Darlington, 1879

Bouskill, Thomas (b. 1779), of Paisley (born in Nottingham), stocking weaver, never pub. in his lifetime but wrote for himself; poems in Brown. Ref: Brown, I, 129-33. [S]

Boustead, Christopher Murray, roadman of Keswick, pub. Rustic verse and dialect rhymes (Keswick, 1892). Ref: LC 6, 355-62; Reilly (1994), 56. [LC 6]

Bower, Fred, of Boston, MA, stonemason in Britain and America, a ‘tramping’ artisan, a socialist involved in labour politics, and a poet; pub. Rolling Stonemason. An Autobiography (London: Jonathan cape, 1936). Ref. Burnett et al (1984), no. 78. [OP]

Bowie, Agnes H. of Bannockburn, builder’s daughter. Ref: Edwards, 12, 152-61. [F] [S]

? Bowker, James, (‘A Lancashire Lad’), author of dialect protest poem, ‘Hard Toimes, or the Weaver Speaks to his Wife’, pub. 1862. Ref: Harland, 512-14, 546-7; Vicinus (1970), 334-7.

? Bowness, William (1809-67), of Kendal, Westmorland, self-taught artist, pub. Rustic studies in the Westmorland dialect, with other scraps from the sketch-book of an artist (London and Kendal, 1868). Ref: ODNB; Reilly (2000), 51.

? Boyd, Elizabeth (fl. 1727-45), ‘Louisa’, ‘from the lowest condition of Fortune’, pub. Variety: A Poem... by Louisa (1727) and other poems and prose works including a miscellany of riddles and poems, a novel and a ballad-opera, specific titles: The Humorous Miscellany, or, Riddles for the Beaux; Verses most Humbly Inscrib'd to his Majesty King George IId on his Birth-Day (1730); The Happy North-Briton (1737); and Glory to the Highest, a Thanksgiving Poem on the Late Victory at Dettingen (1743. Admiral Haddock, or, The Progress of Spain (1739 or 1740, praises defeat of Spanish Armada). Ref: ODNB; Lonsdale (1989), 134-35; Fullard, 550; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 870. [F]

Boyd, George (b. 1848), of Kilmarnoch, house painter. Ref: Edwards, 12,131-4. [S]

Boyle, Francis, of Gransha (b. c. 1730), weaver (Hewitt also identifies him as a blacksmith from the poems), wrote the poem ‘Bonny Weaver’ (1811); ‘The Wife o’ Clinkin’ Town’; Miscellaneous Poems (1811). Ref Hewitt. [I]

? Boyle, James (fl. 1842), referred to as a cork-cutter and poet in Alexander Wilson’s (qv) ‘The Poet’s Corner’.

Boyle, James Thompson (b. 1849), of Friockheim then Arbroath, millwright, soldier. Ref: Edwards, 14, 166-70; Reid, Bards, 61-2. [S]

? Boyle, Margaret (b. 1862), of Irish parentage, b. in Cincinnati, Ohio, blind from birth and educated in the Asylum for the Blind in Cincinnati; poems pub. in ‘various American periodicals’. Ref O’Donoghue, 35. [F] [I]

Brack, Jessie Wanlass, of Longformacus, Lammermoor, domestic servant. Ref: Edwards, 12, 169-72. [F] [S]

Bradbury, Stephen Henry (‘Quallon’, b. 1828), of Nottingham, poor parents, glove maker, Sunday school reader, journalist, pub. Lyrical Fancies (London, 1866). Ref: Reilly (2000), 52.

Bradford, John Sion (1706-85), of Betws Tir Iarll, Glamorgan, weaver and fuller, poet and antiquarian, part of a circle of literary men in the district, studied bardic tradition, instructor of Edward Williams (‘Iolo Morganwg’, qv) who ‘claimed him as an heir to the druidic and bardic system which...had persisted over the centuries in Tir Iarll’ and insisted ‘that it was in Bradford's manuscripts he had found much of the material which was later shown to be of his own invention’. Ref: ODNB, OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

? Bradley, Daniel (b. 1852), of Derry, educated at Catholic schools, moved to Glasgow in 1872 to work at an engineering firm; pub. Musings in Exile, poems (Glasgow, 1894); also pub. in United Ireland, Derry Journal, Donegal Indicator, People's Journal (Dundee), Glasgow Weekly Mail. Ref O’Donoghue, 37. [I] [S]

Bradley, William Joseph (b. 1857), of Bridgeton, Glasgow, worked in iron foundry, lost an arm, then worked as timekeeper, pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 8, 63-5. [S]

