Donald Robertson's School

OB-19

Donald Robertson (1717-1783), born and educated in Scotland, established a private boarding school on his farm near here by 1758. Among his students were James Madison, fourth president of the United States and “Father of the Constitution,” and Brig. Gen. George Rogers Clark, militia commander in the Old Northwest during the Revolutionary War. Madison attended the school between the ages of 11 and 16 and later described Robertson as “a man of extensive learning, and a distinguished Teacher.” Instructing both boys and girls, Robertson provided a classical education influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment. He operated his highly respected school for at least 15 years.

Department of Historic Resources, 2018

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Donald Robertson Account Book (1758-1775), Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Richmond, VA. “Biographical Notes on James Madison’s Life, Copied by John Coles Payne and Sent to John Quincy Adams,” 3 August 1836, in Dolley Madison Digital Edition, ed. Holly C. Shulman (Charlotteville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2004). James Madison: Autobiography, Dec. 1830, in Founders Early Access, University of Virginia Press. Isaac Robertson to James Madison, 17 March 1804, Founders Online. Merrill D. Peterson, James Madison, A Biography in His Own Words, vol. 1 (New York: Newsweek Book Division, 1974). J. Handly Wright, “The Remarkable Scholars of Donald Robertson,” The Bulletin of the King and Queen County Historical Society of Virginia (Jan. 1978). Elizabeth S. Gray, “Donald Robertson and His School in King and Queen County,” The Bulletin of the King and Queen County Historical Society of Virginia (Jan. 1963). Irving Brant, The Fourth President: A Life of James Madison (Indianapolis and New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1970). Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1971). Anthony W. Smith, “Report on Archaeological Investigation of the Robertson School Site, King and Queen County, Virginia” (Williamsburg: James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc., 2012). John H. Gwathmey, Twelve Virginia Counties Where the Western Migration Began (Richmond, 1937). Gary Wills, Explaining America: The Federalist (Garden City: Doubleday, 1981). http://www.kingandqueenmuseum.org/donald-robertsons-school/ William Kyle Anderson, Donald Robertson and His Wife Rachel Rogers (Detroit: Win and Hammond, 1900). Roy Branson, “James Madison and the Scottish Enlightenment,” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 40, no. 2 (Apr.-June 1979): 235-250.