CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

William Shaftoe Robertson

19th-century actor

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 revisionMar 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ79234263 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Shaftoe Robertson (c. 1799–1872) 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. As a young man, he began acting with his family in the Lincoln circuit. After his aunt retired in 1843, he became manager of the eight theatres in the circuit. In the 1850s, he moved his large family to London and became joint manager of the Marylebone Theatre and appeared there on stage. He continued to act in provincial theatres until retiring in 1867. His famous children include T. W. Robertson and Madge Kendal.

Early 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.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Shaftoe Robertson” as 19th-century actor. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1799, 1872, 1843, 1867—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where William, Shaftoe and Robertson can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as 19th-century actor. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q79234263. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1799, 1872, 1843 and 1867.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Shaftoe Robertson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Shaftoe Robertson primary sources, William Shaftoe Robertson archive and William 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

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Shaftoe Robertson”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Shaftoe Robertson” 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.