Bramwich, John Henry (1804-46), of Leicester, Chartist and stockinger; born in Shoreditch, brought up by his mother, ribbon-weaver, worked in a Leicester factory from the age of nine, enlisted and served for 16 years including ten in the West Indies before returning to Leicester as a framework knitter; contributed 14 hymns to the Shakespearean Chartist Hymn Book. Ref: Newitt, 3-7; Kovalev, 118-19; Scheckner, 124-5, 330; Schwab 186. [C]

Brant, Alfred C. (b. c. 1852), of Louth Lincolnshire, secularist and socialist poet, compositor by trade. During the 1890s, he contributed articles to the Wyvern on a range of topics including ‘White Slaves in Leicester,’ and a description of 1897 May Day demonstration. Under the acronym ‘A.C.B.,’ he wrote an autobiographical poem which tells the reader of his secularism, socialism and his joy at working at the Leicester Co-operative Printing Society. He also wrote a sonnet in dedication to Ramsay MacDonald (A Rhymester’s Recollections, ?1903) and a poem welcoming delegates to the 1911 Labour Party conference in Leicester. He was a member of F. J. Gould’s ethical guild. Ref: inf. contributor. [—Ned Newitt]

Brechin, George (b. 1829), of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, housepainter, poems in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 3, 414-16. [S]

Breckenridge, John (1790-1840), handloom weaver of Parkhead, Glasgow, wrote ‘The Humours of Gleska Fair’. Ref: Glasgow Poets, 203-08; Murdoch, 96-103. [S]

Bremner, David (1813-78), of Aberchirder, Aberdeenshire, baker’s son, herdboy, baker, merchant. Ref: Edwards, 11, 303-10. [S]

? Brereton, Jane (‘Melissa’, 1685-1740), b. at Mold, Flints., married Thomas Brereton in 1711 and lived with him in London for a time; in 1722, having squandered the considerable fortune he had, they separated and he drowned, leaving Jane destitute; pub: verses in The Gentleman’s Magazine; Poems on Several Occasions (posthumous; 1744). Also included in Gramich & Brennan. Ref: OCLW; Gramich & Brennan, 55-57, 394. [W] [F] [—Katie Osborn]

Bridie, John (b. c. 1833), of Dundee, painter, pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 15, 338-14. [S]

Brierley, Ben (‘Ab o’ th’Yate’, 1825-96), of Failsworth, Manchester, handloom weaver of velvet, later a journalist, dialect poet, city councillor; pub. Goosegrave Penny Readings (c. 1865); Home Memories and Recollections of a Life (Manchester, 1886), his autobiography; Spring Blossoms and autumn leaves [poems] (Manchester, 1893); edited Ben Brierley’s Journal. Ref: LC 5, 331-3; LC 6, 363-72; ODNB; NRA (Manchester); Harland, 447-8, 552-4; Maidment (1987), 360-2, 364-6; Vicinus (1970), 349n5; Vicinus (1973), 753-6; Burnett et al (1984), no. 85; Hollingworth (1977), 152; Vincent, 111-13, 182; Ashton & Roberts, ch. 8, 97-121; Zlotnick, 195-7; Reilly (1994), 64. [LC 5] [LC 6].

Brierley, Thomas (1820-1900), of Alkrington, Middleton, Lancashire, silk weaver, author of ‘Th’ Silk-Weaver’s Fust Bearin’-Home’, pub. Nonsense and tom-foolery, and seriousness and solemnity (Manchester and London, 1870), Original pieces, for either recitation or fireside reading (Manchester and London, 1872), Short poems, with pepper and salt in (Manchester and London, [?1892]), The countrified pieces of Thomas Brierley (Oldham, 1894). Ref: Harland, 338-9, 402-3, 430-1, 454-5, 471-2; Reilly (1994), 64; Reilly (2000), 56-7.

Brimble, William (fl. 1762-5), carpenter, pub. Poems attempted on various occasions (1765). Ref: LC 2, 123-40; Christmas, 210-15. [LC 2]

Britton, Frances (fl. 1828), poor woman, pub. Short and true sketches on the conflicts of life and other subjects (London: Printed for the author, 1828), poetry ‘about poverty & England’; she ‘wrote bitterly of her poverty and her arrest as a vagabond.’ Ref Davis and Joyce, xi-xii, 36. [F] [—Dawn Whatman]

Brock, William (1793-1855), tenant farmer of Eastertoun, Armadale, author of ‘Frost in the Mornin’, printed in Bisset. Ref: Bisset, 77-8. [S]

