Darlington, 1879

? Cunningham, John (1729-93), born in Dublin, lived in Edinburgh, died in Newcastle upon Tyne, wine merchant/cooper’s son, grammar school educated strolling player, playwright and poet, wrote his first poems for the Dublin papers before he was 12. Pub. Poems, Chiefly Pastoral (1766); An Elegy on a Pile of Ruins (1761, 144 lines, shows knowledge of England’s medieval history); Poetical Works (1781). Ref: ODNB; O’Donoghue, 93; Radcliffe; Allan, 18-21; Welford, I, 676-9; Powell, item 175; Sutton, 272 (manuscripts and letters). [I]

Cunningham, Thomas Mounsey (1776-1834), of Culfaud, Kirkcunbright, village school and Dumfries Academy educated, mill-wright, later lived in Rotherham and London, and rose to chief clerk in engineering firm Rennie; contributed verses to the Scots Magazine, Hogg’s Forest Minstrel, and the Edinburgh Magazine; pub. Har’st Kirn, and Other Poems and Songs (1797); brother of Allan Cunningham (qv). Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe; Miller, 212-13; Harper, 251; Wilson, I, 537-40; Sutton, 273 (letters). [S]

? Curling, Mary Anne (b. c. 1796), daughter of a London tailor and a lace-cleaner, won a suit for breach of promise of marriage in 1819, against the Pastor of the Baptist Church in Oxford Street, pub. Poetical Pieces (Dover, 1831), Poetical Pieces...with some additional pieces (London, 1831). Ref: Jackson (1993), 93. [F]

Currie, James (1829-90), of Selkirk, child textile-worker, soldier, lost his right arm in the Crimea, later post-runner, mill employee, pub. Wayside Musings; or Poems and Songs (Selkirk, 1863), Poems and Songs, with a biographical sketch by Charles Rogers (Glasgow, 1883). Ref: Edwards, 3, 117-21 and 16, [lix]; Reilly (1994), 120-1, Reilly (2000), 119. [S]

Currie, William J. (b. 1853), of Selkirk, son of James Currie, creeshie (carding machine worker). Ref: Edwards, 11, 226-33. [S]

Curtis, G. (fl. 1850s-60s), of Oxford, pub. [with T. L. Aldridge] Poem dedicated to the working men of England; by two of their order, second enlarged edition [cover title Golden Moments] (London and Oxford, 1861). Ref: Reilly (2000), 7-8.

? Cuthbertson, David (b. 1856), of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, draper’s shop worker, clerk, librarian, pub. Eskdale Lyrics (Edinburgh, 1878), Rosslyn lyrics (Edinburgh, 1878). Ref: Reilly (2000), 120. [S]

Dakers, Robert A., ‘D.A.R.’ (b. 1865), of Creiff, later of Haddington then Edinburgh, weaver’s son, compositor. Ref: Edwards, 14, 144-9. [S]

Dalby, J. W., radical, wrote for Black Dwarf and for Leigh Hunt’s publications; pub. Poems (London: Printed for the Author, 1822), Tales, Songs and Sonnets (1866). Ref: inf. Bob Heyes.

Dale, Sarah (‘Essdee’), neé Schofield, of Ashton-under-Lyne, taught to read and write by her mother, cotton mill worker, pub. Adelia and other poems (Ashton-under-Lyne, 1883), Merriky letters, with other rhymes of old and new England, by Essdee (Huddersfield, c. 1890s). Ref: Reilly (1994), 124. [F]

Dalgity, Isa (fl. 1895), born at Craigharr Cottage, on Persley Braes, over the Don valley, Aberdeenshire; attended school at Whitstripes, Old Machar, until age 14, when she began to work first as a farm servant, and later for some years as a papermaker; lived in Aberdeen and published in the Aberdeen Free Press; sister to John Dalgity (qv). Her verses include ‘Alane’, ‘Oor Countra Side’, ‘School Days’, and ‘Freen’s O’ Auld Langsyne.’ Ref: Edwards, 8, 65-69; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Dalgity, John (b. 1859), of Upper Persley, Aberdeen, gardener, brother to Isa Dalgity (qv), pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 7, 208-11. [S]

? Dalglish, A. (b., 1856), of Stonehouse, age 14 entered a mercantile house in Glasgow, wrote ‘Bauldy’s Hay Stack’ and a poem in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 1, 351. [S]

Dalgleish, Walter (b. 1865), farmer’s son of Potburn, Ettrick, joiner, pub. The Moorland Bard (1887), Poems and Songs (1891). Ref: Edwards, 15, 67-9. [S]

Daly, John, of Blackburn, tentatively identified as the fellow ‘factory bard’ of Richard Rawcliffe’s (qv) ‘In Blackburn Park—To Flora’, and clearly identified in Daly’s reply ‘The Voice of Flora—In Blackburn Park’ [c. 1891]. Ref: Hull, 202-4.

? Dalziel, Gavin (fl. 1808-25), pub. Poetical satires & Epistles (Kilmarnock: printed by H. & S. Crawford, for the author, 1808), and A selection of poetical pieces. (Paisley: printed for the author, 1825); the two poems in Brown, ‘Hard Times’ and ‘Prison Song’ strongly suggest this is a labouring-class poet. Ref: Brown, I, 233-34; COPAC. [S]

? Dalzeil, Mrs Jane Waddell (fl. 1895), of Stoneyburn Farm, Addiewell, Linlithgowshire, poems in Bisset. Ref: Bisset, 242-6. [F] [S]

? Dannon, Jeannie, ordinary life poet, pub. Hameland (Newton Steward, 1907). Ref: inf Florence Boos. [OP] [F] [S]

? Dare, Joseph (1800-83), glovemaker, of Leicestershire, later a teacher, radical reformer, described by Ashraf as among ‘the most active radical and socialist organisers and poets of the 1820-ies and 1830-ies’. Pub. The Garland of Gratitude, 1849). Ref: Ashraf (1978), I, 24; Sales (2002), 98; Schwab, 290; inf. Ned Newitt.

? Darling, Isabella Fleming (1861-1903), left school at age 15 to assist her mother; poss. best considered as a middle-class poet; author of five vols of poetry, including Poems and Songs (Glasgow, 1889), Scotia, Mountainland, and Other Poems, and Whispering Hope (Edinburgh: Simpkin & Marshall and Glasgow: J. Menzies, 1893); Songs from Silence (Paisley: Gardner, 1904); A Certain Rich Man (Shotts: J. Macleod, 1913). Ref: Gifford & Macmillan, 682; inf. Florence Boos; Grian Books web page, visited July 7th 2014. [F] [S]

Davenport, Allen (1775-1846), of a poor peasant family, served in the army, London Chartist and shoemaker, Spencian, pub. Kings, or, Legitimacy Unmasked (1819); Claremont (gives date 1820?); English Institutions (1842); Claremont, or the sorrows of a prince. An elegiac poem [on the death of Princess Charlotte] (1821?); The Muse’s Wreath (1827); The Life, Writings, and Principles of Thomas Spence (1836). Ref: ODNB; Burnett et al (1984), no. 199; Kovalev, 122-4; Scheckner, 138-40, 332; Schwab, 190; Janowitz, esp. 115-32, 159-64; Worrall, esp. 77-88. [C]

? Davidson, Elizabeth (1828-73), b. at Thornhill, Dumfriesshire; though poor, received a relatively good education and worked as a teacher until her marriage; 1853 moved to England with her husband, where she lived near Alnwick in Northumberland, d. leaving seven children between the ages of 3 and 23; pub. Miscellaneous Poems (Edinburgh: printed for the author by Ballantyne, 1866), and The Death of King Theodore, and Other Poems. She recorded that of her poems ‘the greater number have been composed with a baby in the arm, or while sitting by the cradle, and written most frequently during the hours borrowed from rest. If some cynic should ask, what business has a woman in such circumstances to write poetry? He might be answered by telling him that a crowing or sleeping baby is of itself sufficient to inspire a poetic mind. He who formed the human soul, formed it with faculties which not only enable it to plan, and calculate, and bargain, but which lead it to admire and enjoy what is pure, and good, and beautiful; and when we can gain a short respite from toil, and rush away to the contemplation of such subjects, the soul comes back purified and strengthened to resume the duties of life. ... our sympathies wander outward to the great suffering, sinning world, and we cherish the desire, and breathe the prayer, that we may do something to make it better and happier.’ A second volume (1874) edited by her husband, a gardener at Newton Gardens, Felton, Northumberland, was published shortly after her death. He remembered that her writing was done on Sunday evenings, and every piece finished at one sitting because she never knew when other opportunities for writing would be granted. She contributed to religious periodicals and took a lively interest in the temperance cause, disliked attention to religious theology rather than the practice of religion. She wrote poems on liberty, autumn leaves, ‘The Old Family Clock.’ Possibly the same as Elizabeth Davidson, also of Northumberland, who published ‘The Seasons’ in the Dundee collection, Poems by the People. Ref: Edwards, 4, 93-9; Reilly (2000), 124; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

? Davidson, George, of Scottish origin though lived in Yorkshire, pub. ‘Thoughts on Peel Park’, The Bradfordian, 1 (October 1861), 198; Holroyd includes his ‘To a Sprig of heather, from the Braes of Balmoral’. Ref: Holroyd, 8; Vicinus (1974), 150-1, 180n.

? Davidson, James (b. 1829), ‘The Buchan Poet’, of Logie Buchan, Aberdeenshire, son of a mason, orphaned at nine, shopkeeper, reporter, pub. Poems, chiefly in the Buchan dialect (Aberdeen, Banff, Peterhead, Fraserburgh and New Pitsligo, 1861). Ref: Edwards, 1, 91-94; Reilly (2000), 125. [S]

Davidson, John (1825-60), of Maxton, Roxburghshire, carpenter, pub. Poems (Kelso, 1860). Ref: Reilly (2000), 125. [S]

? Davidson, John (1857-1909), of Barrhead, schoolteacher at charity school and writer, first employed in scientific and analytic offices, and spent only one year at Edinburgh University. Pub. Diabolus amans (1885); Bruce (1886); Smith: a Tragic Farce (1888); annus mirabilis, 1894; and Testaments (published between 1901 and 1908); In a Music Hall and other Poems (London, 1891), Fleet Street Eclogues (1893-6), Poems, ed. A. Turnbull (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Academic Press, 1973). Ref: ODNB; LION; Ashraf (1975), 279-91, Leonard, 346-59, Miles, VIII, 349, Ricks, 600-3. [S]

Davidson, Margaret (d. c. 1781), of Killinchy, Ballybreda, daughter of poor uneducated parents, blinded by smallpox at two, self-taught flax-spinner, self-converted Methodist, pub. The Extraordinary Life and Christian Experience of Margaret Davidson, (as Dictated by Herself) Who Was a Poor, Blind Woman among the People Called Methodists, but Rich towards God, and Illuminated with the Light of Life. To Which are Added, Some of Her Letters and Hymns (Dublin, 1782). Ref: Jackson (1993), 97. [I] [F]

Davies, David, (‘Dai’r Cantwr’, David the Singer, 1812-74), farmer and radical, born near Llancarfan, Glamorgan; participated in the Rebecca Riots, an uprising by poor farmers in 1839 at Cilymaenllwyd in Carmarthenshire, and was subsequently sentenced to Australia for twenty years; wrote his ‘Threnody of Dai’r Cantwr’, a poem in strict meter illustrating scenes of his youth, while awaiting transportation; pardoned in 1854 and returned to Wales, where he lived as a vagrant and died in a barn fire perhaps set by his own pipe. Ref: OCLW; Wikipedia. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

