Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry

Working-class poet, writing in English and Scots. Born in Bridgend, Perth. Apprenticed first to a plumber and then to a journeyman. In 1850 was employed as a junior clerk in the Inland Revenue Office, and in 1858 joined the Glasgow Volunteer Reserves as an ensign. Was an Edinburgh Freemason. Author of Poems and Songs: Scotch and English (1841), Volunteer Songs (1863), Ragged School Rhymes (1871), Balmoral: Lays of the Highlands, and Other Poems (1871), National Songs and Ballads (1878). Contributed to the Whistle-Binkie. Biographical information: Reilly, Mid-Victorian Poetry, p. 294. (AC)