Darlington, 1879

Keighley, Arthur Montague (b. 1842), of humble family of twelve, Sunday school education, railway porter, station master at Bredon, pub. The emigrant and other poems, with short essays on the seasons (Keighley and London, 1866). Ref: Reilly (2000), 252-3.

Keith, Don (b. 1848), of Stracathro, Brechin, agricultural labourer, spent two years in America, returned and became gamekeeper at Brechin Castle; poems include ‘To a Brither Bar’. Ref: Edwards, 4, 192-5. [S]

Kelly, James (1848-79), of Cambusnethan, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, blacksmith’s son, printer, pub. The Printers’ carnival, and other poems (Airdrie: Love and Duncan, 1875); brother to John Liddell Kelly (qv). Ref: Edwards, 1, 204-8; Knox, 144-8 (gives dates as 1846-77); Reilly (2000), 253. [S]

Kelly, Joan (fl. 1884), of Irvine, Ayrshire, posthumous child, daughter of a poor sick-nurse; lived with her mother, later a permanent invalid in the poorhouse. According to Kelly, her verses were composed while ‘trying to expell rebellious thoughts from my mind’; pub. Miscellaneous poems (Irvine: Charles Murchland, ‘Irvine Herald’ Office, 1884); Poems include ‘Thoughts Upon Oppressing the Poor,’ ‘To a Young Gentleman Returning to America,’ ‘A Dialogue. Lines Upon a Young Lady Going to India,’ ‘On the Wreck of a Vessel,’ ‘Wee Jock and His Granny,’ and ‘On the Death of a Fair Young Girl.’ According to Edwards her works were reviewed by W. B. R. Wilson, of Dollar, in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald. Ref: Edwards, 15, 333-7; Reilly (1994), 256; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

? Kelly, John Liddell (1850-1925), of Cambusnethan, Wishaw, Lanarkshire, blacksmith’s son, newspaper editor, emigrated to New Zealand as a journalist. Ref: Edwards, 1, 204-8; Knox, 149-58. [S]

? Kennedy, James, author of Treason!!! Or, Not Treason!!! Alias the Weaver’s Budget (1795: BL 992.h.22(2)). Ref: Lonsdale (1984), 802-4, 856n, ESTC. Involved in Friends of the People in Edinburgh in 1793; Johnson, item 506 poss. relates. [S]

Kennedy, James (b. 1848), of Carsegowrie, Forfarshire, farm labourer and agitator, father died young, left school at 12 and got an apprenticeship as a machinist in Dundee, emigrated to USA, travelled widely, lived in New York, pub. poems in periodicals and several vols in America. Ref: Ross, 38-46; Edwards, 6, 213-22. [S]

Kennedy, John (1789-1833), born in Kilmarnock, Scottish poet and weaver; published collection titled Fancy's Tour with the Genius of Cruelty, and other Poems in 1826; The Poetical Works of John Kennedy (Ayr, 1818). Ref: DNB, ODNB. [S]

Kennedy, Thomas (b. 1823), of Cowgate, Galashiels, Selkirkshire, weaver, pub. Poems (Galashiels, 1889). Ref: Reilly (1994), 258, Murdoch, 207-11. [S]

? Kenrick, William (1725?-1779), son of a staymaker, apprentice to a mathematical instrument maker, misc. writer, worked as reviewer, playwright and translator. Pub. The Town (1748), Old Woman's Dunciad (1751), The Pasquinade (1753), Monody to the Memory of … Frederick Prince of Wales (1751), The Whole Duty of Woman (1753), Fun: a Parodi-Tragi-Comical Satire (1752), Epistles to Lorenzo (1756; substantially expanded as Epistles Philosophical and Moral, 1759), and A Scrutiny, or, The Criticks Criticis'd (1759). Ref: ODNB; Sutton, 538-9 (plays and letter).

? Kent, John (b. 1860), of Paisley, messenger, compositor, stationer, pub. poems in the newspapers. Ref: Brown, II, 488-97; Edwards, 15, 63-7. [S]