Davies, Robert (‘Bardd Nantglyn’, 1769-1835), apprenticed to a tailor, wrote carols and englynion, won prize at Caerwys Eisteddfod (1798) with an awdl titled 'Cariad i'n Gwlad' and became president of the Society, pub. Cnewyllyn mewn Gwisg (1798), Diliau Barddas (1827), and a popular and influential grammar 'Iethiardur neu Ramadeg Cymraeg' (five editions by 1848). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

Davis, Francis (1810-85), ‘The Belfast Man’, of Ballincollig, County Cork, muslin weaver in Belfast, ‘Young Irelander’, wrote for and edited periodicals, given small Civil List pension, began the short-lived nationalist publication the Belfast Man's Journal (1850), pub. Belfast, the City and the Man (1855); A phantasy and other poems (London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Belfast, 1861), The tablet of shadows; A phantasy, and other poems (London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Belfast, 1861), Leaves from our cypress and our oak (London, 1863), Earlier and Later Leaves, or, An Autumn Gathering (1878, charity volume published by friends). Ref: ODNB; Reilly (2000), 127. [I]

Davlin, Charles (1793?-1871), of Bolton, handloom weaver, autodidact, revolutionary Chartist, his poem were ‘appreciated by Robert Owen’, and published in Reid, City. Ref Schwab, 191. [C]

? Davys, Mary (1674-1732), wife of friend of Swift, of very uncertain origins, after the early death of her husband kept a coffee house in Cambridge; author of popular novels and plays, published a collected works in 1725. Ref: ODNB; Carpenter, 135. [F]

Dawson, James, jun. (1840-1906), of Hartshead, near Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs, farmer’s son, agricultural labourer, dialect poet, ‘a working man’ (Harland), later a journalist in Manchester and London, pub. Facts and Fancies from the Farm: Lyrical Poems (1868). Ref: Harland, 441-2, 469-70; Maidment (1987), 274-5; Hollingworth (1977), 153; Reilly (2000), 127-8.

? Dawson, William Henderson, of Newcastle, bookbinder and poet, writer on local history and song. Ref: Allan, 484-90.

? Deans, Mrs. C. E. Pettigrew (b. 1862), educated at Bathgate Academy and attended the Church of Scotland Training College in Edinburgh; farmer’s wife, lived near Fordoun, and wrote sentimental and comic verses, with touches of social observation. A few were in Scots, such as ‘The Stirkie’s Sta’,’ ‘My Ain Laddie,’ and ‘The Terrible Mearns Folk.’ Ref: Poets and Poetry of Linlithgowshire; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Deans, George (b. 1851), of Fogo, tenant farmer’s son, cow-herder, newspaper reporter, pub. Harp Strums (Kelso, 1890). Ref: Crockett, 265-9. [S]

? Dearnley, William, of Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, pub. The power loom weaver, being a reply to the factory child (Halifax, ?1865). Ref: Reilly (2000), 129.

? Deer, James, ?thatcher, pub. Occasional Poems by the Thatcher of Risby (Bury St Edmunds, [c. 1864]), 20. Ref: Cranbrook, 187.

Delday, William (b. 1855), of Quoybelloch, Deerness, Orkney, farmer. Ref: Edwards, 12, 39-41. [S]

Denholm, Agnes Mack (b. 1854), of Abbey St. Bathans, educated at the parish school; at fourteen she entered domestic service, and at 34 married William Denholm, overseer on farm of Abbey St. Bathans. She published romantic ballads. Ref: Crockett, 270-3; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

? Denning, John Renton (‘J.A.N’), served as a private in the Rifle Brigade, in India, c. 1878, pub. Poems and Songs (Bombay, 1888), ‘Soldierin’’: a few military ballads (Bombay, 1899). Ref: Reilly (1994), 133.

Derfel, Robert Jones (‘Munullog’, 1824-1905), of Llandderfel, hand loom weaver, Welsh nationalist and socialist, moved to Manchester, 1843, learned English and became travelling salesman, Baptist lay-preacher, friend of John Hughes Ceiriog (qv), pub. three vols of Welsh verse between 1861 and 1865, political activist, prominent in Manchester Cambrian Literary Society. Pub. Rhosyn Meirion (1853, ‘contained a prize-winning poem on the Hungarian nationalist, Kossuth’ [ODNB]); Caneuon min y ffordd [‘Songs from the Wayside’] (1861); Mynudau segur (1863); Caneuon gwladgarol Cymru [‘Songs of Patriotic Wales’] (1864); Songs for Welshmen (1865); Hymns and songs for the church of man (Manchester, 1890), Musing for the masses (Manchester, 1895), Social songs (Manchester, 1890). Ref: LC 6, 343-54; ODNB; OCLW; Ashton & Roberts, 6, note 11; Reilly (1994), 134; Cass, Eddie, ‘Robert Jones Derfel: A Welsh Poet, in the Cotton Factory Times’, Llafur, 7, no. 2 (1996), 53-67. [W] [LC 6]

? Dermody, Thomas (1775-1802), poet, died young. Known as ‘The Irish Chatterton,’ Thomas Dermody was the son of an Ennis schoolmaster. Jason Edwards observes that Dermody showed ‘a precocious talent for drinking, poetry, and scholarship’ (ODNB), and alcoholism would ail him until his death in near vagrancy in London in 1802. His poetry, often reprinted and anthologized, has been noted for its wit and allusiveness. ~ Dermody was a child prodigy, learning Greek and Latin at the age of four and serving as his father's classical assistant from age nine. He ran away to Dublin at age fifteen and won the patronage of several high-profile dignitaries and aristocrats (Henry Grattan, Lady Moira, and Charlotte Brooke), who (in the space of one year) helped him publish three volumes of poetry, a few critical essays, and a pamphlet on the war in France. Dermody, however, resisted his patrons, boldly declaring in his poetry, ‘I am vicious because I like it’ (ODNB). Having put up with his alcoholism and distemper, his patrons finally abandoned him when he refused a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin. ~ Dermody joined the army (the 108th regiment, as a private) and served with such distinction in France that he won a commission. However, returning to London, Dermody quickly fell back into his drinking habits and died in poverty in a hovel in Kent on his half-birthday, 15 July 1802. Pub Poems (Dublin, 1789); Poems Moral and Descriptive (1800); Poems, Consisting of Essays, Lyric, Elegiac (Dublin, 1792); The Rights of Justice [prose] (1793); Poems on Various Subjects (1802); The Harp of Erin, containing the Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Dermony, ed. J. G. Raymond (1807), 2 vols. Ref: James Grant Raymond, The Life of Thomas Dermody, Interspersed with Pieces of Original Poetry (London: Miller, 1806); ODNB; CBEL III, 232;Richardson, 249; Goodridge (1999), item 32; Johnson, item 326; Jackson (1985); Meyenberg, 209; Basker, 406-7; R. Welch, ed., The Oxford companion to Irish literature (1996), 142; S. Deane, A. Carpenter, and J. Williams (eds.), The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, 1 (1991), 399, 401–3, 418, 492, 495; R. Stephen Dornan, ‘Thomas Dermody’s Archipelagic Poetry’, European Romantic Review, 21: 4 (2010), 409-23. [I] [—Katie Osborn]

Derrick, Samuel (1724-69), Irish poet, linendraper’s apprentice, referred to in Cuthbert Shaw’s The Race. Like Shaw, he tried his hand first as an actor, but then turned to hack writing, published in several genres, and wrote translations and criticism. Poetry includes ‘The Battle of Lora’. He eventually went on to become master of ceremonies at Bath. He was known to Johnson, who pitied his condition of ‘poor poet’. Ref: ODNB; Sutton, 287 (manuscripts and letters); inf. Bridget Keegan. [I]

Deverall, Mrs Mary (b. 1737), self-taught daughter of a Gloucestershire clothier, pub. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, Mostly Written in the Epistolary Style: Chiefly upon Moral Subjects, and Particularly Calculated for the Improvement of Younger Minds (London, Bristol, Bath, Oxford, Hereford & Tunbridge-Wells, 1781), Theodoras & Didymus, or, the Exemplification of Pure Love and Vital Religion. An Heroic Poem, in Three Cantos (London, Bath & Bristol, 1784, 1786), and Mary Queen of Scots; an Historical Tragedy, or, Dramatic Poem (London and Gloucester, 1792), Ref: Jackson (1993), 103-4. [F]

? Devlin, James Dacres (d. c. 1863), shoemaker, ‘radical, activist and minor literary figure...the best craftsman in the London trade’ (Hobsbawm and Scott, 107n), journalist, pub. The Shoemaker (2 vols, 1838/39), a prose work; Two Odes Written upon the occasion of the Cinque Ports festival held at Dover (1839); An essay on the Boot and Shoe Trade of France as it affects the manufacture of the British manufacture in the same business. (1838); Helps to Hereford History, civil and legendary (1848); Critica Crispina, or the Boots and Shoes British and Foreign of the Great Exhibition (1852); Strangers’ Homes; or the Model Lodging Houses of London (1853); The Sydenham Sunday (1853); Rules and Regulations (1855); Contract Reform: its necessity shown in respect to the shoemaker, soldier, sailor (1856); (\with John O’Neill, qv) letter and ‘Sonnet, to Mr. Bloomfield, with Prospectus’ (1820), in Bloomfield, Remains, 1824, I, 164-6. Ref: Cross, 151-2; Bloomfield, Remains, 1824, I, 164-6, Winks, 313.

? Devlin, John Dacres, correspondent of Dickens, pub. ‘The November Primrose’ (Peoples Journal, 6 [1848] 316). Ref: Maidment (1987), 216-17.

? Dibb, Robert, poet from ‘the humbler walks of life’ also calls himself the ‘Wharfedale poet’, pub. The Minstrel’s Offering: or a wreath of poetry (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., Leeds: J. Y. Knight, 1839); poems ‘of a radical tinge’ and include ‘The Factory Girl’; Ebenezer Elliott (qv) is among the subscribers. Ref: Johnson, item 270; Johnson 46, no. 284; John Hart Catalogue 74, item 101; Charles Cox, Catalogue 51 (2005), item 91.

Dick, Robert (1849-89), of Langlands brae, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, child factory worker, printer, pub. Tales and poems (Kilmarnock, 1892). Ref: Reilly (1994), 137. [S]

Dick, Thomas (fl. 1846-52), of Paisley, weaver, pub. The Burn-lip: a tale of 1826—containing an account of Paisley at that time, with particular notices of the great fire at Ferguslie in 1789, the dearth in 1800, and the capsizing of the Canal passage boat in 1810 (1852), also published The Temperance Garland (1846), which included some of his own pieces included. Ref: Brown, I, 438-40. [S]

Dickey, John, weaver of Rockfield; pub. Poems on Various Subjects (1818). Ref. Hewitt. [I]

Dickinson, Grace (d. 1862), mother of six, entered the Halifax workhouse, died of TB, pub. Songs in the night: a collection of verses; by the late Grace Dickinson, composed in the Halifax Union Workhouse, edited by the chaplain (London and Halifax, 1863). Ref: Reilly (2000), 132; Turner, 126. [F]

? Dickinson, William, mentioned by Ashraf, nothing further known, but this might possibly relate: Uncollected literary remains of William Dickinson: being a series in prose and verse, arranged from the author’s manuscripts by W. Hodgson (Carlisle, 1888), copies in Cambridge and BL. Ref: Ashraf, I, 33-4.

