Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry

Poet (writing sometimes in Scots), freemason, and builder. Born in West Barns, East Lothian, Scotland. Married Elizabeth Pettigrew in Edinburgh on 24 May 1839, then Harriet Howell in Nelson, New Zealand, on 30 May 1867. Emigrated to New Zealand with his family and parents by 1853. Publications include Scottish Echoes from New Zealand: Poems (1883), and also poems in New Zealand newspapers. His obituary in Typo (24 September 1887, p. 72), claims he was related to Robert Burns. Member of the Nelson School Committee and Board of Works, and also served as a city councillor. Died in Nelson, New Zealand. Biographical information: One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets, fourteenth series, D. H. Edwards, 1891, pp. 387-8; David Burns (1812-1887), Ancestry. (AC)