? Brooke, Charlotte, (1740-93), born in Rantavan, county Cavan, cared for her father, novelist and playwright Henry Brooke, but was left poor on his death in 1783; tried to make a living through her writing but, despite critical success, remained in poverty. Pub. a novel, Emma; or the Foundling Wood (1803), and Reliques of Irish Poetry (1789). Her poetry ranges in style from heroic, Augustan styles, odes and elegies, to ballads or songs. Her most popular Fenian Poem is possibly ‘The Chase,’ published in choice Irish songs, Bolg an Tsolair; or, Gaelic Magazine (Belfast: Northern Star Office, 1795). Refs: O’Donoghue, 40-1; Gaelic Magazine as cited; http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/b/Brooke_C/life.htm [—Dawn Whatman] [I][F]

Brown, Alexander (1775-1834), ‘Berwickshire Sandie’, apprentice mason, side-schoolmaster, pub. Poems, mostly in the Scottish dialect (1801). Ref: Crockett, 110-13. [S]

Brown, Alexander (1801-81), of Burngrange, Perthshire, calico printer / block printer (father of William Brown [qv]), pub. Poems Secular and Sacred (1872). Ref: Brown, I, 340-42. [S]

Brown, Alexander (b. 1823), of Penicuik, near Edinburgh, sailor, spent time in US and Canada. Ref: Edwards, 4, 176-80; Reid, Bards, 65-6. [S]

Brown, Alexander (b. 1837), of Auchtertool, Fifeshire, cattle herder, cabinet maker, pub. in People’s Friend, People’s Journal, local press. Ref: Edwards, 1, 151-6; Murdoch, 302-9. [S]

? Brown, Archibald (b. 1850), son of piermaster, apprenticed and served as a journeyman blacksmith, later emigrated to Queensland and became a schoolteacher; poems in Macleod. Ref: Macleod, 178-81. [S]

Brown, David (1826-86), of Paisley, weaver, later keeper of the West End Reading Room, pub. Minstrelsy of My Youth (Paisley, 1845). Ref: Brown, II, 226-8; Leonard, 184-5. [S]

Brown, ‘Sergeant’ David, of Horndean, soldier and later pedlar in the borders, wrote rhyming epistles and poems of ‘inferior merit’. Ref: Crockett, 293. [S]

Brown, Elizabeth (b. c. 1809), ‘cottage girl, of Woodend Northamptonshire’, who wrote poems ‘to chase away a dreary hour in my secluded cottage’; pub. Original Poetry (1839, 1841, 1842); described by Hold (who includes only a McGonagallesque coronation poem) as ‘Northamptonshire’s female McGonagall’; more interesting poems include ‘On a poor Irishman calling at the cottage’, numerous elegies, and a number of poems on benevolence and charity. Ref: Hold, 43-44; inf. Bob Heyes; Google Books (full view of 1841 edition). [F]

Brown, Fred (b. 1893), Huddersfield textile worker and dialect poet, pub. The Muse Went Weaving (Ilkley: Yorkshire Dialect Society, 1964). Ref K E Smith, The Dialect Muse (Wetherby: Ruined Cottage Pubns., 1979), 23-4, 27-30; Smith, West, 41-7 [OP]

Brown, Henry (Henry ‘Mechanic’ Brown, fl. 1830-35), carpenter, artisan, pub. The Mechanic's Saturday Night, A Poem In The‘vulgar’ Tongue; Humbly Addressed To The Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Peel. By A Mechanic (London: Printed for the author, 1830); Sunday: A poem in three cantos (1835). Ref: LC 5, 1-10; Ashraf (1978), I, 24. [LC 5]

Brown, Henry (fl. 1860), of Northfleet, cement worker, pub. A Voice of Warning, by Henry Brown, a Working Man, Who was Blind for six months through an accident at the Cement Works, in the Parish of Northfleet, in the County of Kent. Composed and written by himself (1860). Ref: COPAC.

Brown, Hugh (1800-85), muslin weaver, of Newmilns, Ayrshire, later schoolmaster in Galston, Lanark, and a printer’s reader in Glasgow, pub. The Covenanters: and Other Poems (Glasgow: John Symington and Co., 1838). Ref: Edwards, 3, 182-8 and 9, xv; Johnson, item 137. [S]

Brown, Isaac, Muslin manufacturer, of Paisley, author of Renfrewshire Characters and Scenery: a poem (Paisley, 1824), with memoir and notes. Ref: inf. Bob Heyes. [S]

? Brown, J. J. (b. 1859), of Kilsyth, chemist, pub. at age 17 Visionary Rhymes, or the Tuneings of a Youthful harp (1876), brother of Simon Brown (qv). Ref: Edwards, 1, 341-2. [S]