Dinnie, Robert (1808-91), of Allancreich, Birse, mason. Ref: Edwards, 13, 286-96. [S]

Dippen, Maria Catharina (c. 1737-62), German poet and farmer of Halberstadt, ‘discovered’ by Anna Louisa Karsch (qv). Dippen ‘wrote in High German butspoke the local dialect of her village’ and was noted for the ‘speed and sponaneity with which she wrote’. Did not pub. but there are three poems in Karsch’s correspndence, possibly re-worked, and we rely on Karsch’s descriptions of her poetry, some of which ‘depicts the horror of war and its consequences for the rural population’. Dippen also ‘was a great inspiration for numerous fledgling women poets in her village’. Ref Kord, 261-2. [F]

? Ditchfield, Ralph (fl. 1882-3), of Blackburn, little biographical information but some evidence of labouring-class origin. Ref: Hull, 185-93.

Dixon, William (1829-68), of Steeton, Yorkshire, of humble parents, self-educated, woolcomber, later a watchmaker and working jeweller, pub. The Poetical Works of William Dixon, including Epistles, Pleasures of meditation, Melodies, etc., with Preface by the Author (Bingley, 1853), a ‘first attempt’ by a poet self-confessedly ‘entirely unknown to the public’; three poems in Forshaw. Ref Forshaw, 69-71; Grainge, II.

Dobie, George (b. 1824), of Lanark, handloom weaver, later ran his own business in Edinburgh; verses commended by the Queen and Lord Palmerston. Ref: Edwards, 5, 128-33. [S]

Dodds, Jeanie (b. 1849), of Hillhouse, parish of Channelkirk, Lauder, daughter of a farm grieve, at age 12 a message girl in a draper’s, later head of dress-making department, and finally self-employed businesswoman; pub. Ruth’s Gleanings: Poems (Kirkcaldy, 1894), and poems in Fifeshire Advertiser; poems include ‘A Pauper,’ ‘The Artist,’ ‘A Mother’s Trust,’ ‘Consider the Lilies,’ ‘The Pauper’s Burying Ground,’ and ‘Lines Written on a Child’s Album,’ and ‘Nothing that Defileth’. Her poems are sentimental verses on the stresses of life and rewards of friendship. Ref: Crockett, 263-4; Edwards, 13, 53-6; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Dodsley, Robert (1704-1764), footman of Mansfield, later a major London publisher. Pub. Servitude (1729), A Muse in Livery, or, The Footman's Miscellany (1732), The Modern Reasoners (1734), An Epistle to Mr. Pope, Occasion'd by his Essay on Man (1734), Beauty, or, The Art of Charming (1735), Miseries of Poverty (1731), and also an anthology, A Collection of Poems by Several Hands, 'to preserve to the public those poetical performances, which seemed to merit a long remembrance' (ODNB). Ref: LC 1, 73-120; ODNB; Radcliffe; Unwin, 71-72; Røstvig, II, 158; Cafarelli, 78; Christmas, 69-71, 106-10, 147 ; Sutton, 320 (manuscripts, letters, legal papers); Harry M. Solomon, The Rise of Robert Dodsley: Creating the New Age of Print (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996). [LC 1]

Doig, Alexander (1848-92), of Dundee, tailor. Ref: Edwards, 13, 261-4; Reid 133-5. [S]

Donald, George (b. 1826), of Thornliebank, Renfrewshire, son of factory worker (his father was a radical and also a poet published in Glasgow newspapers—unidentified further), calico printer, pattern designer, warehouseman, journalist, pub. in the newspapers and a collection of Poems: Reflective, Descriptive, and Miscellaneous (1865), well-reviewed. Ref: Brown, II, 229-33; Edwards, 2, 72-7; Murdoch, 279-82. [S]

Donald, George Webster (1820-91), of Westfield, near Forfar, farmer’s son, lamed cattle-herder, weaver, teacher, keeper of Arbroath Abbey, pub. Poems, ballads and songs (Arbroath, 1867, 1879), “The muckle skeel” and other poems (Dundee, 1870). Ref: Edwards, 1, 21-4; Reid, Bards, 136-40 (with photograph); Reilly (2000), 136. [S]

Donald, James (1815 - c. 1893), of Kirriemuir, handloom weaver, Chartist, band leader and raconteur. Ref: Edwards, 14, 129-32; Reid, Bards, 140-1. [S] [C]

Donaldson, Alexander (b. 1851), of Gifford, Haddingtonshire, tailor, soldier, Precenter in Yester Free Church, ‘comic vocalist and humourist’ (Reilly); pub. Rustic lays (Haddington, 1879). Ref: Edwards, 6, 374-9; Reilly (2000), 137. [S]

Donaldson, Thomas, weaver at Glasgow, Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect; both humorous and entertaining (Alnwick, 1809). Ref: Johnson, item 276, NCSTC. [S]

Donaldson, William (1847-76), of Rathven, Banffshire, printer, at age 17 pub. The Queen Martyr and Other Poems (1864). Ref: Edwards, 1, 343-4. [S]

Donnelly, Robert (b. c. 1800), weaver of Portadown, County Armargh, pub. Poems on Various Subjects, Moral, Religious and Satirical (Portadown, 1852); Poems on Various Subjects (1867); Poems (Belfast, 1872), Poetical Works, 2nd edn (1882). Ref: Hewitt; Reilly (2000), 137; Kate Newman (Dictionary of Ulster Biography: see link). Link: http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/419 [I]

Donnet, James (1830-69), of Dundee, flax-dresser, pub. jointly with D. S. Robertson, Lays of Love and Progress (1859); also collaborated with David Gardiner (qv). Ref: Reid, Bards, 141-3. [S]

Dorward, Alexander Kent (b. 1866), of Letham, Forfarshire, weaver, tailor, soldier poet, pub. poems in the Forfar Herald, emigrated to Pawtucket in the USA. Reif includes ‘The Worker’s Song’ and other poems. Ref: Edwards, 13, 347-50; Reid, Bards, 143-4. [S]

Dorward, John, carter at Letham spinning mill. Ref: Reid, Bards, 144-5. [S]

? Doubleday, Thomas (1790-1870), of Newcastle upon Tyne, son of a soap manufacturer, Quaker family, merchant, ‘angling poet’, Chartist, companion to Robert Roxby (qv). His first publication was a collection of sixty-five sonnets (1818); he also wrote verse dramas The Italian Wife (1823); Babington (1825); Diocletian (1829); Caius Marius (1836); nonfiction Political Life of Sir Robert Peel (2 vols., 1856). Ref: ODNB; Allan, 160-2; Schwab, 191; Sutton, 324 (manuscripts and letters). [C]

Dougall, Neil (1776-1862), of Greenall, sailor, songwriter, pub. Poems and Songs (1854). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 14, 110-16. [S]

Douglas, Alexander, weaver, of Strathmiclo, Fifeshire, pub. Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect (Cupar-Fife, 1806), includes short biography and a poem ‘To Mrs. M___ of R___ on Returning Dr Blacklock’s Poems’ (Thomas Blacklock, qv). Ref: Johnson, item 277. [S]

? Douglas, Francis (bap. 1719-c. 1790), miscellaneous writer, born Aberdeen, commenced business as a baker; pub. The Birthday (1782), A Pastoral Elegy to the Memory of Miss Mary Urquhart (1758) Life of James Crichton of Clunie, Commonly Called the Admirable Crichton (1760), Reflections on Celibacy and Marriage (1771), Familiar letters, on a variety of important and interesting subjects, from Lady Harriet Morley and others (1773), The Birthday; with a Few Strictures on the Times; a Poem in Three Cantos (1782), and A General Description of the East Coast of Scotland from Edinburgh to Cullen (1782). Ref: ODNB; Sutton, 324 (letters). [S]

Douglas, Sarah Parker, formerly Sarah Parker, ‘The Irish Girl’ (1824-81), of Newry, County Down, emigrated to Ayr in childhood, tended cows, uneducated, but later through help of friends was able to learn ‘enough to give a tone to my musings’; at age 20 pub. in newspapers incl. Ayr Advertiser; admired Burns and wrote an ode to him. Her husband had a paralytic arm, became completely helpless and died in the hospital at Ayr; she too died in poverty; pub. [as Sarah Parker] The Opening of the Sixth Seal, and other poems (Ayr, 1846; BL); Miscellaneous Poems, second edition with additions (Glasgow, 1856; BL); [as Sarah Parker Douglas] Poems, 3rd edn (Ayr, 1861), Poems and Songs, 4th edn (Ayr, ?1880; BL); poems include ‘The Stream of Life,’ Speak Gently of the Dead,’ and ‘Envy Not the Poet’s Lot’. Ref: Edwards, 3, 282-6; Reilly (2000), 137-8; Sales (2002), 90, 175 note 29; Davis and Joyce, nos. 1576 and 4156; inf. Florence Boos. Link: wcwp [I] [F] [S]

Dowey, Ralph (b. 1844), Northumberland miner, poet, newspaper publications. Ref: Allan, 568-9.

Downing, Ebenezer, ‘T’ Stoaker’, of Sheffield, wrote in dialect; pub in 1906 ‘The filecutter’s lament to liberty’ (on new health and safety regulations). Ref: inf. Yann Lovelock; England 15-6. [OP]

Downing, James (b. ?1780), of Truro, apprentice shoemaker, soldier, lost his eyesight and after a period of drunkeneness experienced a conversion, later worked a mangle, pub. A Narrative of the Life of James Downing (A Blind Man) late a Private in his Majesty’s 20th Regiment of Foot. Containing Historical, Naval, Military, Moral, Religious and Entertaining Reflections. Composed by Himself in easy verse, and publishe [sic] at the request of his Friends (pub. by subscription, 1811; London, 3rd edn, 1815; bedford, 1840). Ref: Burnett et al (1984), no. 212.

