Robert Somers

Robert Somers (1822–1891) was a Scottish journalist and author.

Life The son of Robert Somers and his wife, Jane Gordon Gibson, he was born at Newton Stewart in Wigtownshire, on 14 September 1822, of English extraction on his father's side and Scottish on his mother's. In early life he was known as a lecturer on social and political questions.

In 1844 Somers published a pamphlet Scottish Poor Laws, containing a criticism of the Poor Law Amendment Act then passing through parliament. After its publication he became editor of the Scottish Herald, a weekly newspaper then being started in Edinburgh. It was shortly managed with The Witness edited by Hugh Miller, whose colleague and assistant Somers became.

He became a recognised authority on monetary and commercial questions, published pamphlets dealing with banking, education, and labour issues, and contributed articles in these areas to the Encyclopædia Britannica ninth edition. He also wrote:

Letters from the Highlands (London, 1848). Sheriff Court Reform, or Cheap and Speedy Justice, Edinburgh, 1853. Results of an Inquiry into the State of Education in Glasgow, London and Glasgow, 1857. The Secular Theory of Education examined, Edinburgh, 1872. The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872, with notes, London, 1873, Scotch Banks and their System of Issue, London, 1873. The Martyr of Glencree, historical romance, London, 1878.