William Robertson Coe (June 8, 1869 – March 15, 1955) was an insurance, railroad and business executive, as well as a collector of Americana and an important philanthropist for the academic discipline of American Studies.

Early life

William Coe was born in Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England. His father, Frederick Augustus Coe, was then cashier in a local iron works, but later became manager. His mother, Margaret Robertson, was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. Coe received his early schooling at Albion Academy in Cardiff, Wales. At the start of the 1880s, his family resided in Gloucester, where Coe was confirmed at the local cathedral. In 1883, his parents and their ten children (William was fifth of the ten) emigrated to the United States and settled in New Jersey across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

Career

Insurance

At the age of 15, William began working as an office boy for a Philadelphia insurance broker. The brokerage was acquired by Johnson and Higgins Insurance Co., and Coe rose to become a manager of the adjusting (claims) department in the New York City office of the maritime insurer. As a young widower following the death of his first wife, during a cruise to England in 1900, he met Mai Rogers, the youngest daughter of industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, a key man in Standard Oil.

William Robertson or Bill Robertson may refer to:

Public officials

William Robertson (1705–1783) was an Irish clergyman, known as a theological writer and schoolmaster. Theophilus Lindsey wrote of Robertson as "the father of unitarian nonconformity".

Early life

He was born in Dublin on 16 October 1705. His father was a linen manufacturer, of Scottish birth, who had married in England Diana Allen. In 1717 he went to school at Dublin under Francis Hutcheson. On 4 March 1723 he matriculated at Glasgow University, graduated M.A. on 29 April 1724, and studied divinity under John Simson.

Expulsion from university

In 1725 came a crisis in a long-standing dispute between the Glasgow students and John Stirling, the principal. Stirling had appointed Hugh Montgomery of Hartfield as rector, ignoring the students' right to elect. Robertson and William Campbell of Mamore (younger brother of John Campbell) presented to Stirling a petition signed by some sixty students, demanding a university meeting for 1 March to elect a rector according to the statute. On its rejection, the petitioners went in a body on 1 March to Montgomery's house, when Robertson read a protest against his authority.

William Robertson (4 March 1864 – 5 April 1912) was a New Zealand cricketer who played first-class cricket for Canterbury from 1894 to 1901 and played in New Zealand's first representative matches.

An off-spinner who opened the bowling, on his first-class debut for Canterbury against Auckland in January 1894 Robertson took 8 for 59 then, bowling unchanged throughout the second innings, 6 for 48. In his next match he took 6 for 72 (unchanged again) and 2 for 72. Selected for New Zealand's first representative match in February 1894, he was New Zealand's outstanding player, taking 6 for 76 and 4 for 73 in a 160-run loss to New South Wales. He then took seven wickets against Otago and eight against Hawke's Bay to give him 47 wickets in five matches at an average of 12.12. He was New Zealand's leading wicket-taker for the season.

After taking only one wicket in the first match in 1894-95, he then took 4 for 65 and 9 for 98 against Wellington, 6 for 54 and 5 for 40 against Fiji, and four wickets against Otago, to finish with 29 wickets at 14.00. He was New Zealand's joint leading wicket-taker for the season.