Darlington, 1879

? Sutherland, Frank (b. 1844), ‘Uncle Peter’, hairdresser, of Morayshire, pub. Sunny Memories of Morayland. Ref: Murdoch, 399-401. [S]

Sutherland, George (1866-93), born near Durham but moved early to Berwick, worked in coal trade at Berwick Station, pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 8, 209-12. [S]

Sutherland, William (b. 1797), a ‘young working class author’ of Langton, Berwickshire, ‘The Langton Bard’, son of a Highland cattleman, joiner, grocer, emigrated to America in 1823, pub. Poems and songs (Haddington: printed for the author, by James Miller, 1821), which includes a lament on the death of Robert Burns and a poem on Allan Ramsay. Ref: Edwards, 12, 166-9; Crockett, 137-8; Johnson, item 887. [S]

Swain, Charles (1801 or 1803-1874), of Manchester, dyehouse clerk, poet, lithographer, member of the ‘Sun Inn’ group of Manchester poets. Pub. Metrical Essays (1827, 1828; dedicated to Charles Tavaré), Beauties of the Mind, a poetical sketch; with lays, historical and romantic (London, 1831; dedicated to Southey, who wrote back to him: ‘If ever man was born to be a poet, you are; and if Manchester is not proud of you yet, the time will certainly come when it will be so’ [ODNB]), Art and Fashion, with other sketches, songs and poems (London, 1863), Dryburgh Abbey, and other poems (London and Manchester, 1868); A Cabinet of Poetry and Romance: Female Portraits from the Writings of Byron and Scott (1845), Dramatic Chapters (1847); Letters of Laura d'Auverne (1853); English Melodies (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1849); and Songs and Ballads (1867). Ref: ODNB; Harland, frontispiece and 217-20, 233, 241-, 244-7, 252, 293-4, 311-12, 323-4, 350-1, 355, 363-4, 422-3, 443, 473, 481-2, Cross, 147-8, Maidment (1987), 121-4, Vicinus (1973), 743, Vicinus (1974), 160, Johnson, items 888-9, DNB, LION, X, xii, Reilly (2000), 446; Sutton, 910.

? Swain, John (b. 1815), of Haddenly Hall, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, cloth finisher, teacher, inspector of letter carriers, lived at Otley, pub. Gideon’s Victory (1835); Harp of the Hills (1851, 1857, 1858); Cottage Carols, and other poems (1860; London, 1861); The Tide of Even, and other poems, with Tales and Songs (1864; London and Otley, 1877). Ref: Holroyd, 130; Reilly (2000), 446.

Swain, Joseph (1761-1796), apprenticed as engraver, Baptist hymn-writer; pub. A collection of poems. On several occasions (London, [1781]); Redemption. A poem (London, 1789, 1797); Walworth Hymns (1792, two editions; 1799, 3rd edition). Ref: ODNB; ESTC.

? Swan, Maggie (b. 1867), of Edinburgh, daughter of a former potato merchant who leased the farm of Mountskip, in the neighbourhood of Gorebridge. The youngest sister of the better-known poet Annie Swan (qv, ‘Annie S Swan Smith’), Maggie attended a village school and the Queen Street Institute for Young Ladies, after which she returned home to help with household duties; pub. in local journals such as the People’s Journal, and her verses include ‘The Homes of Scotland, ‘The Greatest of the Three,’ ‘Change,’ God’s Ways,’ and ‘The Hope of the Spring’. Arguably the Swan sisters might have been considered middle class. Ref: Edwards, 10; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Swan, Robert (b. 1853), of Kirkburn, Peebles, draper, pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards 10, 62-6. [S]

? Swan Smith, Annie S. (1859-1943), ‘David Lyall’, born in Berwickshire, near Coldingham, one of seven children including sister Maggie (qv), also a writer, briefly attended the Queen Street Ladies College in Leith, but was not an attentive student and soon quit. Swan became a prolific and popular novelist, and paid her husband’s (James Burnett Smith) way through medical school at Edinburgh University. She published two volumes of poetry, My Poems (Dundee and London: John Leng, 1900?), circulated by The People’s Friend) and Songs of Memory and Hope (Edinburgh: Nimmo, 1911). See also My Life: An Autobiography (London, 1934). Arguably the Swan sisters might have been considered middle class. Ref: ODNB; Borland, 237; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Swanson, Thomas, unemployed collier and dialect poet, pub. Select Poems (North Shields, 1878), published ‘to support my wife and family during the awful slackness which has prevailed in this and other districts’. Ref: Charles Cox, Catalogue 51 (2005), item 263.

