William Roby

William Roby (1766–1830) was an English Congregational minister.

Life Born at Haigh, near Wigan, Lancashire on 23 March 1766, he was the half-brother of the poet John Roby; his parents belonged to the Church of England. He was educated at Wigan grammar school, where his father Nehemiah Roby was master, and he himself became classical master at the grammar school of Bretherton, Lancashire.

Roby owed a change of religious belief to the preaching of John Johnson. Beginning to preach in villages round Bretherton, Roby resigned his teaching position and entered Trevecca College; but only stayed six weeks. After preaching at Worcester, Reading and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, he became Johnson's assistant at St. Paul's Chapel, Wigan. When Johnson moved on, in 1789, he became sole pastor, ordained in London on 20 September 1789.

Roby died on 11 January 1830, and was buried in his chapel-yard. His widow, Sarah Roby, died in 1835. The Roby schools at Manchester were erected in 1844 by way of memorial of him. He is also commemorated by the modern name of Grosvenor Street which is Roby Street; the renaming was in 1831.

Works Roby published sermons (from 1798) and pamphlets, including:

The Tendency of Socinianism, Wigan, 1791. A Defence of Calvinism, 1810. Lectures on … Revealed Religion, 1818 Anti-Swedenborgianism, Manchester, 1819; letters to John Clowes. Protestantism, Manchester, 1821–2, two parts. Missionary Portraits, Manchester, 1826. A selection of hymns (2nd edit., Wigan, 1799).