George Scott Wilkie Robert Burns His Life In His Letters A Virtual Autobiography A Chronology of Robert Burns 1757 Marriage of William Burnes (1721 – 84) at Clochnahill Farm, Dunnottar, Kincardineshire) to Agnes Broun (1732 – 1820) at Craigenton, Kirkoswald) at Maybole, Ayrshire (15 December). 1759 Birth of Robert Burns at Alloway (25 January) 1760 Gilbert (brother) born. 1762 Agnes (sister) born. (1762 – 1834) 1764 Anabella (sister) born.(1764 – 1832) 1765 Robert and Gilbert are sent to John Murdoch's school at Alloway. 1766 William Burnes rents Mount Oliphant Farm, near Alloway and moves his family there (25 May). 1767 Birth of William Burns (brother) 1767 – 1790). 1768 John Murdoch closes the Alloway school, leaving the Burns brothers to be educated at home by their father. 1769 Birth of John Burns (brother). (1769 – 1785) 1770 Robert and Gilbert assist their father in labouring and farming duties. 1771 Birth of Isabella Burns (sister) (1771 – 1858). 1772 Robert and Gilbert attend Dalrymple Parish School during the summer, but having to go on alternate weeks as one is needed to assist on the farm. 1773 Robert studies grammar and French with John Murdoch for three weeks at Ayr 1774 Robert becomes the principal labourer on his father's farm and writes Handsome Nell in praise of Nellie Kilpatrick. 1777 He joins a dancing class, much to his father's horror. William Burnes moves the family from Mount Oliphant to Lochlea (25 May). Burns spends the summer on the smuggling coast of Kirkoswald and attends school there. 1780 With Gilbert and six other young men, Robert forms the Tarbolton Bachelor's Club. Its aims are 'relaxation from toil, the promotion of sociality and friendship and the improvement of the mind.' 1781 He meets and begins to court Alison Begbie, a domestic servant at Cessnock. Robert becomes an apprentice to a flax-dresser in Irvine during the summer. Is initiated as a Freemason at Tarbolton. 1782 The flax shop in Irvine is burned to the ground (1 January) and Burns returns to Lochlea, where his father is involved in a dispute with their landlord. 1783 Burns wins a £3.00 prize for linseed and begins writing his Commonplace Book. In view of their father's financial and legal difficulites, Robert and Gilbert secretly arrange to rent a farm at nearby Mossgiel (autumn). 1784 William Burnes wins his case against his landlord but is ruined financially (27 January) and he dies a few weeks later (13 February) of a ‘phthiscal consumption.’ The family move to Mossgiel. 1785 Burns meets Jean Armour for the first time. Birth of Elizabeth, Robert's first child, to Elizabeth Paton (22 May). He writes The Kirk's Alarm, The Ordination, The Holy Fair, and his Address to the Deil. His Epistles to J Lapraik, Halloween, Holy Willie's Prayer, The Jolly Beggars and The Cotter's Saturday Night. In September he and Jean Armour attest their marriage. John Burns, Robert's brother dies and is buried at Mauchline (1 November). He writes To a Mouse (November). 1786 Jean Armour's father James faints when he hears she is pregnant and repudiates Burns as a son-in-law. Burns in turn repudiates Jean and her father banishes her to Paisley (March). Proposals for the Kilmarnock edition of his Poems are sent to press (3 April). Feeling deserted by Jean, Robert courts Mary Campbell, (b.1763) Highland Mary. (14 May). He goes into hiding from James Armour's writ (30 July) and publishes The Kilmarnock Poems (31 July). Jean Armour gives birth to twins, Robert and Jean (3 September). Mary Cambell dies in Greenock and Robert abandons the plans he made with her to emigrate to the West Indies (October). Burns arrives in Edinburgh (29 November). 1787 The Grand Lodge of Scotland toasts Burns as 'Caledonia's Bard' (13 January); William Creech comissions the Alexander Naysmith portrait of Burns, from which an engraving is made to serve as the frontispiece to the Edinburgh Poems which he publishes (21 April); Burns sells his copyright to Creech for 100 guineas (23 April); Burns and Robert Ainslie tour the Borders (5 May to 1 June) (2 June) May Cameron’s letter telling him of the birth of her child reaches Burns.He returns to Mauchline (8 June) as an acclaimed poet, the first volume of the Scots Musical Museum having been published at the start of the month; he continues his Scottish tours with a visit to the Highlands in June, returning with William Nicol two months later (25 August to 16 September) before touring Stirlingshire (4 to 20 October); Jean, his 1 year old daughter to Jean Armour dies the same month. Meets Mrs Agnes McLehose, whom he would call 'Clarinda' (4 December). 