b. 20 February 1822. d. 10 May 1869. Nationality: Scottish. VIAF.
Poet. Uncle of poet William Leighton. Born in Dundee and educated at Dundee Academy.
Worked for his brother (who was a ship owner) and travelled widely in 1842-1843, then
employed by a railway firm in Preston, and then became a manager of a Liverpool seed
merchant firm that was located in Ayr. Author of *Rhymes and Poems* (1861), *The Laddies’
Lamentation on the Loss o’ his Whittle, and Other Poems* (1872), *Poems* (1866, 1869),
*Reuben, and Other Poems* (1875), *Records, and Other Poems* (1880). Biographical
information: Reilly, *Mid-Victorian Poetry*, pp. 272-3; “Preface,” *The Poems of William
Leighton*, Elliot Stock, 1890; *Archives Hub* <https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/f1086286-ccf4-3937-8d67-a5d7be608b3a#bioghist>
(19 February 2021). (AC)