? Kenworthy, Charles, of Manchester, a poet apparently of humble origin who pub. by subscription Original Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (Manchester: Cave and Sever, nd [1847]). The ‘Second Edition, Enlarged’ is ‘Printed by Wm. Francis Jackson, New Bailey Street, and sold by the author, No. 2, Railway Street, Oldham Road’, the title page has a quotation from Beattie, ‘Song was his favourite and first pursuit. / The wild harp rang to his adventurous hand, / And languished to his breath the plaintive flute. / His infant muse, though artless, was not mute—/And Heaven enlarged his heart in riper years; / For Nature gave him strength and fire, to soar / On fancy’s wing’, followe by a subscription list including Sir Elkanah Armitage, John Bright MP and the Rt. Hon. T. M. Gibson MP (two copies each), the Earl of Ellesmere, and the mayors of Manchester and Salford. Keworthy’s ‘Introductory Stanzas’ invites the ‘bards of th’ Aonian mount’ to ‘aid a bard Parnassus’ steep to climb ... Nor let chill Want repress the rapture of his Muse’. There is a poem on the death of Princess Charlotte dated 1817, two poems to the singer Jenny Lind (a subscriber), and among section of memorial poems, one ‘On the Death of Robert Rose, The Bard of Colour’ (Rose was a West Indian-born poet who lived in Salford and was Vice-chairman of one of the ‘Sun Inn’ group, hence the poet’s opening address, ‘Bard of the Western Isles’.) Ref: John Hart Catalogue 69, item 167; 2nd edn of the poems via www.archive.org.

Kerr, Alexander (b. 1879), of Riggend, miner, descendant of weavers, freemason, retired from mining due to ill-health. Ref: Knox, 280-1. [S]

Kerr, Hugh (1815-93), of Stewarton, Ayrshire, shoemaker, pub. vols. c. 1843 and 1883. Ref: Edwards, 15, 418-20. [S]

Kerr, Robert (1811-48), of Midtown, Spottes, the Urr poet, farm labourer, three short poems in ‘Bards of Galloway’ 1888; Trans. Dumfr. Gall. Nat. Hist. Antiq. Soc., 3 ser 21; his works were collected in Maggie o’ the Moss: and other Poems, ed. with a memoir by Malcolm McLelan Harper (Dalbeattie: Thomas Fraser, 1891). Ref: sources as cited; Harper, 252; John Hart catalogue 69, item 168. [S]

? Kidd, John G. (b. 1857), of New Galloway, assistant postmaster, moved to Newcastle upon Tyne. Ref: Edwards, 7, 336-8. [S]

Kilpatrick, Hugh (‘Eagle Eye’, 1832-1909), Paisley weaver and manufacturer, emigrated to America and returned, pub. The Death of Wallace or the Spectre of Elderslie and Other Poems (Paisley, 1909) and poems in Brown. Ref: Brown, II, 183-86; Leonard, 337-9. [S]

King, Daniel (1844-91 or -92), of Glasgow, orphaned herdboy, shipyard foreman-riveter, freemason, pub. The Auchmountain warbler: songs, poems &c. (Paisley, Edinburgh and London); ‘Tongue Discipline’ is in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 9, 244-8; Leonard, 330-1; Reilly (1994), 260. [S]

King, James (1776–1849), of Paisley, trained as weaver, served in military, pub. pieces in periodicals. Ref: Brown, I, 114-20. [S]

King, Jessie Margaret, ‘Marguerite’ (b. 1862), of Bankfoot, Perthshire; father died when she was in her teens, and she was forced to work in an office in village, and later joined the staff of the Dundee Advertiser. Pub. poems in the Dundee Evening Telegraph and the People’s Friend. Her poems include ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ ‘O, Wind of the West,’ ‘Life and Death,’ and ‘The Perfidious Sea.’ Ref: Edwards, 11, 270; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

King, John (1779-1837), of Paisley, weaver, periodical publications. Ref: Brown, I, 134-41. [S]

King, John, of Lincolnshire and Scarborough, farm labourer in Lincolnshire; as a boy, pub. Rustic Lays (Scarborough, c. 1863); Sprays, Leaflets and Blossoms (London and Scarborough, 1869); Hebeora (London and Scarborough, 1872); Rustic Pictures and Broken Rhymes (London and Scarborough, 1874). Ref: Reilly (2000), 257.

King, Robert (b. 1812), of Paisley, weaver, later school teacher. Ref: Brown, I, 481-88. [S]

Kinlay, James (b. 1838), of Cupar Fife, house-painter. Ref: Edwards, 14, 226-29. [S]

Kirby, Charles, ‘The Wharfedale Poet’ (b. 1843), of Tadcaster, Yorkshire, cattle-trader boy, joiner, asylum inmate in later life, lived in Leeds; pub. Wharfedale Poems (Leeds, 1870); Word Pictures (Leeds, 1874); A Royal Wreath (London and Leeds, 1875). Ref: Reilly (2000), 258.

