Explore correspondence between senders and recipients of letters and documents in the Burns Collection.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 12 December 1787
Robert met Mrs Agnes McLehose during his extended trip to Edinburgh. Although they were both involved with other people, the two began an written, arguably romantic affair which has been immortalized through their surviving correspondence. Addressing each other as ‘Sylvander’ and ‘Clarinda’ to protect their identities in case of exposure, Robert and Agnes continued to write to each other for years, even after Robert married Jean Armour and moved to Ellisland near Dumfries.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 20 December 1787
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated 20 December 1787. The signature and date have been cut off with another small section at the end of the letter.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Mrs Agnes McLehose, 28 December 1787
Includes his comment on their choice of names "You cannot imagine, Clarinda, (I like the idea of Arcadian names in commerce of this kind).' This is the earliest letter in which R.B. signed himself "Sylvander".
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 16 January 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated 16 January 1788
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 20 and 21 January 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated 20 and 21 January 1788 (2 folios) signed "Sylvander"
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 26 January 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated 26 January 1788 signed "Sylvander" but the greeting and date are awanting [presumably to Mrs McLehose], arranging a meeting.
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Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) dies in Rome.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 3 February 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated 3 February 1788. 2 folios.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 13 February 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 13 February 1788. Incomplete; the conclusion of the letter is missing.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 18 February 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated Glasgow, 18 February 1788. The letter has been mutilated by "Clarinda".
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Letter from Mrs Agnes McLehose to Robert Burns, 22 February 1788
Robert met Mrs Agnes McLehose during his extended trip to Edinburgh. Although they were both involved with other people, the two began an epistolatory affair which has been immortalized through their surviving correspondence. Addressing each other as ‘Sylvander’ and ‘Clarinda’ to protect their identities in case of exposure, Robert and Agnes continued to write to each other for years, even after Robert married Jean Armour and moved to Ellisland near Dumfries.
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Burns returns to Tarbolton to see Jean Armour, who is pregnant.
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Jean Armour gives birth to twin girls, who both die, unnamed, within a month.
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Verses to Clarinda
Robert met Mrs Agnes McLehose during his extended trip to Edinburgh. Although they were both involved with other people, the two began an epistolatory affair which has been immortalized through their surviving correspondence. Addressing each other as ‘Sylvander’ and ‘Clarinda’ to protect their identities in case of exposure, Robert and Agnes continued to write to each other for years, even after Robert married Jean Armour and moved to Ellisland near Dumfries.
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Burns takes on the lease at Ellisland, the farm he and Jean will live in from 1789 to 1791.
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Burns receives his Excise commission and begins his traineeship.
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The formal marriage of Jean Armour and Robert Burns is registered in Mauchline, although they likely married in March 1788.
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Jenny Clow, the maid of Agnes Maclehose in Edinburgh, gives birth to a son, Robert Burns Jnr.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 3 January 1788
Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, dated 3 January 1788. The signature has been cut off.
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Burns sends the first version of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to Mrs Dunlop. During his time at Ellisland Farm, Burns writes over 130 songs and poems, nearly a quarter of his total output.
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Thou lingering Star with lessening ray and To Mary in Heaven
Three years after her death and still haunted by the memory of their last meeting, Robert describes his love for Agnes and his enduring sorrow.
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Robert Burns formally takes up Excise work with a salary of £50 per annum.
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William Blake writes Songs of Innoncence.
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George Washington becomes the first President of the United States of America.
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Jean Armour and Robert Burns move into Ellisland Farm.
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The fall of the Bastille in Paris marks the beginning of the French Revolution.
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Francis Wallace Burns is born to Jean Armour Burns.
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Robert Burns writes Tam o’ Shanter.
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Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man is published in London.
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Anne Park gives birth to Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Burns. Betty is raised by Jean Armour with the rest of Burns’s children after Anne’s death in 1793.
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Jean Armour gives birth to William Nicol Burns at Ellisland.
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Washington DC is founded as America’s capital city.
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The first Ten Amendments to the American Constitution are created.
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Robert Burns and his family leave Ellisland Farm and take up residence in Dumfries.
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Mozart dies, aged 35, in Vienna.
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The last meeting takes place between Agnes Maclehose and Robert Burns in Edinburgh. She departs for Jamaica to be briefly reconciled with her husband in January 1792.
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Letter from Robert Burns to Agnes McLehose, 15 December 1791
Writing nine days after their final meeting, Robert complains this is the sixth letter he has sent Clarinda without reply. Undeterred, he tells her he is having a ring made to hold a lock of her hair and has sent a song about her for publication.
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Burns is asked to contribute to George Thomson’s A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs for the Voice.
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Jean Armour gives birth to Elizabeth Riddell Burns.
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Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.
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Letter from Agnes McLehose to Robert Burns, 25 January, 1792
Addressed to "Mr Robt. Burns, of the Excise, Dumfries" and initialled "A.M.". This letter has been published in "The correspondance between Burns and Clarinda with a memoir ... arranged and edited by... W.C.McLehose, New York, 1843.