Darlington, 1879

Ablitt, Nat (fl. c. 1850), one of seven sons of Jacob Ablitt of Kesgrave, Suffolk, ‘one day was to school and one day was to keep the sheep’; pub. History, Poems and Writings of Nat Ablitt (Ipswich, c. 1850). Ref: Cranbrook, 99, 153.

Ackroyd, John (1819-76), of Greenclough, Alderscholes, Thornton, Yorkshire, weavers’ son, powerloom weaver at Bradford, Sunday school teacher; pub. Poems, ed. William Cudworth (Thornton, 1886). Holroyd prints and illustrates his non-dialect lyric ‘The Streamlet’, and includes ‘Kirkstall Abbey’ and two other poems. Ref: Holroyd, 7, 36, 87, 193; Reilly (2000), 5.

? Acquroff, Helen (1833-87), a blind woman, temperance advocate, was born in Edinburgh; pub. two small volumes of poetry; verses included ‘Polly Hopkins’, ‘Sabbath School Song’, ‘The Swiss Girl’, ‘When We Were Bairns Thegither’, and ‘The Reformed Drunkard to His Wife’. Ref: Edwards, 11; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Adam, J. R. (b. c. 1801, ‘The Gartnaval Minstrel’), of Colinsee, Paisley, bleacher, soldier, printer, institutionalised in Glasgow general lunatic asylum with depression, helped produce an asylum weekly periodical and wrote poems for it, later self-pub. The Gartnaval Minstrel: consisting of Original Pieces in Rhyme, both comic & sentimental (‘With notes & a brief Biographical Sketch of the author. Composed, printed and published by J. R. Adam, 62, York Street, Glasgow, 1845’). The copy listed in Charles Cox’s catalogue has a presentation inscription to William Prichard, who is referenced in the text. Ref: Brown, I, 343-6; Charles Cox, Catalogue 68 (2015), item 2. [S]

Adam, John, of Dundee, mill worker and ‘wandering minstrel’ (ballad seller). Ref: Edwards, 3, 219-21. [S]

Adams, Jane or Jean (1704-1765), of Carsdyke near Greenock, shipmaster’s granddaughter, mariner’s daughter, governess and maid, teacher, later hawker, died in workhouse; pub. Miscellany Poems (1734). Ref: Harp R, xxii-xxvi; ODNB; Miller, 137-40; Lonsdale (1989), 141-5; Todd (1987); Fullard, 157, 547; Davis & Joyce, item 16; Bill Overton, N&Q, Dec 2004. [F] [S]

Adams, Jane (c. 1788-1864), father died when she was young; as a girl she kept cows, and received no formal education; in The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine, which notes her death on 24 July 1864, she is referred to as ‘a self-taught Scottish poetess of fair talent.’ Pub. Artless Lays (Old Aberdeen, 1846; 2nd edn, Aberdeen, 1849); poems include ‘On the Death of C. H., A Young Woman’, ‘The Spittal Churchyard’, ‘The Braemar Poacher’, ‘To Miss W., On Her Birthday’. The prefatory poem to her book, describing her childhood poverty and disfiguring smallpox at the age of seven, is the most interesting of the volume. Ref: inf. Florence Boos; The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine (1864), p. 239 (via Google Books). [F] [S]

Adamson, Robert (b. 1832) of Muirkirk, near Dunfermline, Fife, scant education, weaver, then engine-keeper in the ironworks; pub. Lays of Leisure Hours, a collection of miscellaneous poems and sketches. With Introductory note, by Rev. A. Wallace, D.D., Glasgow (Dunfermline: A. Romanes, 1879). Ref: Edwards, 1: 226-28; Murdoch, 274-7; Reilly (2000), 6; inf. Bob Heyes. [S]

Adcock, Anna, of Rutland, born ‘among the wild and most sequestered scenes of nature’ and ‘denied a liberal education’; Bate, John Clare (2003), p. 105, describes her as an ‘impoverished schoolmistress’; pub. Cottage Poems (1808). Ref: Jackson (1993), 3-4; Macdonald Shaw, 91-4; Clare, Letters, 333-4. [F]

