William Roberts (1767 – 21 May 1849) was an English barrister and legal writer, an evangelical journal editor and the first biographer of Hannah More.
He was educated at Eton, St Paul's and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he gained his BA in 1788 and MA in 1791.
He toured the Continent (including Paris) before returning to England and founding a short-lived biweekly journal, The Looker-on (1792-1793) under the pseudonym Rev.
He married Elizabeth Anne Sidebotham, daughter of a Middle Temple barrister, who bore him ten children.
[2] Roberts published his four-volume biography of Hannah More in 1834:[3] its hagiographic tone and editorial inaccuracy drew the scorn of John Gibson Lockhart in the Quarterly[4] but the inclusion of extended extracts from More's letters has ensured its enduring interest to those interested in More.