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Roberts is a patronymic name from the personal name Robert that was introduced to England by the Normans.  It appeared as Rodbertus, Rotbert, and Robert in the Domesday Book.

Select Roberts Resources on The Internet

• Roberts Family Tree.  Roberts from Wales to Pennsylvania.
• Margaret Roberts of Llanbrynmair.  Margaret Roberts from Wales to America and back.
• Governor Thomas Roberts of New Hampshire.  Governor Roberts' possible ancestry.

England and Wales.  Roberts emerged as a surname in the latter part of the 13th century.  An early record was Richard Roberdes in the 1327 Worcestershire subsidy rolls.  It is to be found in both England and Wales.

1891 UK Census	Numbers (000's)	Percent
England	78	68
Wales	34	30
Scotland	2	2
Total	114	100

The name became particularly common in Clwyd in NW Wales (formerly Denbighshire) - where the pronounciation has tended to be "Robaits" - and then in Lancashire where there was a strong connection through trade and the movement of people. 

Gabriel Roberts was an early Welsh trader in Beaumaris who bought produce in Chester for the local populace in Anglesey.  Later, John Roberts from Llanwrst would move to Liverpool in the 1850's to build up a timber business there.  He returned to Wales to be an MP.  Another John Roberts, from Anglesey, prospered in Manchester as a merchant and was Lord Mayor there in 1896.

There were Roberts lines elsewhere in England.  The name William Rookherst alias Roberts appeared in the 12th century in Goodhurst, Kent.  Thomas Roberts (whose family later became baronets) was sheriff of Kent in 1557.  Some Huguenot families fleeing France were called Robert and later adopted the anglicized Roberts.

Ireland.  There was a well-known Roberts family in Waterford.  Thomas Roberts was "a Welshman of property" who settled there in 1680.  His grandson John was an architect responsible for many of Waterford's structures today, including its Cathedral.  Field Marshal Earl Roberts came from this family.

America.  Thomas Roberts from Woolaston in Worcestershire was an early arrival in New England.  In 1683 the Welshman John Roberts acquired land from William Penn as part of the Welsh tract in the Lower Merion township.  He named his property Pencoyd after his family home back in Wales.  His family started the Pencoyd Iron Works which has continued, albeit with different owners, until today.

Roberts in America may be of English, Welsh or even possibly of Jewish origin (from like-sounding Jewish names that have been americanized).

Bartholomew Roberts, known as Black Bart, was the Welsh pirate who raided shipping in the Americas in the early 1700's.
Frederick Roberts, later Earl Roberts, was one of the most successful British Army generals during the Victorian era.  He was of Anglo-Irish stock.
Elizabeth Anne Roberts was one of the first female missionaries (in the 1880's) of the Presbyterian Church in Wales.