Dowsing, William (1868-1954), of Sheffield, sonneteer; his fatherless family arrived in Sheffield, tramping from workhouse to workhouse; worked in mines and factories; his original collection financed by the owner of Vickers. Pub. Sonnets Personal and Pastoral (1909); Sheffield Vignettes (1910); Dream Fantasies (1912). Ref: inf. Yann Lovelock [OP]

Drake, John (b. 1846), of Edinburgh, tailor’s boy, various menial and clerical jobs in Glasgow, pub. The Crofter, and other poems (Glasgow, 1888, 1890), Jock Sinclair, and other poems (Glasgow, 1890), The Lion of Scotland, a tale of 1298 (Glasgow, 1897). Ref: Edwards, 13, 109-13; Reilly (1994), 145. [S]

Draper, Francis (b. 1832), of London, carver and gilder, pub. The escape from Lochleven (1879). Ref: Edwards, 9, 48-54. [S]

Drummond, Alexander (1843-70), of Larbert, Stirlingshire, ploughman, businessman, studied German in Konigsberg, land steward to the Earl of Zetland. Ref: Edwards, 6, 48-53. [S]

Duck, Stephen (1705-56), of Charlton St Peter, Wiltshire, thresher poet, a seminal amd highly influential figure in the history of labouring-class poetry, author of ‘The Thresher’s Labour’ (1730, 1736), patronised by Queen Caroline, later a minister of religion whose sermons were admired. Dr Jennifer Batt’s forthcoming biography from Oxford will settle many important matters in his life-story including the questionable story of his ‘suicide’. Ref: LC 1, 127-80; ODNB; Rose Mary Davis, Stephen Duck, the Thresher Poet (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1926); John Goodridge, Rural Life in Eighteenth-Century English Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), Part I; Southey, 88-113, 182-91; Craik, II, 219-22; Blunden, 106-17; Unwin, ch. 3, 47-67; Tinker, 92-5; Ashraf (1978), I, 30-1, 53; Klaus (1985), x, 2-21; Shiach, 44, 47-52; Cafarelli, 78; Richardson, 257; Rizzo, 242-9; Phillips, 212-13; Vincent, 30-3; Christmas, 17-18, 20-1, 26, 73-95, 122-5; Milne (2001); Keegan (2003); Keegan (2008), passim; Sutton, 331 (manuscripts and letters). For ‘Arthur Duck’ of Ipswich (b. 1680), author of the parodic The Thresher’s Miscellany (1730) see Røstvig, II, 157-8; Cranbrook, 187. [LC 1]

? Dudgeon, William (1758-1813), Berwickshire farmer, older contemporary of Burns. Pub. song ‘The Maid that Tends the Goats’ (included in Cunningham's [qv] edition of Burns's Works). Ref: ODNB; Crockett, 99-101; Shanks, 115. [S]

Duffy, Alexander, weaver, pub. Poems on Various Subjects (Dungannon, 1813), 197 subscribers. Ref. Hewitt. [I]

Dugdale, Richard (1790-1875), of Blackburn, ‘The Bard of Ribblesdale’‚ parish apprentice, ran away at fourteen, enlisted and served, poems included in Hull (photograph of the poet in Hull, frontispiece). Ref: Hull, 27-38, James, 171, 173.

Dugeon, Robert, Scottish youth, apprenticed to a tailor, ‘Mr Bateman, in Ripon’, Yorkshire, when he composed a poem, ‘The Lovers’ on the tragic drowning of two lovers in the river Eure at Ripon in 1831; the poem is described as ‘100 verses of homely rhyme’, extracted in Newsam; further publication not noted. Ref Newsam, 153-4. [S]

Dunbar, William (?1852-74), of Wardley Colliery, songwriter, pub. Local and other songs, recitations, and conundrums: A local tale, &c, composed by the late William Dunbar (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1874). Ref: Allan, 511, Reilly (2000), 143.

Duncan, Alexander (1823-64), of Dalmeny, Linlithgowshire, tailor, pub. Leisure Hours (1858). Ref: Edwards, 6, 188-92. [S]

Duncan, D., “A Young Working Man”, author of a poem, The Author Outwitted (Islington: Grubb and Co., [?1860]). Ref: COPAC, BL 11602.e.2.(11.), information Bridget Keegan.

Duncan, John F. (b. 1847), of Newtyle, painter and decorator, pub. ‘Light and Shadows’, a dramatic sketch in verse of the life of Burns, for the Dundee Burns Club and performed at the Theatre Royal, Dundee. Ref: Edwards, 3, 49-51. [S]

Dunlap, Jane (fl. 1765-71, ‘Little is known about this pious Bostonian, except her self-description as a “poor person in [an] obscure station of life” who avidly followed the evangelist George Whitefield…’ (Basker, 192); pub. Poems upon several sermons, preached by the Rev’d, and renowned, George Whitefield, while in Boston. A New-year gift, from a daughter of liberty and lover of truth (Boston, 1771). Ref: Basker, 192. [F]

Dunn, Sarah Jane, of Wormley, Hertfordshire, educated at charity school, suffered from heart and spinal defects, pub. Poems (London, 1870). Ref: Reilly (2000), 143. [F]

Dupe, Eliza (fl. 1860), working-class Christian poet, pub. Happiness, or the secret spring of bliss and antidote of death. By Eliza Dupe, a member of the working class (Oxford: W. Baxter, 1860). Dupe hopes that her poetry will win souls for Christ, the topic of the first poem and the discussion that follows. They then follow themes; ‘Happiness,’ ‘Friendship,’ ‘Heaven,’ ‘Adoption – or Christian Blessedness,’ ‘To Backsliding or Disheartened Christians’ and, finally, ‘The Antidote of Death.’ [F] [—Dawn Whatman]

Durie, James (b. 1823), of Kingskettle, Fifeshire, weaver, quarry worker, seriously injured, became a book and sewing-machine seller. Ref: Edwards, 8, 158-63. [S]

Duthie, George (1804-84), of Glenbervie, Kincardineshire, shoemaker to the Royal Lunatic Asylum, Dundee. Ref: Edwards, 7, 345-9; Reid, Bards, 153-5. [S]

Duthie, Jane Allardice, née Farquhar (b. 1845), of Tannadice, raised in parish of Guthrie where her father tenanted a small farm; worked as a servant until she married Mr. Duthie, a road surveyor, and lived at Dun Cottages, by Religious of character, and interested in astronomy; her songs are about her grandparents, and on how the poor can lead good lives: ‘life’s wirth the livin’ yet’; other poems include ‘Winter,’ ‘The Bonnie Braes O’ Dun,’ and ‘Stocking Lore.’ Ref: Reid, Bards, 155-7 (with photo); Edwards, 1, 307-9; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

? Duthie, Robert (1826-65), of Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, baker’s son, antiquarian, Presbyterian, town clerk, pub. Poems and songs; and, Lecture on poetry, with a brief memoir of the author (Stonehaven, 1866). Ref: Reid, Bards, 157-9; Reilly (2000), 143-4, Bodleian. [S]

Duxbury, James (b. 1854), of Blackburn, factory worker, printer. Ref: Hull, 347-55.

Easson, James (1833-65), of Dundee, painter, pub. Select Miscellany of Poetical Pieces (Dundee, 1856); his poems ‘The Midnight Streets’ and ‘The Factory Girl’ included in Reid; his memorial erected by the proprietors of the People’s Journal. Ref: Reid, Bards, 160-1. [S]

Eccles, Joseph H. (1824-73), of Ripponden, nr. Halifax, later of Leeds, dialect poet and writer of songs in standard English; self-taught twin from a poor family; pub. in Yorkshire and Leeds papers and produced dialect annuals including Tommy Toddles, Tommy’s Annual and the Leeds Loiner and a volume of Yorkshire Songs (1862). Ref. Holroyd 40-2 (a slightly fuller account by Holroyd is given in a press cutting headed ‘A Yorkshire Song-Writer’, reproduced at the back of the British Library reprint of Grainge I, presumably because it was tucked into the BL copy); Andrews, 8-12; Moorman, xxxv, 47-51; England 26.

Eckford, Thomas (b. 1832), herd boy, joiner, hospital warder. Ref: Edwards, 8, 404-8. [S]

? Edington, James Stead, a secretary to the North Shields Tradesmen and Mechanics’ Institution, Northumberland, pub. Billy Purvis’s benefit: The keelman’s grand remonstrance, and other pieces (North Shields, South Shields, Newcastle, Sunderland, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Blyth, 1863). Ref: Reilly (2000), 146.

Edwards, John (bap. 1699-?1776), of Glynceiriog, Denbighshire, ‘Sion y Potiau’, ‘The Welsh Poet’, weaver, Welsh-language poet, trans. Bunyan into Welsh, poems uncollected. Ref: ODNB. [W]

Edwards, John (b. c. 1772), son of shoemaker of Fulneck near Leeds, began life as a weaver, known by the Wordsworths who called him ‘the ingenious poet’, pub. The tour of the Dove, a poem ...with occasional pieces (London, 1821, 1825). Ref: Johnson, items 305-6.

Edwards, Thomas (b. 1857), of Milnab, Creiff, miller’s son, house painter, pub. in People’s Friend, People’s Journal and newspapers. Ref: Edwards 9, 63-68. [S]

? Edwards, William, of Delgaty, Turreff, gardener, pub. A collection of poems, on various subjects, in the English and Scottish dialects (Aberdeen, 1810). Ref: Johnson, item 307. [S]

? Elder, William (b. 1829), apprentice gardener, later superintendent of the Fountain Gardens, Paisley, pub. A Shakespearean Bouquet (1827), Milton’s Bouquet (1874), Burns’s Bouquet (1875), Tannahill Bouquet (1877), all works examining use of flowers in the works of these poets, and doing so in his own poems, and ‘To the defenders of Things as They Are’ in An Address Delivered by William Elder on the Evening of Monday 27th March 1870, at the Soiree of the Eclectic Mutual Improvement Class, Meeting in the Trades Hall, Paisley, S. Mitchell in the Chair (Paisley, nd [1870]). Ref: Brown, II, 256-59; Leonard, 278-80. [S]

Elliott, Ebenezer (1781-1849), of Rotherham, self-styled ‘Corn Law poet’, Sheffield ironmaster, poet and political campaigner, a major figure in the history of nineteenth-centry regional and political poetry, whose works include The Village Patriarch (1829); Corn Law Rhymes (1830); The Splendid Village [with other poems] (1833); Poetical Works (1840); More Verse and Prose (1850). Ref: LC 4, 177-86; ODNB; Holroyd, 9, 17; Newsam, 103-4; Thomas Carlyle, ‘Corn-Law Rhymes’, Edinburgh Review, CX (April 1832), 338-61, reprinted in the various editions of Carlyle’s essays; A.A. Eaglestone, Ebenezer Elliott...1781-1859 (Sheffield, 1959); Howitt, 643-68; Burnett et al (1984), no. 226; Cross, 148-50; James, 171, 173-4, 176-9; Vicinus (1974), 96-7, 165-6, 168-70; Ashraf (1975), 149-52; Sambrook, 1360; Maidment (1983), 80-3; Maidment (1987), 48-55, 61-2, 102-11, 223-4, Johnson, items 127, 313, 612; Scheckner, 141-52, 332-3; Goodridge (1999), item 40; Miles, II, 231-60; Ricks, 302-3; Sales (2002), 83-4; Keegan (2008), 95-97; Sutton, 353 (business records, manuscripts, letters); Selected Poetry of Ebenezer Elliott, ed. Mark Storey (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2008); Marcus Waithe, “The Pen and the Hammer: Thomas Carlyle, Ebenezer Elliott, and the ‘active poet’”, in Class and the Canon: Constructing Labouring-Class Poetry and Poetics, 1780-1900, ed. Kirstie Blair and Mina Gorji (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2012), 116-35; Simon J. White, ‘Ebenezer Elliott, the Industrial Revolution and the Rural Village’, in his study of Romanticism and the Rural Community (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2013), 154-74. [LC 4]

? Elliott, Margaret, of Teviothead, Roxburghshire, tenant farmer. Ref: Edwards, 6, 579-81. [F] [S]

Elliott, N[?athaniel] (fl. 1767-76), shoemaker of Oxford, author of The Vestry (Oxford, 1767); An Ode to Charity (Oxford, 1770, Dobell 479); Food for Poets, a Poem (London, 1775); A Prophecy of Merlin, an heroic poem concerning the wondrous success of a project now on foot to make the River from the Severn to Stroud in Gloucestershire navigable, translated from the original Latin annexed, with notes explanatory (1776, BL 11633.g.21; Dobell 480); The Atheist, a Poem (Birmingham, 1770, Dobell 2889); Food for Poets (n. d.). [There may have been two N. Elliotts, and the ESTC entry suggests The Atheist is by the other one.] Ref: LC 2, 251-62; Dobell. [LC 2]

Elliott, Robert, of Choppington, miner, poet, member of the ‘School of Bedlington Radicals’, wrote ‘A Pitman gan te Parliamint’, pub. Poems & Recitations (Bedlington, 1877). Ref: Allan, 571; Reilly (2000), 150; Edwards, 11, 186; Farne Collection: http://www.asaplive.com/archive/index.asp. Elliott is briefly discussed in John Goodridge, John Clare and Community (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 188-9.