Kirkland, Daniel (b. 1833), of Brechin, weaver. Ref: Edwards, 15, 190-3. [S]

? Kirkland, Thomas (d. 1863), master mason, butcher; pub. Nineteen Original Songs (1813). Ref: Brown, I, 235-37. [S]

Knight, William (b. 1824), of Keith, shoemaker, later worked in a law office, became a wanderer. Ref: Edwards, 1, 193-6. [S]

Knight, William, shoemaker of new Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, pub. The Valley of the Isla: a descriptive poem (Peterhead, 1864). Ref: Reilly (2000), 260. [S]

Knott, John (d. 1840), of Sheffield, author of ‘Tom Topsail’, ‘Ben Block’ and other popular songs; died in the workhouse. ‘Tom Topsail’ is printed in a section of largely unattributed ‘Miscellaneous Songs Related to Sheffield’ in The Songs of Joseph Mather (1862), 109-10; the editor John Wilson attributes the song and regrets in a footnote that such a capable songmaker should have died in poverty. Ref as cited.

? Knowles, Herbert (1798-1817), young poet born near Leeds of humble parentage, orphaned, pub. The Three Tabernacles (Lines Written in the Churchyard in Richmond, Yorkshire), (written 1816, pub. posthumously, 1818). Ref: Miles, X, 683.

Knox, Anna (b. 1823), of Leith Walk, Edinburgh, gardener’s daughter, received a limited education. An injury caused by a fall rendered her bedridden for 25 years. She moved with her family to Greenock, where her health improved somewhat, and later emigrated with them to New Zealand, but she wished to return and despite the difficulties of doing so, returned to her native land., pub. Effusions from a sick bed: or, Israel in sorrow, Israel in joy, and other poems (Glasgow, 1840; 1886); Poems by Anna Knox (Brechin: D. H. Edwards, 1898); poems include ‘The Sea Foundling,’ ‘The Sailor Boy,’ ‘The Emigrant’s Child’s Grave,’ ‘Slavery,’ ‘Mary’s Love,’ ‘The Covenanter’s Clover,’ ‘Resignation,’ ‘The Old Chest’ and ‘The Reading Wife,’ the latter quite unusual in subject. Ref: Edwards, 14, 361-6; Reilly (2000), 260; Johnson 46, no. 206; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Knox, Isabella Craig (‘Isa’, 1831-1903), of Edinburgh, hosier’s daughter, orphaned in childhood, left school at ten, became a journalist, lived in Edinburgh and London feminist and social campaigner. She won first prize for an ode on Robert Burns and her poem was recited at the Burns Centenary to a crowd of 6,000 at the Crystal Palace. Pub. Poems by Isa (1856); Duchess Agnes. etc. (London, 1864), Songs of Consolation (London, 1874); Poems: an Offering to Lancashire (1863); Duchess Agnes, a Drama, and Other Poems (1864); and Little Folk's History of England (1872). Contributed to Fraser's, Good Words, and The Quiver. Ref: ODNB; Reilly (2000), 260; Copsey (2002), 100. [F] [S]

Knox, Jane Ogden (fl. 1870), of Fifekeith, Keith, Banffshire, no formal education; her poems are entirely religious. In her preface she comments, ‘Whatever slips the keen-eyed critic may descry--either in metre or in measure, he must needs excuse; for in my earlier days there were no Education Bills; and, what was worse, so far as I was concerned, I got no education. To one labouring under these disadvantages, the indulgence sought may not be unneeded, and in most cases, I presume, will be readily granted’; pub. Religious Poetry, on Various Subjects (Keith: A. Brown, 1870). Ref: Reilly (2000), 260; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Knox, Thomas (1818-79), of Greenlaw, haberdasher, labour agitator, temperance advocate; pub. Rhymed Convictions in Songs, Hymns, and Recitations for Social Meetings, and Recitations for Social Meetings and Firesides (London); Scottish Temperance Songs to Scottish Airs (Paisley, 1880). Ref: Edwards, 9, 107-16; Crockett, 173-78. [S]

Knox, William (1789-1825), farmer poet, correspondent and ‘dissolute friend of Scott’, pub. The Lonely Hearth and Other Poems (North Shields, 1818); Songs of Israel (Edinburgh, 1824); The Harp of Zion (1825). Ref: ODNB; Shanks, 135-8; Edwards, 15, 164-6 and 16, [lix]; Johnson, item 518; Sutton, 551 (misc. letters). [S]

Kydd, Samuel, of Arbroath, shoemaker, Chartist, ‘known as the chronicler of the Factory Movement’ wrote poems ‘occasionally’, pub. in Cooper’s Journal. [S] [C]

Lackington, James (1746-1815), shoemaker poet, oral ballad composer, before enormous success as bookseller; pub. Memoirs of the First Forty-five Years of James Lackington (1791) and The Confessions of J. Lackington (1804), expressing regret for his criticism of Methodism. Ref: ODNB.

