John Robison

John Robison (February 4, 1739 - January 30, 1805) was a Scottish mechanical philosopher who was variously employed on the Board of Longitude (1762), as a professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow (1766-1770), a mathematics instructor to the Naval Cadet Corps at Kronstadt, Russia (1770-1773), professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh (1773-), and General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1783-1798).

In his later years, Robison became a strident anti-Mason and conspiracy theorist, publishing a treatise entitled Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried on in Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies (Edinburgh, 1797).