Swift, John, of Rochdale, Lance, Private in the King's Own Light Infantry, served at Waterloo, pub. Reminiscences of the Battle of Waterloo (Rochdale, 1864). Ref: Reilly (2000), 447.

Syme, James, Chartist, author of ‘Labour Song’ (The Northern Star, 26 December 1840) and othe rpoems in the Northern Star and the Chartist Circular. Ref: Maidment (1987), 42-4; Kovalev, 80-1; Scheckner, 309-10, 343; Schwab 217. [C]

Symonds, Thomas Dudley (1847-1915), of Dulwich, ‘The Woodbridge Poet’, boot and shoe maker, pub. Sparks from the Jubilee Bonfire (Woodbridge, [1888]). Ref: Copsey (2002), 341.

Tait, Alexander (fl. 1790), of Paisley, tailor, author of ‘A Ramble Through Paisley’ in his Poems and Songs (Paisley, 1790), wrote poems against Burns (as did Maxwell). Ref: Brown, I, 198-206; Leonard, 36-7. [S]

Tannahill, Robert (1774-1810), of Paisley, weaver, major poet, drowned himself. Pub. Poems and songs, chiefly in the Scottish dialect (Paisley, 1815), The soldier’s return...with other poems and songs (Paisley, 1807); see elegies to him in Brown, I, 209-11. Ref: ODNB; ‘Robert Tannahill Commemoration Website’; NRA (Glasgow); Harp R, xxxii-xliv; Wilson, I, 501-8; Maidment (1983), 85; Johnson, items 334, 892-3; Douglas, 296-9; Brown, I, 86-95; Leonard, 38-52 & 373; LION; Miles, II, 73-86; Basker, 679-80; Sutton, 922. [S]

Tasker, David (b. 1840), of Dundee, mill boy, weaver (warper), mill manager, lived in Carlisle, pub. Musings of leisure hours (Carlisle, 1878). [Brother 'John Paul' mentioned in entry on David Lundie Grieg.] Ref: Reilly (2000), 451, Edwards, 2, 280-3. [S]

Tate, Matthew (b. 1837), of Benton, Northumberland, miner, poet, pub. Stray Blossoms (1874), Pit life in 1893 (Blyth, 1894), Poems, songs and ballads (Blyth, 1898). Ref: Reilly (1994), 463; Newcastle Central Library; Charles Cox, Catalogue 51 (2005), item 266.

Tatersal, Robert (fl. 1734-1735), bricklayer, of Kingston upon Thames, author of The Bricklayer’s Miscellany; or, Poems on Several Subjects (second edition, 1734: BL 1162.k.2). Ref: LC 1, 275-310; ODNB; Unwin, 72-3; Røsvig, II, 158; Shiach, 53-4; Klaus (1985), 4-7 and 14; Lonsdale (1984), 278-80, 844n; Phillips, 213; Christmas, 110-15. [LC 1]

Tatton, William, working man of Stoke, Devonport, pub. Edwin and Marguerite: a legend and other poems (London and Devonport, 1860). Ref: Reilly (2000), 452.

? Taylor, Andrew B., of Arbroath, ‘Quill’, compositor on the Arbroath Guide. Ref: Edwards, 4, 311-16. [S]

Taylor, David (1817-76), ‘The Saint Ninians Poet’, of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, weaver, moved to Stirlingshire, wrote and set songs, wrote for newspapers, drowned in the river Devon on holiday at Dollar, pub. include Miscellaneous Poems (1827), Welm and Amelia with other Poems (1830), The poems and songs of David Taylor, with memoir, notes, and glossary by William Harvey (Stirling, 1893). Ref: Reilly (2000), 453; Edwards, 15, 397-400. [S]

Taylor, David (b. 1831), of Dundee, handloom then powerloom weaver, Secretary of the Nine Hours movement, author of ‘many stirring poems’. Ref: Edwards 1, 26-7. [S]

Taylor, Ellen (fl. 1792), daughter of ‘an indigent cottager’, pub. Poems (Dublin, 1792). Ref: LC 3, 253-60; Lonsdale (1989), 455-7; Carpenter, 473. [I] [F] [LC 3]

Taylor, James (1794-c. 1864), the Royton poet, Lancashire cotton-worker, self-taught, pub. vols. in 1825 and 1830; posthumously pub. Miscellaneous Poems (Oldham: Hurst and Rennie, 1864). Ref: inf. Bob Heyes.

