-
Letter from Robert Burns to Gavin Hamilton, 15 April 1786
This letter was published ( in part only) in 1834 by Alan Cunningham, as addressed "to (it is believed) John Ballantine of Ayr." The reverse of the letter, however, bears (in Burns' hand) the name and address of Gavin Hamilton.
-
Robert Burns writes to David Bryce, describing his plans to move to Jamaica and that he believes he has been abandoned by Jean Armour.
-
Robert Burns writes to John Richmond about his planned emigration to Jamaica. Burns had been offered the job of bookkeeper on the Springbank plantation in Port Antonio through his friend Dr Patrick Douglas.
-
Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna.
-
The last meeting takes place between Mary Campbell and Robert Burns, where they exchange marriage vows and bibles. She is reportedly pregnant.
-
Robert Burns is recalled to Mauchline Kirk (Church) to admit his affair with Jean Burns, who is also pregnant with twins. James Armour (Jean’s father) offers a warrant for Burns’s arrest. Burns goes into hiding.
-
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published through subscription in Kilmarnock. 612 copies are printed, costing 3 shillings each.
-
Astronomer Caroline Herschel becomes the first woman to be credited with discovering a comet.
-
Robert Burns informs John Richmond that he has missed the sailing of the Nancy, the first of three ships he booked on to sail to Jamaica.
-
Jean Armour gives birth to twins, Robert and Jean Burns.
-
Mary Campbell dies in Greenock, likely from typhus. She is 23 years old.
-
Burns travels to Edinburgh and spends the winter there, meeting many patrons, artists and writers.
-
Henry Mackenzie reviews Poems, Chiefly in a Scottish Dialect for the Lounger magazine, casting Robert Burns as ‘this heaven-taught ploughman’.
-
William Creech publishes a subscription proposal for printing a second edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, in Edinburgh.
-
Alexander Nasmyth paints a portrait of Robert Burns for the Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.
-
Mozart writes the opera Don Giovanni.
-
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.
-
Formerly enslaved people, sent from London, establish Freetown in Sierra Leone.
-
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.
-
Robert Burns tours the West Highlands.
-
Robert Burns tours the Highlands.
-
Robert Burns meets Agnes Maclehose in Edinburgh.
-
Robert Burns and Agnes Maclehose begin exchanging love letters.
-
Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) dies in Rome.
-
Burns returns to Tarbolton to see Jean Armour, who is pregnant.
-
Jean Armour gives birth to twin girls, who both die, unnamed, within a month.
-
Burns takes on the lease at Ellisland, the farm he and Jean will live in from 1789 to 1791.
-
Burns receives his Excise commission and begins his traineeship.
-
The formal marriage of Jean Armour and Robert Burns is registered in Mauchline, although they likely married in March 1788.
-
Jenny Clow, the maid of Agnes Maclehose in Edinburgh, gives birth to a son, Robert Burns Jnr.
-
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.
-
Robert Burns formally takes up Excise work with a salary of £50 per annum.
-
William Blake writes Songs of Innoncence.
-
George Washington becomes the first President of the United States of America.
-
Jean Armour and Robert Burns move into Ellisland Farm.
-
The fall of the Bastille in Paris marks the beginning of the French Revolution.
-
Francis Wallace Burns is born to Jean Armour Burns.
-
Robert Burns writes Tam o’ Shanter.
-
Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man is published in London.
-
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.
-
Jean Armour gives birth to William Nicol Burns at Ellisland.
-
Washington DC is founded as America’s capital city.
-
The first Ten Amendments to the American Constitution are created.
-
Robert Burns and his family leave Ellisland Farm and take up residence in Dumfries.
-
Mozart dies, aged 35, in Vienna.
-
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.
-
Burns is asked to contribute to George Thomson’s A Select Collection of Original Scotish Airs for the Voice.
-
Jean Armour gives birth to Elizabeth Riddell Burns.
-
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.
-
The French Republic is established.
-
The second Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in a Scottish Dialect is published and the first volume of Thomson’s Select Collection.
-
King Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
-
France declares war against Britain.
-
Letter from Robert Burns to Gavin Hamilton, 16 July 1793
The recipient being Gavin Hamilton is the conjecture of Ferguson, however Ross Roy's conjecture is that the recipient is Robert Aitken.