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Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet

British politician (1784-1855)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ7528693 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet of Birkenbog and Forglen, FRSE, DL (4 February 1784 – 6 July 1855) was a Scottish politician and landowner.

Life

He was the son of Sir George Abercromby, 4th Baronet, and Jane Ogilvy, the daughter of Alexander Ogilvy, 7th Lord Banff. He succeeded to the titles on the death of his father in 1831. Among the properties he inherited were the main family seat, which was Forglen House in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

From 1812 to 1818 he was the Member of Parliament for Banffshire.

During the first quarter of the 19th century, Abercromby purchased most of the town and lands of Fermoy in Ireland from fellow Scotsman John Anderson. His grandson, Sir Robert John Abercromby, 7th Baronet is recorded as the owner of 434 acres of land in County Cork during the 1870s.

In 1822 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being David Brewster. He was a Deputy lieutenant for Banffshire and Kirkcudbrightshire.

In 1839 he commissioned Aberdeen architect John Smith to totally remodel Forglen House.

Editorial summary

“Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet” enters the record as british politician (1784-1855). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robert, Abercromby and Baronet can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1784, 1855, 1831, 1812—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1784-02-04. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Robert, Abercromby and Baronet.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Robert, Abercromby and Baronet provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7528693. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1784, 1855, 1831 and 1812.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet primary sources, Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.