Surname: Palmer Forename(s): John b. 1800. d. 30 August 1870. Nationality: Scottish.
Working-class poet, writing in English and Scots. Father was from Brydekirk Village,
Dumfriesshire, and later the family moved to nearby Annan. Palmer worked with his
grandfather with the cow herds at Brocklerigg farm. From 1816 he worked with his father
as a billyer in a cotton factory, and then in 1826 he became a publisher’s travelling
agent for Blackie and Fullarton in Scotland and England. Around 1828 he started a
plant and tree nursery in Annan. Married Isabella Smith in 1829. Author of the posthumous
Poems and Songs (1871). Biographical information: A. B. G.’s Introduction to Palmer’s Poems and Songs, W. Cuthbertson & Son, 1871. (AC)