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Joseph Robertson was born in Aberdeen in 1810, and was educated at the Grammar School and at Marischal College in Aberdeen. He became an apprentice advocate and soon took to writing on local sites and antiquities. He was co-founder of the Spalding Club (est. Aberdeen, 1839), with his friend John Stuart, lawyer and historian and had a reputation there as an exact editor of the historical records it was formed to publish. From contributions to local papers he moved into journalism as his profession, editing the 'Glasgow Constitutional' (1843 - 1849) and the 'Edinburgh Courant' (1849 - 1853).
In that year he was appointed to a post in Register House, Edinburgh (now the National Archives of Scotland) and was principal keeper of the register of deeds from 1873. While there he carried out work on the possessions of Mary, Queen of Scots and on the records of the Church of Scotland, both valuable publications. He died in 1866, and his widow received a pension from the Queen in recognition of his services to Scottish history.
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