Robert Abraham studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, starting his studies in 1823. He was a Member of the London College and a practising surgeon, first in London, then carlisle. He later worked as medical editor of the Llverpool Journal. He emigrated to Canada where be became editor of the Montreal Gazette, trained as a lawyer and practiced as an attorney before returning to journalism.

He made literary contributions to each of the subjects in which he studied and worked: he published articles in the London Medical and Physical Journal, including, "A Case of Sanguineous Apoplexy" (1825), and "Description of an Acephalous Foetus" (1826); while a practicing attorney, he wrote a legal tract; the made a remarkable geological discovery and published a paper entitled, "Tracks of a Chelonian Reptile in the Lower Silurian formation, at Beauharnois', (1851), its was acknowledged by Sir William Logan in Canada, and by Sir Charles Lyell in England.