Lahee, Margaret Rebecca (1831-95), Lancashire dialect poet and prose writer, born in Ireland, apprenticed to a Rochdale milliner and dressmaker, author of immensely popular works like ‘Owd Neddy Fitton’s Visit to Earl of Derby’ and ‘Owd Robin’. Ref Taryn Hakala, ‘M.R. Lahee and the Lancashire Lads: Gender and Class in Victorian Lancashire Dialect Writing’, Philological Quarterly, 92, no. 2 (Spring 2013), 271-88. [F] [I]

? Laidlaw, William (b.1779-1845), of Yarrow, Selkirkshire, farmer’s son, poet, amanuensis and land-stewart to Sir Walter Scott, described in James Hogg's (qv) memoir, author of the song ‘Lucy’s Flittin’’; published in periodicals. Ref: ODNB; Wilson, II, 35-37; Borland, 147-51; Shanks, 138-41: Douglas, 300-01. [S]

Laing, Alexander (1787-1857), ‘the Brechin poet’, apprenticed to flax-dresser, and worked as one for 14 years; contributed to miscellanies and newspapers; edited Burns and Tannahill. Manuscripts of Wayside Flowers (MS. 7181) and his poem “Monody on the death of David Robertson” (1854, MS. 14303, f.120) are held at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Manuscripts of letters and miscellaneous poems held at the University of Glasgow (in MSS Robertson 16, 17, and 19). Pub. The Harp of Caledonia (1819); Wayside Flowers (1846, 2nd edn, 1850). Ref: Wilson, II, 93-8; Johnson, items 520-22; Edwards, 2, 273-80; Sutton, 552. [S]

Laing, Alexander (b. 1840), of Forres, Morayshire, agricultural worker, nurseryman, pub. in local papers. Ref: Edwards, 6, 147-53. [S]

Laing, Allan S. (b. 1857), of Dundee, of a humble family, working from age 10, upholsterer, businessman, pub. poems in the People’s Friend and in Murdoch. Ref: Edwards, 12, 59-65; Murdoch, 427-30. [S]

? La Mont, Eugene, popular Chartist poet. Ref: Kovalev, 72-73, Scheckner, 224-5, 337-8. [C]

Lamberton, William (b. 1828), of Larch Bank, Kilmaurs, shoemaker, teacher and lay preacher. Ref: Edwards, 10, 375-9. [S]

Lamborn, Edward (b. 1787), of Uffington, illegitimate son of an illiterate woman, grew up in poverty, labourer, broadside balladeer, ordered with his family into the Faringdon Poor Law Union workhouse in 1835, author of ‘The New Poor law and the Farmer’s Glory’, an important indictment of the workhouse system, experienced first hand. Ref: Hepburn, I, 22-3, 163-5.

Lamont, Duncan (b. 1842), of Lochgilphead, Argyllshire, blacksmith in Greenock, pub. Poems and Songs (Greenock, 1895). Ref: Edwards, 9, 303-10; Reilly (1994), 265. [S]

Lake, John, tailor (1792-1836), pub. The Golden Glove, or the Farmer’s Son, a Comedy in five acts, with some poetical sketches (London, 1815); The Retired Lieutenant and The Battle of Loncarty: Poems, by John Lane, Author of The Golden Glove, etc. (London: John Hatchard and Son, 1836); Criticism and Taste, A Satire in Verse (Pall Mall: C. Chappel, 1834). Ref: 1836 vol. online at archive.org; COPAC; Kord, 47; inf. Tim Burke.

Lane, William (b. 1744), ‘a poor labouring man’ of Flackwell-Heath, High Wycombe, Bucks., pubs include Poems on the following subjects...with several detached pieces... (Reading and London, 1798, further edition or collection of 1806). Ref: LC 3, 215-32; Johnson, item 524; Jarndyce, item 1427; Johnson 46, nos. 305-6; Keegan (2008), 80-93. [LC 3]

Langford, John Alfred (1823-1903), of Birmingham, chairmaker, pub. in Howitt’s Journal and elsewhere; Religion, Scepticism and Infidelity (1850), Religion and Education in Relation to the People (1852), The Lamp of Life (1855), Poems of the Field and Town (1859), and historical works on Birmingham. Ref: Poole, 248-50.