Taylor, James (1813-75), of Main of Nairn, near Stanley, Perthshire, journeyman pattern-drawer, calico printing designer, resided in Glasgow. Ref: Edwards, 4, 174-6. [S]

Taylor, Jessie Mitchell (1815-80), of Paisley, kept a fruit and seed shop, son of John Mitchell (qv). Her verses are included in Brown’s Paisley Poets, and in Lays of St. Mungo; or The Minstrelsy of the West (1844). Three also appeared in her father John Mitchell (qv)’s The Wee Steeple Ghaist (1840). Ref: Brown, II, 48-51; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

? Taylor, John, ‘The Water Poet’ (1578-1653), of St. Ewen’s, Gloucester, Thames boatman, miscellaneous amd travel writer, claimed to ‘have served Elizabeth at sea on seven occasions’ (ODNB), and such other adventures as a voyage in a symbolically paper-made boat and journeys from London to other places including Hamburg, Salisbury and Leicester, all recorded in his writings. Taylor is perhaps the model for the garrulous boatman in Shakespeare in Love who claims to Will to be ‘a bit of a writer myself’ (p. 67, Faber edn, 1999); indeed the real Taylor would almost certainly have known Shakespeare. Among the boatman’s many publications are Taylors Farewell to the Tower Bottles (1622); The Sculler, Rowing from Tiber to Thames (a collection of verses, 1612); The Nipping and Snipping of Abuses (1614); Taylors Urania (1615); numerous prose travel tales and political tracts; Early Prose and Poetical Works (London and Glasgow, 1888). Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe; Southey, 15-87; Craik, II; Unwin, 21-3; Christmas, 66-7; Bernard Capp, The World of John Taylor the Water Poet 1578-1753 (Oxford, 1994). [OP]

Taylor, John (fl. 1787), stay-maker of Limerick, known as an eccentric. Ref: Carpenter, 428. [I]

Taylor, John (fl. ?1827), cotton spinner of Manchester, author of a ‘Jone o’ Grinfield’ broadside ballad on his unemployment and hardship, reproduced and discussed by Hepburn. Ref: Hepburn, I, 40; II, 377, 387-8.

Taylor, John (b. 1839), of Raddery, Ross-shire, orphaned son of a shoemaker, bird-scarer, stable boy, merchant’s assistant, gardener, navigator on the Highland railway, took different jobs throughout Scotland before settling in Edinburgh, pub. Poems, chiefly on themes of Scottish interest, with introductory preface by W. Lindsay Alexander (Edinburgh, 1875), which includes an ‘autobiographical sketch’. Ref: Edwards, 1, 77-80; Burnett et al (1984), 307 (no. 686); Reilly (2000), 453-4. [S]

Taylor, John Kay, self-taught apprentice of Oldham, pub. The Land of Burns and other poems, and The Burial of Burns (Glasgow, 1847). Ref: Manchester Public Library copy of the latter.

Taylor, Kirkwood, of Derby, railwayman, pub. 'Behold the fowls of the air': thoughts in blank verse on matters social and religious (Leicester and Wallasey, Cheshire: 1899). Ref: Reilly (1994), 465.

Taylor, Malcolm (b. 1850), of Dundee, plumber, private secretary, pub. in newspapers, emigrated to America with his family at age 10. Ref: Ross, 144-51; Edwards, 6, 101-7. [S]

Taylor, Peter (b. 1837), of Auchterarder Moor, son of a mason, messenger-boy from age 11, later a brewery bottler, mechanic, businessman. Pub. Autobiography of Peter Taylor (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1903), which includes extracts frok his poetry. Ref Burnett et al (1984), 308 (no. 689). [S] [OP]

Teenan, Joseph (1830-83), of Edinburgh, tailor, self-educated, lived in London and East Linton, pub. Song and satire (London, 1876). Ref: Edwards, 2, 229-33 and 9, xxv; Reilly (2000), 454. [S]

Teer, John (b. c. 1809), of Manchester, cotton piecer (weaver) from age of nine,later a spinner and a warehouseman pub. Silent Musings (Manchester, 1869), which includes an autobiographical preface. Ref: Vincent, 125n; Burnett et al (1984), 309-10 (no. 692); Reilly (2000), 454.

