ROBERT, Joseph Thomas, clergyman, born in Beaufort district, South Carolina, 28 November, 1807; died in Atlanta, Georgia, 5 March, 1884. He was graduated at Brown in 1828 and at South Carolina medical college in 1832, after studying two years at Yale. In 1834 he was ordained pastor of the Baptist church in Robertsville, South Carolina, but he soon removed to Kentucky. After several brief pastorates he became in 1864 professor of languages in Iowa state university, and in 1869 he was made president of Burlington university in the same state. In 1871 he took charge of the Augusta institute for the training of colored ministers, and when this institute was removed in 1879 to Atlanta, and incorporated with the Atlanta Baptist seminary, he was made its president. In this service he continued until his death. The degree of LL.D. was given him by Denison university in 1869.--His son, Henry Martyn, soldier, born in Beaufort district, South Carolina, 2 May, 1837, was graduated at the United States military academy in 1857. He received his commission with the rank of lieutenant in the corps of engineers, and has ever since remained in that service. Soon after his graduation he was appointed assistant professor of natural philosophy at West Point, but he was subsequently transferred to the department of practical engineering. In 1858 he was stationed at Fort Vancouver, and during the northwest boundary difficulties between this country and Great Britain he had charge of the construction of defences on San Juan island. At the beginning of the civil war, though of southern birth and with all his relatives in the south, Colonel Robert unhesitatingly espoused the Union cause. He served on the staff of General McClellan, and assisted in building the fortifications around Washington. He was subsequently employed in similar services at Philadelphia and New Bedford, Massachusetts He was promoted captain in 1863, and at the close of the war he was placed again at the head of the department of practical engineering at West Point, where he remained till 1867. In that year he was made major, and in 1871, with headquarters at, Portland, he had charge of the fortifications, lighthouses, and harbor and river improvements in Oregon and Washington territory. He was transferred in 1873 to Milwaukee, and assigned to a like duty on Lake Michigan. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1883, and is now (1888) superintendent of river and harbor improvements and de-fences in the district of Philadelphia. Colonel Robert is the author of " Robert's Rules o[ Order" (Chicago, 1876)and has supervised the preparation of "An Index to the Reports of the Chief Engineers or the United States of America on River and Harbor Improvements" (vol. i., to 1879, Washington, 1881; vol. it., to 1887, in preparation).