Langton, Millicent, of Leicester, Sunday school educated factory worker; pub. Musings of the Work-room (Leicester, 1865). Ref: Reilly (2000), 266. [F]

? Lapage, Edward (b. Sept. 3rd 1839), of Bridge St., Bradford, son of George Lapage, wool buyer for mesrs Walker; a woolsorter who durng his apprenticeship attended evening classes at the Bradford Mechanic’s Institute ‘where he made great progress’. Holroyd includes his poem ‘To Romilies Moor’ and tells a sentimental story of Lapage on his deathbed asking to be raised up to see hs beloved moor before he died. Ref Holroyd, 132-3.

Latto, William Duncan (1823-99), ‘Tammas Bokdin’, of Ceres, Fife, handloom weaver, teacher, wrote for Peoples’ Journal; pub. The Twa Bulls: A Metrical Tale, for the Times (Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife and Montrose, c. 1860). Ref: Edwards, 3, 37-42; Reilly (2000), 27. [S]

Lauder, James (b. 1841), of Leith, Midlothian, blacksmith’s son, street musician in Leith, wrote for The Scotsman; pub. Warblings of a Caged Bird (Leith, 1870). Ref: Edwards, 6, 362-6; Reilly (2000), 267. [S]

Law, Samuel (fl. 1772-1783), weaver, of Barewise, Lancashire, author of A Domestic Winter-Piece, or, a Poem exhibiting a full view of the Author’s Dwelling Place in the Winter-Season, in Two Parts (Leeds 1772, Dobell 2993, BL T. 349(4)). Law describes himself as a ‘poor, mean and contemptible Weaver, who did not so much as know the alphabet perfectly well, when my twenty-first annual sun rolled away’. He was self-taught and modelled his poem on Thomson’s Seasons. Ref: LC 2, 265-72; DNB; Dobell; ESTC; E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (1963), 324; Keegan (2003); Croft & Beattie, II, 34 (item 121). [LC 2]

Law, William, of Bagshot, forester, pub. A Forest Ramble, with a Description of a Royal Stag Hunt, and Characteristic Sketches of all the Masters of the Staghounds during his Present Majesty’s Reign; with Notices of Several Well-known Characters in the Forest of Windsor (London: J. Pittman, 1818). Ref: C. R. Johnson, cat. 49 (2006), item 36.

Lawson, Jessie Kerr (1838-1917), shopkeeper and miscellaneous writer, a ‘woman of enormous energy and determination, born in Edinburgh, died in Toronto, raised by maternal grandparents after her father died, took her mother’s surname; after her husband, a ship’s carpenter, became a semi-invalid, she took her family to Canada where she supported her husband and ten children by writing, and ran a dry goods and millinery shop while her husband William worked in the shipyard at Hamilton. Publications include eight novels, much journalism, and at least one book of poems, Lays and Lyrics (Toronto: William Briggs, 1913); used a number of pseudonyms including ‘Hugh Ainslie’ and (in her journalism) ‘Katherine Leslie’. Ref Gifford & Macmillan, 686; biography on Canada’s Early Women Writers webpage, Simon Fraser University Library. [OP]

Laycock, Samuel (1826-93), of Marsden, Yorkshire, worked in a mill from age nine, later a cloth looker, made redundant in the Cotton Famine and wrote the twelve ‘Lyrics of the Cotton Famine’; pub. Lancashire Poems, Tales and Recitations (Manchester and London, 1875); Warblin’s fro’ an Owd Songster (Oldham, London and Manchester, 1893, 3rd enlarged edn, 1894); Collected Writings (2nd edition, Oldham, 1908); Selected Poems, ed. Glyn Hughes (Sunderland: Ceolfrith Press, 1981). Ref: LC 6, 1-32; ODNB; Holroyd, 98-9; Harland, 377-9, 398-400, 459-62, 500-1, 506-8, 510-11, 515-16, 547-52; Andrews, 33-39; Ashraf (1975), 255-7; Maidment (1987), 253-61; Hollingworth (1977), 153; Zlotnick, 206-07; Reilly (1994), 272; Reilly (2000), 268; England, 50. [LC 6]

Leatherland, John A. (1812-74), of Kettering, Northamptonshire, weaver, autoididact, Chartist, pub. Essays and Poems with a brief Autobiographical Memoir (London and Leicester, 1862). Refs: Burnett et al (1984), no. 428; Ashton and Roberts, ch. 4, 58-64; Vincent, 124-5, 176-7, 184; Hold, 104-6; Schwab, 199; Reilly (2000), 270. [C]