? Teft, Elizabeth (bap. 1723), of Rothwell, Lincolnshire, regarded Duck as a precedent and had ‘want of learning’; but Isobel Grundy in ODNB says she was of middling rank, though not well off financially, and that little is known of her life except from verses; pub. Orinthia’s Miscellany, or, A Compleat Collection of Poems (1747). Ref: ODNB; Lonsdale (1989), 217-19. [F]

Telfer, James (1800-62), of Southdean, Roxburghshire, shepherd’s son, and shepherd, later schoolmaster, poet and novelist; corresponded with Robert White (qv) and Allan Cunningham (qv). Pub. Border Ballads and Other Miscellaneous Pieces (1824, reminiscent of Burns [ODNB], contains 'The Gloamyne Buchte’ and ‘The Kerlyn's Brocke’), dedicated to Hogg. Ref: ODNB; Wilson, II, 217-22, Shanks, 141, Johnson, item 897; Sutton, 930. [S]

? Telford, Thomas (1757-1834), of Glendinning sheep farm, Westerkirk, Eskdale, Dumfriesshire, shepherd’s son, father died in his infancy, parish school education, stonemason, later a major civil engineer (Caledonian Canal, Menia Bridge, Gotha Canal); pub. a poem in Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine (5 May 1779, then, Eskdale (London, 1781, Shrewsbury, 1795). According to ODNB, he wrote at least 12 poems in his life including an extended poem to Burns, 26 verses of which were printed in many editions of Burns from 1801. Ref: ODNB; Miller, 142-3. [S]

Telford, William (b. 1828), of Leitholm, drain digger, emigrated to Canada as a farmer, pub. a vol of selected poems. Ref: Ross, 187-93; Crockett, 245-7. [S]

? Tennant, George (1819-56), of Airdrie, orphaned, brother to Robert Tennant (qv), though quite different in character, Robert being ‘of a bouyant and cheery disposition’ while George ‘from his earliest years suffered from constitutional melancholy’; their contrasting spirits being ‘distinctly reflected in their writings’. Ref: Knox, 301-302. [S]

Tennant, Robert (1830-79), of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, orphaned handloom weaver, postal messenger, letter-carrier, brother of George Tennant (qv); pub. Wayside musings (Airdrie, 1872); see also the David Thomson (qv) poem ‘To Robert Tennant [qv] (Airdrie’s Postman Poet)’ (Knox, 213), and various other poems reprinted in the account in Knox (317-27) of the Airdrie Burns Club’s celebrations of Tennant’s centenary in 1930, reflecting the enduring popularity of this cheerful and familiar local figure. Ref: Edwards, 1, 168-71; Murdoch, 221-6; Knox, 77-95, 213; Reilly (2000), 455. [S]

Terry, Joseph (1816-89), Waterman’s son of Mirfield, later lived in Dewsbury, Brighouse, Birstal, and for much of his youth lived on a boat; worked from age six in a ‘setting shop’ setting cards in machines, later a navigator and provisioner; pub. Poems (1874). Burnett et al (1984) mention an 1848 collection but this is unidentified. His ‘compelling’ unpublished autobiography, written between 1865 and 1868, is extracted in John Burnett (ed), Destiny Obscure: Autobiographies of Childhood, Education and Family from the 1820s to the 1920s (London: Allen Lane, 1982), 66-71. Ref Reilly, 456; Burnett et al (1984), 310 (no. 693).

Terry, Lucy (1730-1821), considered to be first African-American poet, wrote a poem on the Indian attack on Deerfield, MA (1746). Ref: Basker, 99-100. [F]

Tester, William Hay Leith (‘La Teste’, ‘Granny McDoodle’, b. 1829), listed by Andrew Elfenbein in Byron and the Victorians (Cambridge, 1995), 86 as a working-class poet indebted to Byron’s early poems pub. Poems, second edition enlarged, with Autobiography (Elgin, 1867); frontispiece photograph has the poet posing in working clothes, with a large sledgehammer over his shoulder; the playful ‘Autobiography’ at the back fo the volume tells his life in Scots and supposedly in the hand of ‘Granny Mcdoodle’. Ref Burnett et al (1984), 311 (no. 695); www.archive.org. [S]

Thistlethwaite, James, Chatterton’s friend, bluecoat boy apprenticed to a stationer; author of The Prediction of Liberty (1776), full text via Google Books, Dobell 1802, BL 11630.e.16(5); The Consultation (Bristol, 1774, 1775), BL 11659.bb.46(1); Corruption (1780), BL 11642.ee.14(1). Note that Basker, 193-4, includes ‘Bambo and Giffar, An African Eclogue’, as apparently by ‘Thomas Thistlethwaite’ [‘S.E.’], dated 1771. Ref: Daniel Wilson, Thomas Chaterton [sic?], a Biographical Study (___); Dobell, ESTC.

