefore enrolled in the Cleveland Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio. There he became acquainted with another medical student, Jirah Dewey Buck, who introduced Charles to his recently-widowed sister Cynthia.


Charles Dumbreck Robertson died in his sleep on the night of August 28, 1919. Distinguished leaders of the bench and bar wrote of him, "It may safely be said that Judge Robertson had no enemy. He never spoke unkindly to anyone. His sunny, genial disposition; his guileless frankness, ready humor and warm heart; his deep sense of justice, personal honor and courage; his thoughtful consideration for others; his clear sense, ability and habits or industry gave him a life of happiness, usefulness and distinction. ... He never denied any man his due, and he left to those he loved the priceless heritage of an untarnished name."