? Addison, Richard (fl. 1833), of Raindale-Heads near Pickering, North Yorkshire, ‘The Moorish Bard’, author of Carmina excepta; or, Gleanings from the Writings of Richard Addison of Raindale, The Moorish Bard (Hull: J. Hutchinson, 1833); subscription list reflects much local and regional interest. Poems are on a wide range of themes, and include epigrams, two acrostics, a poem on ‘The Miseries of Law’, several pieces on love and love lost including ‘The Lover’s Alphabet’, and others on local events, including include ‘A Peep into Staithes, 1807’, ‘The Old Nail at Kettleness, 1807’, ‘Verses occasioned by an accident at Staithes’ and an ‘Epistle to ___________ Esq.’ (‘Dear Sir, I have received the wig’). There is a poignant and lengthy poem about poverty, ‘Advice to Poor Folks who live above their Income’, and a ‘Memorial of Thanks from Messrs ____ and ____ to M____ H____ of Pickering for the privilege of shooting’. ‘The frontispiece shows the author inside his cottage, a dog at his feet, and kettle boiling on the fire. He sits with a pen in his hand apparently thinking what to write. A table, a bed and various household utensils complete the picture.’ Ref: unidentified book catalogue; online sales description.

Adley, John, pitman, of Newbottle, Durham fl. 1818, pub. The Coal Trade: A Descriptive Poem (Newcastle upon Tyne: J. Marshall, 1818). Ref Harker (1999), 103-5.

Aggett, Thomas Henry (b. 1863), ‘The Railway Poet of the West’, ‘Autolycus’, railway porter of Teignmouth; pub. Demon Hunter, A Legend of Torquay (1889); Vagabond Verses, Through the Combes and Vales of Delectable Devon, By Autolycus (?1894; Teignmouth, 1904). Ref: Wright, 2-4.

Agnew, Nellie Jane (b. 1868), later Mrs Allan McDonald, of Glasgow, mother died when Nellie was ten, attended village school, artist father encouraged her as a painter, pub. poems in the Herald, Scotsman, Mail, People’s Journal and other newspapers, wrote prose sketches e.g. ‘Angling in the Highlands’. Ref: Bisset, 305-13; Edwards, 13, 103 (in the index in vol. 16, Edwards lists her as ‘Agnew, Nellie Johnson’). [F] [S]

Aird, Andrew, of Paisley, joiner, pub. Hope-Temple, or Unpagan’d-Pantheon, a Humorous Poetical Tale (1815). Ref: Brown, I, 223-25. [S]

Aird, David Mitchell (fl. 1843-72), of Paisley, shawl-clipper, compositor with Alex Gardner (who published many of the Paisley poets and poetry anthologies), then in London, then with Galignani in Paris; poems in Brown. Ref: Brown, II, 34-37. [S]

Airth, James (1804-70), of Arbroath, baker, stationmaster, tollkeeper, farmer, pub. Maud’s Dream, and Various Minor Poems (1848). Ref: Edwards, 6, 60-69; Reid, Bards, 1-2. [S]

Aitkin, William (1814-69), of Ashton-under-Lyne, cotton-piecer dismissed for involvement in the Ten-Hours Movement, schoolmaster, local Chartist leader, in prison c. 1840-, visited USA; suicide; pub. poems in the Chartist Circular; English Chartist Circular; McDouall’s Chartist Journal. Ref Schwab 183. [C]

Aitkin, William (b. 1851), ‘Inspector Aitkin’, of Sorn, Ayrshire, shoemaker’s apprentice, railwayman, pub. Rhymes and Readings (Glasgow, 1880); Lays of the Line (Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1883); Echoes from the Iron Road and Other Poems (Glasgow and Edinburgh: John Menzies, 1893). Ref: Edwards, 2, 161-6; Murdoch, 418-22; Vicinus (1969), 341; Leonard, 319-22; Reilly (1994), 7. [S]

Akroyd, Joseph, of Thornton, Bradford, weaver, ‘a poor but apparently pious man’ whose ‘habitation is the busy weaver’s cot, and his study, the industrious loom’. Pub. Original poems, sacred, natural and moral (1832), described as being free verse of a particularly ‘feeble character’. Despite Newsham’s Olympian dismissal, his writing describes his impoverished situation in valuable detail though the verse is weak. Ref: Newsam 154-5.

Aldridge, T. L. (fl. 1850s-60s), of Oxford, pub. [with G. Curtis, qv] 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.