? Thom, John (1834-1909), of Airdrie, son of a hosiery manufacturer, worked for an ironmonger; completed apprenticeship and worked in Wolverhampton, then as a cashier at Rochsolloch Iron Works, finally ran an ironmongery; pub Wallace and Other Poems (1873). Ref: Knox, 298-9. [S]

? Thom, Robert William (1816-?1890), of Annan, Dumfriesshire, surgeon’s son, draper in Blackburn, lived later in Glasgow, pub. Poems (Dudley, ?1860), Coventry poems (Coventry, ?1860), Dudley poems (Dudley, c. 1865), The courtship and wedding of Jock o’ the Knowe, and other poems, 2nd edn (Glasgow, 1878), The epochs: a poem (Glasgow, 1884), Poems (Glasgow, 1880), Poems and ballads (Scotch and English) (Glasgow, 1886). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 1, 221-26; Miller, 274-77; Reilly (1994), 467; Reilly (2000), 458. [S]

Thom, William (?1798-1848), of Aberdeen, ‘The Inverurie Poet’, weaver, later lived in London and Dundee, patron of J. A. Gordon. Pub. ‘The Blind Boy's Pranks’ (1841, first published in the Aberdeen Herald and much syndicated), ‘A Chieftain Unknown to the Queen,’ The Northern Star, September 1842; Rhymes and Recollections of a Handloom Weaver (London and Aberdeen, 1844; 2nd 1845). Ref: LC 5, 139-52; ODNB; Wilson, II, 202-6; Shiach, 36, 67-70; Maidment (1983), 84-5; Maidment (1987), 22 [image], 32-6, 63-5; Scheckner, 311-12, 343; Vincent, 151; Ashton & Roberts, ch. 3, 46-57; NCSTC; Miles, III, 249; Murdoch, 81; Zlotnick, 176; Burnett et al (1984), 311-12 (no. 696); Sales (2002), 84-94; Sutton, 946. [LC 5] [S]

? Thomas, Ann (fl. 1782-95), of Millbrook, Cornwall, naval officer’s widow, pub a novel and a vol of poems by subscription; the latter is Poems on Various Subjects (1784). Ref: Backscheider, 410-11; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 888. [F]

? Thomas, David (1759-1822), known as 'Dafydd Ddu Eryri', Welsh poet, schoolmaster and weaver, won prizes at multiple eisteddfodau under the auspices of the Gwyneddigion Society (1790, 1791); eventually left the Society because of ideological differences with William Owen Pugh, lexicographer, and Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams); established his own literary societies in Arfon and taught the bardic arts (his students were called Cywion Dafydd Ddu, ‘Dafydd Ddu’s chicks’); published his students’ works along with a selection his own poetry in Corph y Gaingc (1810); students include William Williams (“Gwilym Peris’), Griffith Williams (‘Gutyn Peris’), Richard Jones (‘Gwyndaf Eryri’), Owen Williams (‘Owen Gwyrfai’) and John Roberts (‘Siôn Lleyn). Pub: Corph y gaingc (1810, 2^nd posthumous edn in 1834). Ref: OCLW; ODNB/DNB. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

Thomas, Ebenezer (Eben Fardd), (1802-63), schoolmaster and grocer, born in Llanarmon, Caerns. and settled at Clynnog Fawr; son of a weaver, his mother died in 1821; due to poverty, did not receive an education; “took to a wanton, drunken life and…lost his religious faith” but eventually returned to the Calvinist Methodists (1839); gained acclaim when he won the chair at the Powys Eisteddfod (1824) for an awdl (‘Dinystr Jerusalem’) imitating an epic poem by Owen Goronwy (qv); won two other chairs at Liverpool in 1840 and at Llangollen in 1858; pub: Gweithiau Barddonol (c. 1873); Detholion o Ddyddiadur Eben Fardd (ed. E. G. Millward, 1968). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

? Thomas, Frederick, Devonshire hatter, pub. Humorous and other poetic pictures: legends and stories of Devon (London and Plymouth, 1883). Ref: Reilly (1994), 467.