Elliott, Thomas (1820-68), of Fermanagh, shoemaker in Belfast then Glasgow, pub. Doric Lays and Chimes (1856). Ref: Glasgow Poets, 345-50; Janet Hamilton, ‘An Appeal for Thomas Elliot, The Shoemaker Poet’ [poem], in her Memorial Volume: Poems, Essays and Sketches (Glasgow, 1880), 311-12. [I] [S]

Ellis, Edward Campbell (b. 1875), of Montrose, ‘Sartor’, tailor in Arbroath, moved to Glasgow in 1897. Ref: Reid, Bards, 162-3. [S]

? Emerson, G.R., poet, wrote ‘The Dream of the Artisan’ (Peoples Journal, 10 (1850) 74. Ref: Maidment (1987), 214, 224-6.

? Emery, Robert (1794-1871), b. Edinburgh, lived on Tyneside, printer, songwriter. Ref Allan, 284-90; Harker (1999), 115-16; Wikipedia entry lists many songs and collections. [S]

Emmott, James, pub. A Working Man’s Verses (London, 1896). Ref: Reilly (1994), 154.

Emsley, John, Yorkshire village blacksmith, pub. Rural musings (Skipton, 1883). Ref: Reilly (1994), 154.

? Enoch, Frederick, songwriter, of Leamington, Warwickshire, member of the ‘Nottingham group’, later connected with the Pall Mall Gazette, pub. Songs of land and sea (London, 1877). Ref: James, 171; Reilly (2000), 152.

Equiano, Olaudah (‘Gustavus Vassa’, 1745-97), slave, African-American whose famous autobiography includes a long poem on his spiritual awakening. Ref: Basker, 387-90.

Evans, Evan (‘Ieuan Glan Geirionydd’, 1795-1855), farmworker, schoolmaster, translator and priest; born at Trefriw, Caerns, and educated at the Llanrwst Free School; worked on his father’s farm for a while before becoming a schoolmaster at Tal-y-Bont in 1816; ordained priest in Church of England in 1826 and worked as a curate in Cheshire until he retired in 1852 and returned to Trefriw; won numerous prizes and accolades at eisteddfodau; considered “the most versatile Welsh poet of the nineteenth century” (OCLW); pub: ‘Gwledd Belsassar’ (1828), ‘Y Bedd’ (1821); a collected works, including biographical notes, was edited by Richard Parry (1862); other selections were collected by Owen M. Edwards (series Cyfres y Fil, 1908) and Saunders Lewis (1931). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

Evans, John (1818-73), woolcomber, born at Pilton, Somerset, died at Keighley, having been a resident of Bradford and Keighley for 40 years. Pub. The Emigrant (Keighley); Village Scenes (Keighley); The Poacher (Keighley) and ‘a 12 pp. pamphlet on “The Progress of Intemperance” in decasyllabic verse’ (Bradford). Ref Forshaw, [72].

? Evans, Simon, early twentieth-century postman-poet of Cleobury Mortimer. Ref: Poet’s England 14: Shropshire, ed. by Neil Griffiths and John Waddington-Feather (St Albans: Brenthem Press, 1994), 27. [OP]

Ewart, Charles, H., of Dalbeattie, sailor, ‘a frequent contributor to the “Poet’s Corner” of the local newspapers on various names’; poems in Harper include one on Hawaii. Ref: Harper, 245. [S]

Ewing, William (b. 1840), of Gardenside, Bridgeton, Glasgow, engineer and boilermaker, blinded in a workplace accident, pub. Poems and songs (Glasgow, 1892). Ref: Reilly (1994), 157. [S]

Fair, R.C. (fl. 1814-15), political activist and shoemaker poet. Ref: Janowitz, 69, 71, 106-7.

? Fairburn, Angus (1829-87), of Edinburgh, office boy, vocalist, itinerant lecturer, pub Poems by Angus Fairburn, a Scottish Singer (1868). Ref: Edwards, 4, 316-21. [S]

? Fairburn, Margaret Waters (‘M.W.F.’, b. 1825), neé Waters, of Selkirk, assistant keeper of Melrose Abbey, m. a factory worker, pub. ‘Songs in the night’ (London and Edinburgh, 1885). Ref: Edwards, 10, 249-55; Reilly (1994), 159. [F] [S]

Fairley, Cessford Ramsay Sawyers (b. 1868), of Leith, Edinburgh postman known as ‘The Postman bard’, pub. Poems and songs (Leith, 1890). Ref: Reilly (1994), 159. [S]

? Falconar, Harriett (b. ?1774), precocious girl / youthful prodigy; her and her sister Maria’s (qv) background is uncertain, but they were presented as having written poems as children in their ‘rest’ hours, Lonsdale notes that their subscription list suggest Scottish relatives (Robert Falconar of Nairn and James Falconar of Drakies), while Backscheider considers that their mother was probably Jane Hicks Falconar and suggests a daughter or niece relationship to ‘the Scottish poet William Falconar’ (?William Falconer, qv). In 1787, aged about 13 Harriett contributed poems to the European Magazine; with her sister she published Poems (London: Joseph Johnson, 1788), with 400 subscribers including the Duke of Northumberland; Poems on Slavery (1788), and Poetic Laurels (1791). Ref: Lonsdale (1989), 451-2; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 873-4; Basker, 359-60. [F]

? Falconar, Maria (b. ?1771), precocious girl / youthful prodigy; her and her sister Harriett’s (qv) background is uncertain, but they were presented as having written poems as children in their ‘rest’ hours, Lonsdale notes that their subscription list suggest Scottish relatives (Robert Falconar of Nairn and James Falconar of Drakies), while Backscheider considers that their mother was probably Jane Hicks Falconar and suggests a daughter or niece relationship to ‘the Scottish poet William Falconar’ (?William Falconer, qv). In 1786, aged about 15 Maria contributed poems to the European Magazine; with her sister she published Poems (London: Joseph Johnson, 1788), with 400 subscribers including the Duke of Northumberland; Poems on Slavery (1788), and Poetic Laurels (1791). Ref: Lonsdale (1989), 451-2; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 874; Basker, 359-60. [F]

Falconer, William (1732-1770), sailor poet. His ship, The Aurora, was lost at sea 1770. Pub. the very popular and successful poem, The Shipwreck: a Poem, in Three Cantos, by a Sailor (1762, 2^nd edn 1764, 3^rd edn 1769). His The Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1769), “became standard nautical dictionary until the end of sail” [ODNB]. Ref: LC 2, 115-22; ODNB; Wilson, I, 235-46; Unwin, 81-4; Powell, item 201; Keegan (2008), 122-47; Sutton, 361 (manuscripts, receipts); Croft & Beattie, I, 70 (229); William Jones (ed), A Critical Edition of the Poetical Works of William Falconer (Lewiston, NY and Lampeter, UK: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003). [LC 2]

? Falkner, George, member of the ‘Sun Inn’ group of writers, editor of Bradshaw’s Journal (1841-3) and publisher. Ref: Vicinus (1974), 160.

Farmer, Edward (‘Ned’), chief of the Midland Railway Department at Derby, pub. poems on common topics, in various revisions of Ned Farmer’s Scrap Book (1846, 1853, 1863 and later edns). Ref: Bob Heyes, www.abebooks.com listings.

? Farningham, Marianne (pen name of Mary Anne Hearn, 1834-1909)‚ from a ‘Baptist, working-class family’, teacher, pub. eight volumes of poetry from 1860 to 1909, including Poems (1866); A Working Woman;s Life. An Autobiography (London: James Clark, 1907). Ref: ODNB [as Hearn]; Burnett et al (1984), no. 238; Hold, 78-79; ABC, 571-2. [F]

Farquhar, Barbara H, daughter of a labourer, pub. Pearl of Days (1849) [an essay on the sacredness of the Sabbath]; Female Education; Its importance, design and nature (1851); Real Religion; or, the practical application of Holy Scripture to Daily Life (1850); Poems (London, 1863, 1864). Ref: Reilly (2000), 160. [F]

Farquhar, William A. G. (b. 1863), of Fyvie, gardener at Fyvie Castle. Ref: Edwards, 7, 275-6. [S]

Farquharson, Alexander (b. 1836), of Carlops, tenant farmer. Ref: Edwards, 13, 278-82. [S]

Fawcett, Stephen (1805-76), ‘The Ten Hours Movement Poet’, b. Burley, Wharfedale, farmer’s son, moved to Bradford, pub. Wharfedale Lays; or, lyrical poems (London, and Bradford, 1837); Edwy and Algiva (1842); Bradford Legends: A Collection of Poems (1872, by subscription, dedicated to Mayor of Bradford). Ref: Holroyd, 117; Andrews, 154-5 (gives birth as 1807); Vicinus (1974), 141, 161, 172; Johnson, item, 326; Reilly (2000), 160.

? Feist, Charles, of East Anglia (‘Mine’s but an humble Muse, content to sing / Of rustic deeds, and rural scenes t’explore’), pub. The Wreath of Solitude (Newark, 1818), which includes a poem to Kirke White and mention of Bloomfield. Ref: Crossan, 37; Powell, item 202; Johnson, item 327.

Fenby, Thomas, native of Beverley, pub. Wild Roses (Liverpool, 1824), ‘productions of the leisure hours of a mechanic’. Ref: Johnson, item 328.

? Fennel, Alfred, author of The Red Flag. Ref: Kovalev, 130; Ashraf (1975), 214-15; Scheckner, 153, 333.

