ROBERTS, JOHN (1823 - 1893), billiards player

Born 12 June 1823, a native of Liverpool. His parents originally came from the neighbourhood of Holywell, Flintshire, and he was himself a Welsh -speaking Welshman. He started life as a carpenter, but soon took up billiards as a career. He became a billiards marker at Oldham and later settled at Manchester, where he was the manager of the Union Club billiards room, 1845-52, and afterwards landlord of the Griffin hotel. In 1849 he challenged Edwin Kentfield for the championship of England, but when the latter declined the challenge Roberts assumed the title, which he held till 1870, when he was defeated by his own pupil, W. Cook, who was in turn defeated by Roberts's son, John Roberts, junr., in 1885. He was the author of Billiards (ed. by Henry Buck), 1869. He died 27 March 1893 at his residence near the Romford Road, Stratford, London.

Author

• Walter Thomas Morgan, (1912 - 1990)

Sources

• T. R. Roberts, Eminent Welshmen: a short biographical dictionary of Welshmen... from the earliest times to the present (1908)
• Ionawryn Williams, Geiriadur Bywgraffiadol, yn cynnwys Byr-hanes y Cymry mwyaf adnabyddus fuont yn preswylio yn Manceinion (1896)
• F. Boase, Modern English Biography containing many thousand concise memiors of persons who have died since the year 1850, with an index of the most interesting matter

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: John Roberts Sr.

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20804729

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/