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Letter from Robert Burns to James Johnson, 4 May 1787
When Burns visited Edinburgh in the late 1780s, he met the engraver James Johnson who had begun collecting Scottish songs for publication. When the two met in 1787, Johnson’s first volume of The Scots Musical Museum was well-underway.
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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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Letter from Robert Burns to James Johnson, 1791
At the end of the letter "M [or Mr] Anderson, Engraver" has been added; some editors suggest that this may mean that a facsimile of this letter has been produced.
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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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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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The French Republic is established.
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The second Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in a Scottish Dialect is published and the first volume of Thomson’s Select Collection.
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King Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
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France declares war against Britain.
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Robert Burns is appointed Acting Supervisor of the Excise.
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James Glencairn Burns is born to Jean Armour Burns.
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Letter from Robert Burns to James Johnson
When Burns visited Edinburgh in the late 1780s where he met the engraver James Johnson who had begun collecting Scottish songs for publication. When the two met in 1787, Johnson’s first volume of The Scots Musical Museum was well-underway.