In the 1750s, Robertson's attention moved from Gladsmuir to Edinburgh, a city about to undergo dramatic change, and Robertson was determined to contribute to that change. In 1752, Gilbert Elliot, who would be an important patron for Robertson, published Proposals for Carrying on Certain Public Works in the City of Edinburgh in which he captured the spirit of change at work in the city: he proposed constructing a merchant's exchange; administrative buildings for the town council, law courts, and an advocates’ library; and an extension of the city both to the north and south, giving birth to Edinburgh's New Town. These proposals, made in the spirit of patriotism and the public interest in the wake of the Jacobite Rebellion, sought to develop the strength and prosperity appropriate to Edinburgh's new role in the reaffirmed Union:

To make this vision possible, the national culture had to be enlarged and beautified, and it is here that Robertson and his like-minded colleagues thought they had found their role. For them, the immediate issue was that church institutions had to be strengthened and practices regularized to make them effective parts of a well-ordered state.