Thomas, George (c. 1791-1872), born at Newtown, Montgomeryshire; owner of a corn-grinding business in Welshpool, later (1829) settled in Llandysil, Mont. as a schoolmaster and poet; wrote mainly mock-heroic and satirical verse; pub: The Otter Hunt and the Death of Roman (1817), The Welsh Flannel (nd), History of the Chartist and the Bloodless Wars of Montgomeryshire (1840), The Death of Rowton (nd), The Extinction of the Mormons (nd). Ref: OCLW; Charles Cox, Catalogue 51 (2005), item 273. [W] [—Katie Osborn]

? Thomason, Mary, (1863-1937), dialect poet, teacher at a Wesleyan primary school in Leigh, her Warp and Weft: Cuts from a Lancashire Loom pub. posthumously (Leigh 1938). Ref: Hollingworth (1977), 155. [OP] [F]

? Thompson, William Gill (1796-1844), of Newcastle, printer, journalist and poet, pub. The Coral Wreath and Other Poems (1821). Ref: Welford, III, 514-16.

Thomson, Alex E. (1864-86), of Netherton, Brechin, factory worker, painter and poet. Ref: Edwards, 7, 353-5. [S]

Thomson, Cecile McNeill, née Sword (fl. 1882), of Ardlissa, Argyllshire; father moved to Selkirk when she was a child, and leased a small farm; at 17 she became a dressmaker, but worked also as lady’s maid and nursery governess; pub. in newspapers and magazines, and a collection,’Tween the Gloamin’ and the Mirk: Poems and Songs (Aberdeen: A. King and Co.,1882). Her poems, generally sentimental and descriptive, included the titles ‘Grannie’s Bairn’ and ‘sunset on Loch Awe.’ Ref: Edwards, 4, 88-93; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Thomson, David (1806-70), of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, shepherd’s son, rural keeper, pub. Musings among the heather: being poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect, by the late David Thomson, arranged and edited (Edinburgh. 1881), wrote a poem ‘To Robert Tennant [qv] (Airdrie’s Postman Poet)’ (Knox, 213). Ref: Edwards, 2, 112-17; Knox, 211-17; Reilly (2000), 459. [S]

Thomson, Hope A. (b. 1863), of Bellshill, Lanarkshire, brother of William Thomson author of ‘Leddy May’, tailor, pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 15, 152-5. [S]

Thomson, Hugh (b. 1847), of Rothesay, iron moulder, letter-carrier, pub. vol of Poems and Essays, and poems in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 8, 205-9. [S]

Thom[p]son, James (1763-1832), weaver of Kenleith, pub. Poems in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1801); Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect (Leith, 1819); A Poem, chiefly in the Scottish dialect, on raising and selling the dead ... (Leith, 1821). Ref: Edwards, 15, 315-20; Johnson, items 905-6. [S]

Thomson, James (1827-88), of Bowden, herder then wood turner, poems include ‘Hogmanay’, ‘Hairst’, pub. Doric lays and lyrics (Edinburgh, 1870; 2nd enlarged edn Glasgow, 1884). Ref: Edwards, 10, 266-73 and 12, xxiii; Douglas, 256-7, 313, Reilly (2000), 460. [S]

Thomson, James (1832-1914), ‘Earnest’, of Wynd, Dundee, factory worker, ‘lapper to trade’, humorous and descriptive poet, pub. in local newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 1, 389-90; press cutting of a letter to the editor from his daughter (Mrs) Jessie Forbes (née Thompson) of Aberdeen, headed ‘A Dundee Song Writer’, paper unidentified but clearly Scottish and local, letter dated 14 February 1933, loose in a copy of Edwards, I in the NTU special collection. [S]

? Thomson, James (formerly Thompson, ‘B.V., 1834-82), of Port Glasgow, orphaned son of a merchant ship’s officer and a dressmaker, major poet. Pub: The City of Dreadful Night (1880); Poems and Some Letters of James Thomson, ed. Anne Ridler (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1963). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 7, 160-72; Leonard, 281-95; Miles, V, 327; Ricks, 442-56; Reilly (1994), 470; Tom Leonard, Places of the mind: The Life and Work of James Thomson (‘B.V.’) (London: Cape, 1993); Sutton, 948. [S]

Thomson, James (b. 1835 [but Edwards gives 1825]), of Rothes, Speyside, Morayshire, crofter’s son, herder, gardener, pub. The captive chief: a tale of Flodden Field, and other poems, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1871), Northumbria; The captive chief, and other poems, 3rd edn (Alnwick, 1881). Ref: Edwards, 3, 380-4; Reilly (2000), 460; Murdoch, 260-2. [S]