Ferguson, Dugald (b. 1839), of Brenfield, Ardrishaig, Argyleshire, farmer’s son, emigrated to Australia then New Zealand, settled in Otago, pub. Castle-Gay and Other Poems (Dunedin), and another volume. Ref: Edwards, 13, 296-302. [S]

? Ferguson, Duncan (1824-79), of the Vale of Leven, pattern designer. Ref: Macleod, 112-14, 159-62. [S]

Ferguson, Jems, ‘Nisbet Noble’ (b. 1842), of Stanley, worked in a mill from age 10, apprentice grocer, worked in Glasgow and Perth as a labourer, engine keeper, clerk, surfaceman, dyer, pub. Lays of Perthshire (1880). Ref: Edwards, 1, 146-50. [S]

Ferguson, Malcolm (b. 1838), of Paisley, carpet weaver, mechanic, emigrated to New Zealand, pub. ‘The Emigrant’s Warning’, in Brown, II, 321-24. Ref: Brown, II, 315-24; Leonard, 323-7. [S]

Ferguson, Nicol (b 1830), of Cumbernauld, Dumbartonshire, descendant of the poet Robert Ferguson, coalminer, emigrated to America. Ref: Edwards, 12, 355-9. [S]

? Fergusson, Ballantyne, (c. 1798-1869), farmer, of Gretna, who died ‘aged 71, leaving a great number of MS. poems and prose tales, which are now scattered and probably hopelessly lost’ (Miller, 203). His poem ‘Young Bridekirk’, subtitled ‘An Old Border Ballad’, though, was supplied by his son John Ferguson to the Annandale Observer, who published it (22 May 1995), as does Miller. Ref: Miller, 203-6. [S]

Fergusson, William (1806-62), of Edinburgh, plumber, supporter of Labour League, director of the Philosophical Institution, pub. Songs and poems, with a memoir of the author (Edinburgh, 1864), Ref: Reilly (2000), 162. [S]

Field, George (b. 1804), of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, gardener’s and seamstress’s son, self-educated farm worker stricken by rheumatism, worked as a shoemaker and carpenter, shopworker, postman. Pub. Poems and essays on a variety of interesting subject ... in Reference to the natural and scientifically cultivated systems developed in the world (Stratford-upon-Avon, Birmingham and London, 1870); second edition published with The Universality of Probation (Stratford-upon-Avon: E. Adams, 1871). Both poems and essays are in verse, prefaced by a prose autobiography described as a ‘sad catalogue of illness injury and poverty’; the second vol. is a continuation of the main poem in the first. Ref: Reilly (2000), 164; Charles Cox, Catalogue 51 (2005); inf. Bob Heyes.

? Findlay, John Haddow (1849-95), of Kilmarnock, apprentice ironmonger, commercial traveller, pub. Prose and poetry (Kilmarnock, 1899). Ref: Reilly (1994), 165. [S]

Finlay, William (1792-1847), of Paisley, weaver, pub. Poems, Humorous and Sentimental (1846). Ref: Wilson, II, 131-3; Brown, I, 265-68. [S]

Finlay, William (1828-84), of Dundee, shoemaker, married in his teens and ‘fell into dissolute ways’, wrote a ‘Song of the Wanderer’. Ref: Reid, Bards, 170. [S]

Finlayson, William (1787-1872), of Pollokshaws, weaver, exciseman, pub. ‘Weaver’s Lament on the Failure of the Celebrated Strike of weaving, for a Minimum of Wages, in 1812’ in his Simple Scottish Rhymes (Paisley, 1815). Ref: Murdoch, 27-9; Leonard, 57-62. [S]

? Fisher, James (b. 1818), of Glasgow, foreman in a Calico printer’s, later a schoolmaster, author of ‘The Queer Folk in the Shaws’, in A.G. Murdoch (ed), Recent and Living Scottish Poets (Glasgow, undated). Ref: Leonard, 178-9. [S]

Fisher, Robert M’Kenzie (b. 1840), of Prestwick, Ayrshire, weaver, farm servant, ship carpenter, bookseller and stationer, pub. Poems, songs, and sketches, 3rd edn (Ayr, 1898), Poetical Sparks (1880, two editions by 1890). Ref: Edwards, 6, 324-8; Brown, II, 377-81; Reilly (1994), 166. [S]

Fitton, Sam (1868-1923), of Congleton, Cheshire, then Rochdale, worked in a mill (doffer then piecer (weaver), then as a cartoonist/entertainer, doing recitations of his own verse. Ref: Hollingworth (1977), 153.

Fleming, Andrew, of Whithorn, stonemason, believed to have composed some of the poems in the collection of his brother John Fleming, teacher (Poems, Glasgow, 1838). Ref: Harper, 262. [S]

Fleming, Charles (1804-57), of Paisley, second generation weaver, pub. Poems, Songs and Essays (1878). Ref: Brown, I, 406-10; Maidment (1983), 84; Maidment (1987), 331-4; Reilly (2000), 166. [S]

Fleming, Robert (b. 1856), of Bathgate, orphaned blacksmith’s son, printer, reporter, pub. poems in the People’s Friend and other miscellanies and newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 4, 199-202; Bisset, 254-67. [S]

Fleming, William (b. 1860), of Paisley, father a dyer, apprenticed to boot and shoemaking trade, pub. poems in papers. Ref: Brown, II, 483-87. [S]

Flower, Joseph, fl. c. 1785, butcher, of Chilcompton, pub. The prodigal son, a poem: or, a dialogue between an extravagant youth, his father, Fancy, (the youth’s companion) and an elder brother. In imitiation of the parable of the prodigal in the 15th Chap. of St. Luke. Address’d to Parents and Children. By Joseph Flower, Butcher, of Chilcompton (Bath [1785?]). Ref ESTC. [—Bridget Keegan]

Floyd, William, cordwainer of Notting Hill, London, pub. Lays from the lapstone (Kensington, 1862). Ref: Reilly (2000), 167.

Foot, Edward Edwin (b. 1828), of Ashburton, Devon, son of a shoemaker and hatter, house painter and glazier, inventor, worked for HM Customs in London, pub. The original poems of Edward Edwin Foot (London, 1867). Ref: Reilly (2000), 167-8.

Ford, Robert (1846-1905), of Wolfhill, Cargill, Perthshire, cloth-measurer, clerk, pub. in newspapers, and Hamespun Lays and Lyrics (1878); Humorous Scotch Readings (1881). Ref: Edwards, 1, 125-30; Glasgow Poets, 444-47; Murdoch, 409-13. [S]

Forrest, John, pitman, author of the broadside The Total Banishment of Self-Tyranny & Oppression (Newcastle upon Tyne; E. Mackenzie, undated c. 1831-2). Ref Harker (1999), 135-7.

Forrester, Arthur M., son of Ellen (qv) and sister of Fanny Forrester (qv), co-author with his mother of Songs of the Rising Nation: and Other Poems (Glasgow and London, 1869). Ref: Davis and Joyce, item 1901. [I]

Forrester, Ellen (d. 1883), Irish immigrant, mother of Fanny Forrester (qv) and Arthur Forrester (qv), seamstress, Fenian activist, served time in prison and emigrated to USA, pub. in English and Irish newspapers and vols. Simple Strains (1863) and Songs of the Rising Nation (Glasgow and London, 1869), latter co-authored with her son. Ref: Boos (2001), 269-70. [F] [I]

Forrester, Fanny (1852-89), female operative in a Pendleton Dye-Works, daughter of the Irish immigrant seamstress poet Ellen Forrester (qv) and sister of Arthur Forrester (qv), regular contributor to Ben Brierley’s Journal throughout the 1870s. Ref: LC 6, 175-92; Maidment (1987), 151, 156-8; Zlotnick, Susann, ‘Lowly Bards and Incomplete Lyres: Fanny Forrester and the Construction of a Working-Class Woman’s Poetic Identity’, Victorian Poetry, 36, no. 1 (1998), 17-35, and Women, Writing and the Industrial Revolution (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 168-222; Boos (2008), 237-52. Link: wcwp [F] [I] [LC 6]

Forster, John (fl. 1793-7), shoemaker poet, pub. Serious Poems (1793); Poems, Chiefly on Religious Subjects (1797). Ref: LC 3, 301-4; Winks, 313. [LC 3]

Forsyth, William (‘William o’ ye West’, 1818-79), or Earlston, Berwickshire, of a Covenanting family, pupil-teacher, wool-spinner, hotel keeper, pub. A Lay of Lochleven (Glasgow, 1887), The Martyrdom of Kelavane (1861) and Idylls and Lyrics (1872). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 13, 205-9; Crockett, 183-6 (who gives his birth as 1823); Reilly (1994), 171; Sutton, 376 (letters). [S]

Foster, William Air (1801-62), of Coldstream, shoemaker, moved to Glasgow in 1842, Border sportsman, friend of Hogg, pub. verses in Whistle-Binkie and the Book of Scottish Song. Ref: Crockett, 149-54. [S]

Foster, William C. (fl. 1798-1805), ‘Timothy Spectacles’, of New York State, a ‘self-described workingman of little formal education, but a passionate autodidact’ (Basker 588); pub. Poetry on Different Subjects, Written under the Signature of Timothy Spectacles (Salem, NY, 1805). Ref: Basker, 588-9.

Foulds, Andrew (1815-41), of Paisley, cooper; poems appeared in Renfrewshire Annual of 1841, longest piece ‘The Begunk: a Halloween Tale’. Ref: Brown, II, 42-47. [S]

? Fowler, John (fl, 1798), printer and shopman, of Salisbury and later London, pub. Fowler’s Address, To the Ladies and Gentlemen of Salisbury; Wrote, during his Residence in that City, and now re-published in London, for the Amusement of his Friends (London: At Fowler’s printing Office, No. 21, Newcastle-Street, near Somerset House, Strand, [1798]), broadsheet verse beginning ‘O Yes! with due respects we greet / All folks who pass down Silver-street’. While not strictly part of a labouring-class poetry tradition, this type of humorous self-advertising verse has a kinship with it and is an important presence and element of popular culture, akin to verses used in C18th advertisements, and the annual broadsheet Christmas appeals in verse written and printed by the Clifton Lamplighters in Bristol in the Victorian period. Ref: Croft & Beattie I, 74-5 (item 246), which gives a full-plate image of the broadsheet.

Fox, John Dawson (b. 1849), poet and hymn writer, of Harden, Bingley, raised by grandparents to age 12, worked as a ‘doffer’ at Victoria Mill, Bingley, for five shillings a week; was appointed Librarian of Bingley Mechanics’ Institute, later insurance agent, businessman, local Methodist preacher, temperance advocate; pub. Bonny Morecambe Bay: A Souvenir (1910, verse); Life and Poems of John D. Fox, ‘Throstle nest’, Bingley (Bingley: Thos. Harrison, 1914); Forshaw calls him the author of Struggles of a Village lad, but if so he published it anonymously COPAC has none with his name on). Ref Forshaw, 73-7 (Fox was a subscriber to this); Burnett et al (1984), no. 244. [OP]

Franklin, Robert (fl. 1809-51), of Ferriby Sluice, Lincolnshire, weaver, miller, and descendant of millers, pub. The Miller’s Muse; Rural Poems (Hull, 1824). Ref: LC 4, 291-308; Johnson, item 339. [LC 4]

Fraser, Janet Douglas (1777-1855), of ?Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, daughter of a joiner, from an old covenanting family, stocking weaver at Penpoint, pub. three volumes of religious verse which ‘may still be found in the cottages of pious Nithsdale shepherds,’ according to Miller (1910), who quotes her lines ‘On reading Ralph Erskine’s Paraphrase on the Song of Solomon’; pub. Poems on Religious Subjects (Dumfries [1850?]), copy in BL. Ref: Miller, 240-2. [F] [S]

Fraser, John (b. 1812, Edinburgh), of Paisley, worked in a foundry, worked in tobacco shop, shoemaker, sewed belts in factory, sustaining an injury in which his friend was killed, lectured on phrenology, and was himself discussed in a lecture on ‘The Paisley Poets’, given by J.S. Mitchell in November 1882. Fraser pub. a collection in 1830; the second enlarged edition is Poetic Chimes, or Leisure Lays; also, a Scottish National Play in three acts, entitled King James V., or the Gipsey’s Revenge (Paisley: Gardner, 1852), 192 pp. Ref: Brown, I, 455; Alex & Emily Fotheringham book catalogue no. 68; inf. Bob Heyes. [S]