Alexander, James (b. 1858), of Edinburgh, father died when he was young, pub. in newspapers from age 17, worked as a ticket-writer in Glasgow. Ref: Edwards, 7, 224-7. [S]

Alexander, William (1805-75), of Paisley, drawboy and weaver, later a schoolmaster, pub. posthumous collection of work in 1881. Ref: Brown, I, 384-88. [S]

Allan, David (b. 1857), of Carstairs, Lanarkshire, railway signalman, pub. poems in People’s Journal and elsewhere. Ref: Edwards, 6, 166-70. [S]

Allan, David Skea (b. 1840), of Eday, Orkney, tailor from a poor family, later acquired higher education and became an important civic figure in Glasgow. Ref: Edwards, 12, 65-74. [S]

Allan, John (b. 1850), of Bathgate, engineer at Bathgate Chemical Works, pub. poems in the West Lothian Courier, poems in Bisset. Ref: Edwards, 4, 136-8; Bisset, 237-41. [S]

Allan, Peter (fl. 1854), of Creiff, shoemaker poet, pub. The Exile King, and other poems (Edinburgh, 1854). Ref COPAC. [S]

Allan, Robert (1774-1841), Scottish weaver poet of Kilbarchan; first appeared in a collection of Scottish poets in 1820, called The Harp of Renfrewshire; published his own volume by subscription in 1836; The Pocket Songster (1833, 1836); Evening hours: Poems and songs (Glasgow: David Robertson, 1836); Selected Songs (1855). Ref: ODNB; Wilson, I, 510-14; Johnson, item 11. [S]

? Allan, William (1784-?1804), of Arbroath, wheelwright’s son, apprentice solicitor but died at 19. Ref: Reid, Bards, 6-7. [S]

? Allan, William (1837-1903), of Dundee, engineer, blockade runner in the American Civil War, engineering manager of Sunderland, MP for Gateshead, pub. six vols of poetry: inc. Heather-Bells (1875), Rose and Thistle (1878), Northern Lights (1889), A Book of Poems, Democratic Chants, and Songs, in English and Scottish (1891); and a technical volume, The Shipowners' and Engineers' Guide to the Marine Engine (1880). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 1, 281-90; Murdoch, 309-13; Reid, Bards, 2-6. [S]

? Allan, William (b. 1844), of Footdee, Aberdeen, bookbinder, poems in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 6 (1883), 342-4. [S]

Allison, Elizabeth (1824-80), lamed in youth, began business as a dressmaker in her teens, kept house for herself and her sisters, before later being confined for twelve years to bed. Her verses include ‘To the Departed Winter’, ‘The World is Good’, ‘Long Ago’, ‘Her Bright Boy’s Cap’, ‘To the Wintry Winds’, and ‘Death at the Palace’. Ref: Edwards, 7, 145-51; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]

Allison, James (b. 1844), of Glasgow, son of a widowed millworker, storekeeper, poems in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 3, 373-6. [S]

Ambrose, William (1813-73), of Bangor, apprentice draper in Liverpool, London shopworker, later an independent minister, poet and litterateur; competed succesfully in many eisteddfodau from an early age; a number of pubs. in Welsh. Ref DWB. [W]

Anderson, Alexander (‘Surfaceman’, 1845-1909), of Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, son of a quarryman, train driver and poet, self-taught in six languages, described by Vicinus as ‘the first navvy poet’, pub. A Song of Labour and Other Poems (Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, 1873, London, 1883); The Two Angels and Other Poems, with an introductory sketch by George Gilfillan (London and Edinburgh, 1874); Songs of the Rail (London and Edinburgh, 1878 [2 edns], 3rd edition 1881); Ballads and Sonnets (London, 1879); Later Poems of Alexander Anderson “Surfaceman”, ed. with a biographical sketch by Alexander Brown (Glasgow and Dalbeattie: Fraser, Asher & Co, 1912). Ref: LC 6, 241-68; ODNB; Edwards, 1, 157-68; Miller, 294-300; Borland, 220-32 (includes a fine portrait photograph of the poet); Murdoch, 401-6; Wilson, II, 501-5; Vicinus (1969), 4, 342; Maidment (1987), 209 [image], 275-7; LION; Miles, X, xviii; Reilly (2000), 12; Susan Ross, ‘The Poetry of Alexander Anderson, “Surfaceman”, 1845-1909’, PhD dissertation, University of Salford, 2011. [S] [LC 6]

? Anderson, Basil Ramsay (1861-88), of Shetland, brother to Peter Anderson (qv); his poems were posthumously pub. as Broken Lights: Poems and Reminiscences of the late Basil Ramsay Anderson, ed. Jessie M. E. Saxby with a glossary of Shetland terms by Gilbert Goudie (Edinburgh and Lerwick, 1888). His editor was a celbrated Shetlandic folklorist, novelist and poet. Ref: Edwards, 6, 402. [S]