Brown, James (b. 1836), of Fieldhead, Avondale, Lanarkshire, herd boy, warehouseman, postal worker, pub. Linda, and other poems (London, 1871). Ref: Edwards, 5, 230-7; Reilly (2000), 61. [S]

? Brown, James B. (b. 1832), of Galashiels, woollen manufacturer. Ref: Edwards, 7, 33-42. [S]

Brown, James Pennycook (b. 1862), of Brechin, farmer’s son, compositor on the Aberdeen Journal, pub. Poetical Ephemeras (1831), emigrated to Canada. Ref: Reid, Bards, 66-8; Walker. [S]

Brown, John (1812-90), ‘The Horncastle Laureate’, born in Horncastle Workhouse, Lincs., apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, ran away to sea as a cabin boy, travelled to Russia, later a housepainter in London, pub. The lay of the clock and other poems (Horncastle, 1861), Literae laureate: or, a selection from the poetical writings in Lincolnshire language, ed. by J. Conway (Horncastle, 1890). Ref: Reilly (1994), 68.

Brown, John (b. 1822), of Alexandria, Vale of Leven, Dumbartonshire, pattern-maker in Glasgow and Manchester, pub. Song Drifts (Glasgow, 1874, 1883), Poems and songs (Glasgow, 1883); Wayside songs, with other verse (Glasgow, 1883); Wayside songs, with other lyrics (Glasgow, 1887). Ref: Edwards, 2, 131-4; Murdoch, 266-9; Macleod, 115-1; Reilly (1994), 68; Reilly (2000), 61. [S]

Brown, Simon (b. 1853), of Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, hatter, brother of J.J. Brown (qv), wrote articles for the Hatter’s Gazette; pub The Lord’s Day: An Essay, Attempted in Verse (1883). Ref: Edwards, 7, 288-91. [S]

Brown, Thomas, of Cellerdyke, Anstruther, Fife, pub. Musings of a workman on the pains and praise of man’s great substitute (Anstruther and Edinburgh, 1861). Ref: Reilly (2000), 62. [S]

? Brown, William (b. 1836), of Paisley, son of Alexander Brown (1801-81, [qv]), block printer, photographer, poems in Brown. Ref: Brown, II, 309-14. [S]

? Brown, William (1791-1864), of Dundee, flax-spinner, laird’s son, businessman, retired from business in 1856 and pub. non-verse Reminiscenses of Flax Spinning and anonymously his Poems (1863). Ref: Reid, Bards, 68-9. [S]

? Browne, Frances (1816–1879), of Stranorlar, Co. Donegal, ‘The Blind Poetess of Ulster’, educated at home, pub. The Star of Atteghei: The Vision of Schwartz (1844); Lyrics and Miscellaneous Poems (1848); also ‘Songs of our Land,’ for the Irish Penny Journal, and many poems over her initials in the Athenaeum, 1840-41; awarded a modest Civil List pension. Ref: ODNB; O’Donoghue, 43 (as Frances Brown); ABC, 356-8; Patrick Bonar, The Life and Works of Frances Browne (Ballybofey: Bonar Publishing, 2007, http://www.finnvalley.ie/historytrail/index.php/frances-browne); inf. Dawn Whatman. [I] [F]

Browne, Moses (1704-87), self-taught son of a pen-cutter, Church of England clergyman, pub. The Throne of Justice (1721); The Richmond Beauties (1722); Piscatory Eclogues (1729); Poems on Various Subjects (1739); plays; sermons. Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe; Røstvig, II, 153; CBEL II, 312.

? Browne, Thomas (b. 1787), of Queen’s County, miller, later a journalist and the ‘leading spirit on the Comet newspaper; later emigrated to USA and ran a successful milling business in Cincinnati; wrote or co-wrote [anon] The Parson’s Horn Book (1831), which reprinted material from the Comet; his contributions sometimes in verse. Ref O’Donoghue, 44. [I]

Bruce, David (b. 1860), of Cupar, Fife, tailor, postman. Ref: Edwards, 6 (1883), 274-9. [S]

? Bruce, George (b. 1825), of St. Andrews, orphan, apprentice joiner, engineer, journalist, and town councillor, pub. The first canto of a poem, entitled, Destiny (Cupar-Fife, 1865), Destiny, and other poems (St Andrews, 1876), The two spirits: a poem (St Andrews, 1872), Poems and Songs (Dundee, 1886). Ref: Edwards, 1, 217-21; Reilly (1994), 71; Reilly (2000), 64. [S]

