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Letter from Robert Burns to the Earl of Glencairn, 13th January 1787
Letter written from Lawn Market in Edinburgh on 13th January, 1787 enclosing a poem titled "Verses Intended to be Written Below a Noble Earl's Picture". The letter conveys his gratitude to the Earl for his generous patronage.
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The Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published. 3,000 copies are printed and Burns sells the copyright to William Creech for 100 guineas.
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Formerly enslaved people, sent from London, establish Freetown in Sierra Leone.
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Robert Burns tours the Scottish Borders, using the proceeds of the Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect to fund his tour. He also begins to collect and contribute songs to James Johnson‘s Scots Musical Museum.
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Robert Burns tours the West Highlands.
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Robert Burns tours the Highlands.
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Robert Burns meets Agnes Maclehose in Edinburgh.
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Robert Burns and Agnes Maclehose begin exchanging love letters.
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Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) dies in Rome.
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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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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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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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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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Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn
Burns produced this elegy for his Patron the Earl of Glencairn, who died unmarried at the early age of 42 shortly after returning from a trip to Lisbon which had failed to cure his ailing health. He reminiscences on Glencairns' great worth and how he 'discovered' Burns.
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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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Lament for James, Earl of Glencairn
Burns produced this elegy for his Patron the Earl of Glencairn, who died unmarried at the early age of 42 shortly after returning from a trip to Lisbon which had failed to cure his ailing health. He reminiscences on Glencairns' great worth and how he 'discovered' Burns.