? Fraser, Lydia Mackenzie Falconer, (née Fraser, later Miller, ‘Mrs Harriet Myrtle’, 1812-76), of Inverness, children's writer, merchant’s daughter, wife of Hugh Miller (qv). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 3, 309-12. [F] [S]

Frazer [Fraser], John (c. 1809-52, ‘the poet of the workshop’), cabinet-maker of Birr, Ireland, Chartist and Irish Nationalist, pub. Hints from Fancy: Poems for the People (Dublin, 1845); Poems (1851), which included his stark poem on the potato famine, ‘The Three Angels’. also pub. under a number of pseudonyms in Irish radical periodicals of the 1840s. Ref ODNB; Schwab, 192. [C] [I]

Freeland, John (1826-88), of Edinburgh, chemist and druggist, local poet and parodist, member of the ‘Under the Beeches’ Literary Society, two poems in Bisset. Ref: Bisset, 151-3. [S]

Freeland, William (1828-1903), of Kirkintilloch, Dunbartonshire, calico-printer, journalist, edited David Buchanan’s poems, pub. A Birth song, and other poems (Glasgow, 1882), Ballads and other Poems (Maclehose, 1904). Ref: Glasgow Poets, 435-40; Macleod, 277-83; Reilly (1994), 173; Edwards, 5, 17-27. [S]

Freeth, John (‘John Free’, 1731-1808), alehouse keeper of Birmingham, topical songwriter and singer, political ballad writer, born at Bell Tavern, Philip Street, Birmingham. Freeth began his working life as a brass foundry apprentice on Park Street, inheriting his father's inn, the Leicester Arms, by 1768. ‘Freeth’s Coffee House’, as it became known, was transformed into a vibrant public sphere; Freeth combined his words about topical local and national events with popular melodies, singing to assemblies that included eminent visitors and patrons. One of the most renowned taverns in England, it became a meeting place for the Birmingham Book Club and Jacobin Club. ~ From 1771 until 1785, Freeth used the pen name John Free in punning reference to his radical and nonconformist outlook. To publicise the inn, Freeth also distributed printed invitation cards, written in verse, comprising vigorous comments on news items as well as indicating the fare offered. ~ The style and content of Freeth’s material reveals affinities with the likes of Ned Ward, the songwriting publican of the 1730s. Britain’s conduct in the War of American Independence irked Freeth to the extent that he repudiated his early radical patriotism, though his later work underlines that Briton’s have a particular historical claim on liberty. Indeed, ‘Britain’s Glory’ became his most famous song in the 1780s and beyond. ~ The enthusiastic response to Freeth’s material conduced him to publish over a dozen collections between 1766 and 1805—the most substantial being The Political Songster (1790)—and he became known as ‘the Birmingham poet’. ~ Freeth had nine children with his wife Sarah. He died, possibly of Paget’s disease, on 29 September 1808. Pub: in The Warwickshire Medley (Birmingham, 1780); Modern Songs on Various Subjects (Birmingham, 1782); New London Magazine, III (1786), Supplement; The Political Songster, or, a touch of the times, on various subjects, and adapted to commmon tunes (6th edn. with additions, Birmingham, 1790). ~ Ref: LC 3, 1-6; ODNB; P. Clark, The English Alehouse: A Social History, 1200-1830 (London: Longman, 1983); J. Horden, John Freeth (1771-1808): Political Ballad-Writer and Innkeeper (Oxford: Leopard’s Head Press, 1993); E. Hughes, Birmingham: The first Manufacturing Town in the World, 1760-1840 (London: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1989) J. Money, Experience and Identity: Birmingham and the West Midlands 1760-1800 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977); R. Palmer, R, The Sound of History: Songs and Social Comment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988); Rizzo, 243; Lonsdale (1984), 656-60, 852n; Poole, 156-60; Hobday; Johnson, item 346; Johnson 46, no. 290; ESTC; BL 11622.b.1, BL 11622.b.44, BL 11632.de.59. [LC 3] [—Iain Rowley]

Frizzle, John, of Cory’s Mill, near Enniskilling, ‘Verses by a Miller in Ireland, to Stephen Duck’, Gents. Mag. III (1733), 95. Ref: LC 1, 231-2; Klaus (1985), 4-5. [LC 1] [I]

? Fulcher, George Williams (1795-1855), printer, son of a tailor, biographer of Gainsborough, pubs include The village paupers: an anti-Poor Law poem of the 1840’s (1850); reprint edited by E. A. Goodwyn (Cherry Hill, Ashmans Rd, Beccles, Suffolk: E. A. Goodwyn, 1981). The Sudbury Pocket Book (second edition, 1841) is ascribed on its final page to ‘G.W. Fulcher, Printer, Sudbury’, and Fulcher is presumably the author of the numerous poems in it signed ‘G.W.F’, including the first one, ‘The Village Poor’. Ref: ODNB; inf. Bob Heyes.

Fullarton, John (b. 1808), of Ballynure, County Antrim, reedmaker, wrote for The Ulster Magazine, pub. O’More: a tale of war, and other poems (Belfast and London, 1867). Ref: Reilly (2000), 174. [I]

Fullerton, John (b. 1836), of Woodside, Aberdeen, millworker, flax ‘heckler’, ‘twister’, learned grammar and composition at evening school, later a writer in a solicitor’s office, contributing to newspapers including the People’s Friend in prose and verse as ‘Wild Rose’ and ‘Robin Goodfellow’, pub. The Ghaist o Dennilair (1870. Ref: Edwards, 1, 16-19; Murdoch, 295-8. [S]

Furness, Richard (1791-1857), currier and preacher, of Eyam, Derbyshire, later of Sheffield, one of the ‘better-known’ working-class poets (James), The rag-bag: a satire. In three cantos (London and Sheffield, 1832), Medicus-Magicus, a poem, in three cantos, with a glossary (Sheffield and London, 1836)—a poem addressed to and descriptive of the miners of the Peak region, Poetical Works, with a Life by J. Calvert Holland (1858). Ref: LC 5, 43-54; ODNB; James, 171-2; Maidment (1983), 84; Maidment (1987), 162-3, 171-2; Johnson, items 352-3; Jarndyce, item 1377. [LC 5]

Furniss, Joseph, snr. (b. 1783), of Weedon Lois, Northamptonshire, son of Richard and Jane Furniss, father of Joseph Furness jnr (qv), shoemaker, pub. with John Coles (qv), Poems Moral and Religious (1811), stating in the preface, ‘We are plain unlettered men; having never received the advantages of an education [...] from our childhood to the present time we have been under the necessity of labouring hard for our daily support’. Ref: Hold, 53-54.

Furniss, Joseph, jnr. (b. 1821), son of Joseph Furniss snr (qv), of Weedon Lois, Northamptonshire, agricultural labourer, pub. Miscellaneous Poems (1841). Ref: Hold, 53-54.

Fyfe, Archibald (1772-1806), of Paisley, mechanic, pub. posthumous Poems and Criticisms, by the Late Archibald Fyfe, Paisley. Ref: Brown, I, 75-77. [S]

Fynes, Richard (1827-1892). English sailor, collier, trade unionist and lecturer; went to sea aged 10, swept overboard, had typhoid, began working at St. Hilda's pit. A prominent trade unionist, active in 1844 Great Strike, he later traveled as a lecturer, addressing miners about their rights. Fynes started his own theatre in 1892 but remained involved with the mines. He published at least one poem, ‘The Coil Barrers’, and an important factual prose work, The Miners of Northumberland and Durham (Blyth, John Robinson, 1873). Ref: A Pitman's Anthology, compiled by William Maurice (London: James and James, 2004); inf. Bridget Keegan.

Gabbitass, Peter (b. 1822), of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, carpenter, moved to Bristol and known as ‘The Clifton Poet’, teetotaller, pub. Musings Poetical from the Diary of Miss Chameleon Circumstances (Bristol, 1876), Cook’s Folly: A Legendary Ballad of St. Vincent’s Rocks, Clifton, and Written There, 3rd edn (Bristol, 1882); Excelsior! a Day Dream in Autumn on St. Vincent’s Rocks, with Other Poems Suitable for Readings and Recitations (Clifton, ?1880); Heart Melodies; For Storm and Sunshine. From Cliftonia the beautiful. By P. Gabbitass, the Clifton Poet, once a Carpenter Boy (Bristol, 1885), includes ‘The Poet’s Autobiography’. Ref: Burnett et al (1984), no. 253a; Reilly (1994), 178, Reilly (2000), 176.

Gairns, Robert (b. 1804), of New London, St Martin’s, Perthshire, handloom weaver, stone dyker and wood cutter, abstainer and reciter, pub. Rustic Rhymes. Ref: Edwards, 9, 385-8. [S]

Gaites, Benjamin (fl. 1820), of Bath, hairdresser, pub. A Basket of Flowers; Being a Collection of Poetical Pieces (Bath: printed by W. Meyler and Son, 1820), with a short list of subscribers. ‘While at Bath, I purchased a little volum[e] of poems written by a man living there, & following the business of a Hair dresser—He calls it the “Basket of wild flowers”—and certainly it contains many very sweet little things[ ] but they are only of a class to please the ear, and to admire for their purity of feeling: they have no touches of the sublime, and beautiful[ ] The poor man, has consequently met with very little patronage, altho’ he has seven children to support.’ (Eliza Emmerson, unpub. letter to John Clare, November 25th 1820, British Library MS Egerton 2345, ff. 239-42). Ref: Johnson, 356.

