Poet, probably working class. Pseudonym: “J. B.” The *Chambers’s Journal* ledgers
gives his details as “Saddler, Ayton,” for his poem “The Dying Year,” published on
14 December 1878 (NLS Dep 341/371; 341/294). This presumably indicates that he worked
as a saddler. Ayton is a village in Berwickshire, Scotland. (AC)