| Honorific-Prefix: | The Reverend |
| Death Date: | 1819 (aged ~59) |
| Religion: | Anglican |
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College Dublin |
| Peter Roberts | |
| Rector of Halkin, Flintshire | |
Peter Roberts (–1819) was a Welsh Anglican divine and antiquary. He graduated MA at Dublin, was ordained, and held successively several livings. His chief works were Sketch of the Early History of the Cymry, 1803, and Cambrian Popular Antiquities, 1815.
Peter Roberts, son of John Roberts, was born about 1760 at Tai'n y Nant, Ruabon, Denbighshire. His father, a clockmaker, moved in a few years after his birth to Wrexham, where Roberts was educated at the grammar school, then under Edward Davies. When about fifteen he entered St. Asaph grammar school as pupil assistant to Peter Williams. Through the Irish pupils in the school he became known to Henry Ussher, afterwards professor of astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, who procured him admission as a sizar to that university.[1]
Having graduated MA, he remained in Dublin as a private tutor, studying especially oriental languages and astronomy. His proficiency in the latter subject gave him some hope of succeeding his friend and patron, Ussher; but the appointment of John Brinkley in 1792 led to his devoting himself to the career of a family tutor, an occupation he followed for many years. Two of his pupils, Lords Lanesborough and Bolton, in course of time assigned him a pension, which enabled him to give all his time to study.[2]
In 1811 Bishop Cleaver gave him the rectory of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, and in 1814 he was presented by Lord Crewe to the vicarage of Madeley, Shropshire. In December 1818 he exchanged Llanarmon for the rectory of Halkin, Flintshire, but soon after settling there died of apoplexy on either 21[3] or 30[4] May 1819. His monument in the church styles him in legibus, moribus, institutis, annalibus, poesi, musica gentis Cambro-Britannicæ instructissimus ('most instructed in the laws, manners, institutions, annals, poetry, and music of the Welsh-British race').
His chief works were:
Other works were published by him on the origin of constellations, the art of correspondence, prophecy, and the church of Rome. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Roberts was a scholar of wide reading but inferior judgment and the Cambrian Popular Antiquities, dealing with Welsh rustic customs and superstitions, is his most valuable contribution to letters.
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