Galbraith, James (b. 1838), of Glasgow, orphaned by thirteen, bookbinder, shoemaker, self-taught lecturer and journalist, businessman and employer, pub. City Poems and Songs, with a prefatory note by Fergus Ferguson (Glasgow, 1868). Ref: Edwards, 2, 147-54; Reilly (2000), 176-7. [S]

Galbraith, Tina (1837-1923), of Forrestfield, Airdrie, domestic servant who ‘thought in verse, spoke in verse, and wrote in verse’, including verse-letters to the editor of the Airdrie Advertiser. Ref: Knox, 229-34. [F] [S]

Gall, James Hogg (1842-78), of Aberdeen, tailor, soldier. Ref: Edwards 1, 13-14. [S]

? Gall, Richard (1776-1801) of Linkhouse near Dunbar, notary’s son, apprentice housebuilder, printer and poet, friend of Burns and Hector MacNeill, pub. Poems and Songs by the Late Richard Gall (Edinburgh, 1819) Clare owned a copy. ‘Two of [his songs], “The Farewell to Ayrshire” and “Now bank and brae are clad in green”, were falsely assigned to Burns’ (ODNB). Ref: ODNB; Wilson, I, 551-4; Douglas, 300; Powell, item 217. [S]

? Gallacher, Daniel Warrington (b. 1848), Irish labourer’s son, of Paisley, attended charity school, apprenticed printer, compositor, pub. a vol. in 1879 (not found on COPAC, but Brown confirms Edwards’ date and says it was printed in Kilmarnock and was 80 pages). Ref: Brown, II, 307-08; Edwards, 3, 43-4. [S]

Galloway, Robert (1752-1794), born in Stirling, lived in Glasgow, shoemaker and shopman, pub. Poems, Epistles and Songs, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. To which are added a brief account of the Revolution of 1688, and a narrative of the Rebellion of 1745-6, continued to the Death of Prince Charles in 1788 (Glasgow: Printed for W. Bell, for the author, and sold at his shop, No. 24, South side of Bridgegate, and by other Booksellers, 1788), includes two poems on Vincenzo Lunardi’s balloon ascent from Glasgow and ‘The Whiskey Brewers’ Lamentation’. Ref Robertson (1822), II, 128; ODNB; Croft & Beattie I, 78 (item 257). [S]

Garden, Alexander (b. 1845) of Auchanacie, Banffshire, brother of William (qv), crofter’s son, herdsman, railway labourer, policeman, pub. in periodicals. Ref: Edwards, 2, 117-21. [S]

Garden, William (b. 1848), of Auchanacie, Banffshire, brother of Alexander (qv), crofter’s son, herdsman, baker, pub. Meg’s Wedding, and Other Poems (Keith, 1868), Sonnets and Poems (London, 1890). Ref: Reilly (1994); 180, Reilly (2000), 177; Edwards, 2, 24-7. [S]

Gardiner, David, of Dundee, a poor weaver and field-worker; pub. with James Donnet (qv), a 52-page booklet, Love and Liberty; Being Poems and songs by David Gardiner, Dundee, with Additional Pieces by James Donnet (Dundee, 1853). Ref: Reid, Bards, 174-5. [S]

Gardiner, Peter, of Edinburgh (1847-85), blacksmith, served in the US Marine Corps from 1865, poems in Murdoch. Ref: Edwards, 10, 315-21; Murdoch, 378-83 (with image). [S]

Gardiner, William (fl. 1815-18), father of the botanical William Gardiner (1809-52, qv), also presumably of Dundee, Reid makes reference to him as managing ‘an inheritance of toil and care’, and the ‘warblings of the self-taught muse’; pub. two small vols of Poems and Songs (1815 and 1818). Ref: Reid, Bards, 177-8. [S]

Gardiner, William (1804-85), of Applegarth, Dumfriesshire, cabinet maker, organ and piano maker. Ref: Edwards, 9, 248-55. [S]

Gardiner, William (1809-52), of Dundee, ‘destined to a life of toil’, though followed his uncle and father (William Gardiner, fl. 1815-18, qv) in pursuing botany, and pub. The Flora of Forfarshire (London, 1848), a 300-page book of poetry and prose. Ref: Reid, Bards, 175-7. [S]

? Gardner, Henry, of Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, farmer, pub. Poems (Northampton, ?1898), including hunting poems; but not in COPAC or Northants online library catalogues; nothing via Google or Google Books. Ref: Hold, 81-83.

? Gaspey, William (1812-86) of Blackburn, second-generation journalist, pub. Poor Law Melodies (1841); A Dish of Trifle (London and Whitehaven, 1869); Landmarks of Paradise (London, 1878); Remanets [sic] (London, Keswick and Cockermouth, 1865), and contributed to The Festive Wreath (1842). Ref: Hull, 43-8; James, 171, 177; Reilly (2000), 180.

Geddes, James Young (b. 1850), of Dundee, tailor and clothier, librettist, pub. The new Jerusalem, and other verses (Dundee, 1879), The spectre clock of Alyth, and other selections (Alyth, Perthshire, 1886); In the Valhalla, and other poems (Dundee, 1891). Ref: Edwards, 1, 244-6; Reid, Bards, 179-81; Reilly (1994), 182; Reilly (2000), 180. [S]

Gellatly, William (1792-1868), of Kettins, Coupar-Angus, wright, spent time in America. Ref: Reid, Bards, 181-3. [S]

Gemmell, Robert (1821-87), of Irvine, Ayrshire, shipbuilder, soldier, railwayman, pub. Sketches from life, with occasional thoughts and poems (Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1863), Montague a drama, and other poems (London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, 1868), The village beauty, and other poems (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, 1886). Ref: Edwards, 2, 57-62, and 12, xix-xx; Murdoch, 199-201; Reilly (1994), 182; Reilly (2000), 180-1. [S]

? Gemmill, Jamie, tailor, Elegy on Jamie Gemmill, tailor (Paisley, 1820), chapbook. Ref COPAC. [S]

Gent, Thomas (c. 1702-1788), miscellaneous writer, born in Dublin of English parents, served as a printer’s apprentice of Dublin, ran away to England from a cruel master, worked as a printer in London, Norwich and York where he married and settled as a printer and author of a great many works especially of antiquity. Gent was ‘like a kind of northern Caxton, printing books of his own writing, and illustrating them by pictures of his own engraving’. His ‘circumstances were generally indigent; so much so, that he often sold almanacks, &c from the York booksellers from door to door’. Gent published the major poem of Peter Aram (qv), ‘Studley Park’, in his The Antient and Modern History of the Loyal Town of Ripon (York, 1733), and was the major publisher of the blind poet John Maxwell (qv). Ref Grainge, I, 146-50. [I]

? Gerrie, James (b. 1852), of Crosshill, Lamphanan, Aberdeenshire, worked in agriculture, later in a mercantile firm in Glasgow. Ref: Edwards, 1, 356-7. [S]

Gerrond, John (b. 1765), of Kirkpatrick-Durham, blacksmith, emigrated to the USA, pub. Poems on Several Occasions, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1802), and various editions of his poems. Ref: Harper, 260. [S]

Gibb, George (1826-84), of Aberdeen, factory operative, railway official. Ref: Edwards, 3, 376-9 and 9, xxiii. [S]

Gibb, George A. G. (b. 1860), of Rothiemay, Aberdeenshire, son of George Gibb (qv), railwayman, police officer, pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 9, 349-53. [S]

Gibson, John (1819-82), of Greenlaw, tailor, Religious Tract Society book-hawker, pub. Poems, grave and gay (1875). Ref: Crockett, 181-2. [S]

? Gibson, Miss, ‘of Nottingham, ‘an uneducated young woman’, contributed a sonnet to Capel Lofft’s Laura, or an Antholoy of Sonnets (London, 1813-14). Ref Meyenberg, 212. [F]

Gifford, William (1756-1826), shoemaker, later a major poet and critic, pub. The Baviad (1791), The Maeviad (1795), Epistle to Peter Pindar (1800); The satires of D. J. Juvenalis, translated into English verse (1802). Ref: LC 3, 329-38; Radcliffe; Hobsbawn & Scott, 96. [LC 3]

? Gilchrist, Robert (1797-1844), of Gateshead, sailmaker’s son, local poet and songwriter, celebrated in his day, pub. A Collection of Original Songs, Local and Sentimental (Newcastle upon Tyne: published for the author, 1824); there is a rich store of information about him, samples of his work and some pictures, on his descendant Paul Gilchrist’s research web pages. Ref: Allan, 169-96; Welford, II, 295-7; http://www.paulgilchrist.net/2.html.

? Gilding, Elizabeth, of Woolwich, Kent, an orphan without formal schooling, pub. The Breathings of Genius, Being a Collection of Poems; to Which are Added, Essays, Moral and Philosophical (London, 1776). Ref: Jackson (1993), 133. [F]

Giles, Joseph (fl, 1771), ‘an uneducated poet hired and coached by Shenstone’ and a member of the topographical movement of the 1770s (Aubin); pub. Miscellaneous Poems: on various Subjects, and Occasions. Revised and Corrected by the late Mr. Shenstone (London: J. Godwin, F. Newbury, et al, 1771), includes ‘The Rapture: on viewing the tomb of SHAKESPEARE, at Stratford-upon-Avon’. Ref Croft & Beattie I, 81 (item 271).

Gilfillan, Robert (1798-1850), of Dunfermline, son of a weaver, apprenticed to a cooper, also worked as grocer’s shopman and a clerk; Original Songs (Edinburgh, ?1831); Songs (2nd ed, Edinburgh, 1835); Poems and Songs (3rd ed, 1839); Emanuel’s land [a poem] (Leith, 1846); Poems and songs, with a memoir (4th ed., Edinburgh, 1851). Ref: ODNB/DNB; Wilson, II, 177-81; Johnson, items 373-4; Sutton, 399 (manuscripts and letters). [S]

Gilkinson, John (1851-95), of Gorbals, Glasgow, son of a working man, writer and shopkeeper, pub. The Minister’s fiddle: a book of verse, humorous and otherwise (Glasgow, 1888). Ref: Glasgow Poets, 430-34; Macleod, 91, 261-64; Edwards, 13, 165-73; Reilly (1994), 185. [S]

Gill, Edmund (1754-1830), shoemaker poet, published single poems in European Magazine; a descendant has created the website ‘The Gill Pedigree’. Refs http://sciway3.net/clark/gill/yorkjohngill.htm; A.J. Peacock, ‘Edmund Gill, Poet, Son of Crispin, and Political Protestant’, York History, 3 (1976), 150.

? Gill, Edwin, of Sheffield Chartist. Ref: Kovalev, 104-5; Scheckner, 154-5, 333. [C]

Gills, Gill or Gils, Thomas, ‘the Blind Man of Bury St Edmunds’, beggar, pub. The Blind Man's Case at London: or, a character of that city. In a letter to his friend in the country. By Thomas Gills, the blind man of St. Edmunds-Bury, Suffolk (1711, Dobell 575; 2nd edn 1712), ‘a vivid if unsophisticated picture in verse of the noise and filth of London’, 8 pp. Weissman also notes that a ‘portion of the poem is based upon the observations of the poet’s wife Deb, who stands at the “garret-window”, and looks out at the street below. The poet goes on to describe the city’s tumult, as he wanders the streets as a beggar’. Also pub. Advice to Youth (1708, BL 161.k.12); Instructions for Children in Verse (BL 161.k.13); Upon the Recovery of His Sight, and the Second Loss thereof (?1710, BL 1643.bb.32). Ref Dobell; ESTC; Weissman, III, item 1201 (xix); Chris Mounsey, ‘Thomas Gills: An Eighteenth-Century Blind Poet and the Language of Charity’, in The Idea of Disability in the Eighteenth Century, ed Chris Mounsey (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2014), 223-45.

Gilmour, George, of Edington, son of a mason, emigrated to America c. 1833, author of ‘The Sabbath’, pub. in Crockett. Ref: Crockett, 209-10. [S]

Glass, Andrew (b. 1820), of Girvan, Ayrshire, handloom weaver, journalist, pub. Poems and Songs (Ayr, 1869). Ref: Edwards, 6, 338-42; Reilly (2000), 184. [S]

Glass, Richard Aitken, ‘Roderick’ (b. 1874), commercial painter, pub. poems in the People’s Journal, Dundee News and elsewhere. Ref: Bisset, 328-33. [S]

? Glassford, William (1762-1822), of Paisley, grocer, described as a ‘dirty, daidlin’, snuffy body, fond of a dram, and fond to dispose of his rhyme, which he hawked through the town’, pub. Poems upon Engaging Subjects (1808), 16 pp. Ref: Brown, I, 41-2. [S]

Glover, Jean (1758-1801), Scottish poet, daughter of a weaver, actress and singer; appears to have published only in periodicals/newspapers; Robert Burns transcribed her song (‘O’er the muir among the Heather’) directly from a performance and published it with music to a different tune in Scots Musical Museum (1792)