Bruce, Michael (1746-1767), Scottish son of weaver; ‘boy genius’ who died of consumption at age of 20; verse reissued several times; pub. ‘Ode to the Cuckoo’, ‘Lochleven’ (1766), and ‘Ode to Spring’ (1767, self-elegy); posthumous Poems on Several Occasions, by Michael Bruce (1770). Ref: LC 2, 263-4; ODNB; Radcliffe; Wilson, I, 294-306; Crawford, nos. 59-60; Douglas, 57-8, 290-1. [LC 2] [S]

Brufton, H. P., (1872-1947), of Sheffield, ‘T’ Owd Hammer’, who followed his father as a ‘little master’ (a local term for self-employed makers of knives and other fine metal goods for which Sheffield was famous) in the Crookes area of Sheffield, wrote mainly dialect poems, pub. Sheffield Dialect Poems (1932); Sheffield Dialect and other poems (1937). Other poems broadcast and pub. in magazines and newpapers. two poems at Sheffield Voices, the Sheffield University website dedicated to dialect writers: http://sheffieldvoices.group.shef.ac.uk/fghpbrufton.htm. Ref: Lovelock, p. 48; England 20; inf. Yann Lovelock. [OP]

Bryan, Mary, née Langdon, later Bedingfield (1780-1838), pub. Sonnets and Metrical Tales (Bristol: Printed and sold at the City Printing-Office, 1815). Ref: LC 4, 105-24; Curran. [LC 4] [F]

Buchanan, Andrew, of Cowie Bank, Stirlingshire, grocer. Ref: Edwards, 11, 355-9. [S]

Buchanan, David (1811-93), of Hillhead, Dumbartonshire, handloom weaver, and manufacturer, pub. Man and the years, and other poems, ed. by William Freeland (Glasgow, 1895). Ref: Reilly (1994), 72. [S]

Buchanan, David Wills (b. 1844), of Dundee, Free Church precentor, farmworker, van-driver, shipyard storekeeper, collector for Dundee Burial Society, religious poet. Ref: Edwards, 6, 328-33; Reid 69-71. [S]

Buchanan, Francis (b. 1825), of Perth, draper, moved to Sheffield, later incapacitated by an accident, pub. The Crusader and Other Poems and Lyrics (1848), and Sparks from Sheffield smoke: a series of local and other poems (Sheffield, 1882). Ref: Edwards 11, 133-39; Andrews, 122-23; Reilly (1994), 72. [S]

? Burgess, Alexander (1807-85), ‘Poute’, ‘The Fife Paganini’, of Lalathan, largely self-taught dancing teacher, fiddler and poet, pub. The Book of Nettercaps: Or Poutery, Poetry and Prose, and in the People’s Journal, his verses ‘characterised by a grotesque orthography that was as suggestive of latent, lurking fun as the ideas were thoroughly original and humorous to the degree of burlesque’ (Edwards). Ref: Edwards, 1, 271-4 and 9, xxii-xxiii. [S]

Burgess, Joseph (1853-1934), factory operative, of Oldham, later Failsworth, Manchester, worked in mills from age eight, later a journalist, pub. “In memory of my wife”: a volume of amatory and elegiac verse (London, Manchester and Oldham, 1875); Pictures of social life: being select poems, by “The Droylsden Bard” (Manchester and London, 1869); A Potential Poet? His Autobiography and verse (Ilford, 1927). Ref: Burnett et al (1984), nos. 108-9; Maidment (1987), 91-3; Reilly (2000), 71.

Burland, John Hugh (1819-85), handloom weaver, largely self-taught, Chartist, member of Barnsley Mechanics’ Institute, businessman, school warden, pub. John Hugh Barland to John Close and the grand cluster of poets: (a satire) (?1868) and an autobiography, John Hugh Burland By Himself (Barnsley: Barnsley Chronicle, 1902), pp. 8. Ref: Burnett et al (1984), no. 110; Reilly (2000), 71. [C]

? Burlend, Edward, of Swillington, then at Barwick-in-Elmet, West Riding, pub. Village rhymes: or, poems on various subjects, frequently appertaining to incidents in village life, new enlarged edn (Leeds, 1869). Ref: Reilly (2000), 71.

Burness, John (b. 1771), of Glanbervie, Kincardine, self-taught farmer’s son, soldier, baker, author of ‘Thrummie Cap’, pub. Plays, Poems and Metrical Tales (Montrose, 1819); claimed to have met and to be related to Robert Burns. Ref: Reid, Bards, 72-9. [S]

Burnett, William Hall (b. 1840), of Blackburn, of poor parents, largely self-taught journalist and poet, pub. a poem, The Polytechnic, when aged 17, and many prose works. Ref: Hull, 314-19.

Burns, David, joiner, pub. Scottish Echoes from New Zealand (Edinburgh, 1883). Ref: Edwards, 14, 387-91. [S]