Liverpool. He was also a Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for Lancashire, a trustee of the Liverpool Union Mill and Bread Company and a member of the Health Committee. Commercial interests In the fullness of time after his marriage, Robertson obtained a partnership in Heywood's Bank, where his father-in-law was a partner. In August 1845 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Grand Junction Railway and was also on the committee of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway. Robertson was part owner in plantations in West Indies and Mauritius, as well as the Trent Valley line, Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and several other rail lines. He was the first President of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association after it was instituted at 6 York Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool on 20 April 1848., a body which was noted as "the most persistent and single-minded free trade body England had ever known". Robertson inherited his father's Liverpool firm after John Gladstone's death in 1851. His Gladstonian principle of thrift and self-help for financial reform can be neatly summarised in the following notice of 2 February 1852: Gladstone purchased the patronage of St Andrew's Church in Renshaw Street, Liverpool, a church which was built by his father. He was also the owner of 24 Abercromby Square which is now part of the University of Liverpool. Robertson owned many properties in Liverpool's bourgeois merchant district, all of which were sold at auction on his death. Five years after marriage he became more tolerant of religious difference, in contrast to William's High Anglicanism. Perhaps this was partly due to localism in his character, and partly his wife's unitarian background in nonconformity. But in any event it did not impair the success of his commercial ventures. He developed the land north of Seaforth that was used for the new dockyards, while the house itself was allowed go derelict. The deal put together in late 1853 with partner, brother William resumed their old friendship in the city of their birth. The family-minded celebrated the two churches father, John had built, confirming the Gladstones infinite capacity for nostalgia. He lost around £6,000 of his brother William's share of the Seaforth estate. Later life and death He died on 23 September 1875 at Court Hey. Much of his extensive property portfolio was sold at a Liverpool auction the following year between 7 and 9 February. This included dozens of homes