1788 Burns meets with Clarinda (4 January) and his letters to her increase through to February, when he leaves Edinburgh (18 February) for Mauchline to resume his relationship with Jean Armour. As a gesture of commitment he buys Jean a mahogany bed, moves in with her (23 February) Jean bears him twins again (3 March) who both die within two weeks of birth and he returns to Edinburgh for a few days (13 to 24 March) for the publication of volume 2 of Scots Musical Museum and to sign the lease of Ellisland farm, six miles north of Dumfries, where he moves his family (11 June); his marriage to Jean Armour is authenticated by the Mauchline Kirk Session (5 August) three months before Jenny Clow gives birth to his second son, Robert (November). Writes Auld Lang Syne (December). 1789 Burns settles his accounts with Creech in Edinburgh (16 February) and also settles Janet Clow's paternity suit (27 February). His third son, Francis Wallace Burns - his second to Jean Armour - is born (18 August). 1790 Third volume of Scots Musical Museum published (February); his brother William dies in London (24 July); Tam O' Shanter sent to Francis Grose. (1 December) 1791 Anna Park bears Burns a daughter Elizabeth (31 March); Jean Armour accepts the baby into her family a few days before she gives birth to William Nicol Burns (9 April) Burns auctions the crops at Ellisland, (25 August) and renounces the lease of the farm (10 September) The family move to Dumfries, (11 November) Burns visits Edinburgh (29 November to 11 December) to end his relationship with Clarinda before she leaves for the West Indies. 1792 Burns is promoted to Dumfries Port Division (27 February) and is made an honorary member of the Royal Company of Archers (10 April). The fourth volume of Scots Musical Museum is published (August) Elizabeth Riddle Burns, Jean Armour's seventh child, Elizabeth Riddell Burns, is born (21 November) 1794 Maria Riddell breaks off her friendship with Burns.The second edition of the Edinburgh Poems is published (18 February); Burns tours Galloway with John Syme (30 July to 2 August) and sends Scots Wha Hae to George Thomson for inspection (30 August). Burns declines a post in London at the Morning Chronicle (1 May) and continues his research into Scots ballads with another tour of Galloway with John Syme (25 to 28 June); James Glencairn Burns born (12 August). 1795 Writes For a' that an a' that (January) and joins the Dumfries Volunteers (31 January); his friendship with Maria Riddell is reconciled (February); Alexander Reid paints his miniature of Burns (April); the three year old daughter of Jean and Robert, Elizabeth Riddell Burns, dies at Mossgiel (September). 1796 Burns begins the year ill with rheumatic fever and declines through the spring. His last letter precedes his death (21 July) by three days. His body lies in state at Dumfries Town Hall and is buried the next day (25 July). Jean Armour's ninth child - Robert's twelfth - Maxwell Burns is born the day his father is buried. Introduction Burns’ fame as a poet and song-writer is unquestioned, but hidden behind that fame lies another Robert Burns. Not only was he a great Bard, but he was also a man with a phenomenal ability to write letters, letters that reveal him to be a man of erudition, as well as of great compassion. He loved the written word and wrote hundreds of letters to an assortment of people on a wide range of subjects. His introduction into Edinburgh’s bourgeois society opened up opportunities for him to correspond with people of good education and allowed him to develop his writing technique as he wore out quill after quill in his unending desire to commit his thoughts to paper. This collection of letters, arranged chronologically, offers an opportunity to discover the inner Burns in his own words as he describes the many twists and turns in his eventful, but tragically short life. They illustrate how his life arched upwards from his poverty-stricken childhood, rising to his fame and fortune before sliding downhill once again to poverty and ill-health. They also show clearly how his character altered from being a pupil hungry to learn, to that of a young man desperate to find true love, and of his many liaisons in the pursuit of such, becoming eventually that of a hard-working and conscientious husband and father, forced by circumstances to accept employment within the establishment that he had so often mocked and scorned in his poetic works. Unfortunately the great majority of letters received by Burns have been lost to us forever owing to them having been stored in damp conditions. Only a few have survived. However, one or two of his early biographers have included some in their works, so we have access to a small number.