Alexander Findlater | |
|---|---|
 Burtisland, Findlater's birthplace | |
| Born | 4 September 1754 [1] |
| Died | 3 December 1839 [1] Anderston and then Linn Cemetery |
| Occupation | Collector of Excise |
Alexander Findlater was a friend and colleague of Robert Burns and also his immediate superior, as Supervisor, in the Excise service. [1] He knew the poet very well and was a great advocate for Burns after his death and in response to biographies by authors such as Robert Heron, Allan Cunningham and James Currie.
Findlater was born at Burntisland in Fife in 1754. [1] [2] His father was James Findlater, an army officer who became an Excise officer. [2] His mother was Helen Ballantyne, daughter of Ronald and Janet Ballantyne. [2] Alexander had five brothers and four sisters. [1] [2] The Revd Alexander Findlater of Hamilton was his grandfather. On 30 April 1778 he married Susan Forrester of Falkirk. [1] Susan (b.1749) died in 1810 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. [1] Susan's mother was a Napier of Craigannet and was descended from John Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms. Findlater had three further children through his marriage with Catherine Anderson. [1] Alexander may have had a total of five daughters and six brothers. [1]
In 1774 he became an Excise officer and by 1778 he was working in Coupar Angus. June 1790 saw Findlater as an Examiner of Excise and by April 1791 he had achieved the position of Supervisor of Excise with the formal swearing in on 27 October 1791 [3] and he and his family were based in Dumfries, arriving around six months before Burns moved into the town. [1] Findlater was promoted to general Supervisor in Edinburgh in 1797 and to Collector in Glasgow in 1811, succeeding William Corbet. [1]
Findlater retired in 1825, aged 71 after 11 years in post as Collector. [2] [4] He lived at North Wellington Place in Glasgow and died in 1839. His first burial place was in the Anderston's North Street Burial ground with a memorial erected by the Sandyford Burns Club. His grave was moved to the south side of Glasgow's Linn Cemetery in the 1960s following redevelopment of the Anderston area. [5]
On 23 December 1791 Findlater wrote to William Corbet, saying that Buirns was "an active, faithful and zealous officer ... capable of achieving a more arduous task than any difficulty that the theory or practice of our business can exhibit." [6]
Findlater spoke to William Corbet, Supervisor General of Excise, on Burns's behalf about his wish to join the Port Division which came with an extra £20 in salary. He was granted the move however Mrs Dunlop was probably the major influencer. [7]
On 11 June 1792 Findlater spent the whole with Burns visiting a brewery, victuallers, chandlers, wine and spirit merchants, etc. He commented that "Mr Burns had but lately taken charge of this Division, and from that cause, and his inexperience in the Brewery Branch of business, has fallen into these errors but promises, and I will bestow, due attention in future, which indeed he is rarely deficient in. [8]
Findlater was Burns's immediate superior in the Excise and became his friend, defending Burns against the claims of disloyalty and ineffiency that were levelled against him in December 1792. [1] John Syme recalled that he lunched with William Corbet, Alexander Findlater and Robert during the investigation into these accusations. [9]
On 22 December 1794, Findlater having taken ill, Burns became Acting Supervisor in his place for several months until late April 1795. [1] January 1795 was the coldest for many years and Burns's extra duties might take him forty mile on horseback through the snow, with a day starting before dawn and finishing an hour before midnight. The effort naturally damaged his health and his extra pay only amounted to £12 against Burns's extra accommodation costs, etc. Findlater, as Supervisor, was paid a salary of around £200 a year. [10] He revealed his frustration in a letter to Patrick Heron, saying "The business is incessant drudgery, and would be nearly a complete bar to every species of literary pursuit." [11]
A prominent accusation was that Burns was a hopeless drunkard, however Findlater pointed out that the Excise dismissed or demoted officers with such problems, they certainly did not promote them as in Burns's acting post as supervisor. [4] Findlater greatly appreciated Burns's strenuous efforts and devotion to duty and this helped cement their friendship as well as giving him indelible insights into Burns's character. [12]
He joined the Royal Dumfries Volunteers shortly after Burns and John Syme, as did John Lewars. [13] Findlater was a member of the Management Committee that recommended soliciting funds for the uniforms from the public. Burns and twenty-three others petitioned the committee against such a humiliating actions. [14]
Burns added Findlater and John Lewars names to the subscription list for weekly issue of The Bee magazine, produced by Dr. James Anderson [1] the agriculturist, journalist and economist. As a prominent member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society he was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. [15]
In 1815 he wrote a significant letter to Alexander Peterkin regarding the 1815 edition of James Currie's The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns: With Explanatory and Glossarial Notes; And a Life of the Author giving a vindication of Burns's conduct and character over the time that he was his supervisor in Dumfries. He commented that "I believe I saw more of him than any other individual had occasion after he became an Excise officer’ and on another occasion, ‘few people, I believe, were more frequently in his house, particularly after he came to reside in Dumfries, and in the latter days of his life.'"
After Burns's death Findlater became a great advocate for his friend, defending him also against falsehoods spread by other biographers such as Robert Heron and Allan Cunningham. [1]
Findlater had come to the defence of Burns's reputation in 1814 and 1834. It is not known why he let Robert Heron's libelous comments about the Excise passed without comment. [16]
Findlater was one of those who occasionally sat for a time at Burns side in his final days. [17] [18]
James Currie made no recorded attempt to contact Findlater for an eye witness account of the poet and his life and times in Dumfries. [19]
He wrote that "My connection with Robert Burns commenced immediately after his admission to the Excise, and continued to the hour of his death. In all that time the superintendence of his behaviour as an officer of the Revenue, was a branch of my especial province, and it may be supposed I would not be an inattentive observer of the general conduct of a man and a poet so celebrated by his countrymen." [4]
Findlater commented that "It is painful to trace all that has been written on this subject by Dr Currie's successors, who seem to have considered the history of the Poet as a thing like Ulysses' bow, on which each was at liberty to try his strength; and some, in order to out-do their competitors, have strained every nerve to throw all kinds of obloquy on his memory. His convivial habits, his wit and humour, his social talents, and his independent spirit, have been perverted into constant and habitual drunkenness, impiety, neglect of his preofessional duty, and of his family, and in short, almost every human vice; and all this without a shadow of proof." [20]
Findlater concluded that "to attempt the refutation of the various other calumnies with which his memory has been assailed, some of which are so absurd as hardly to merit any attention, does not fall in my way, though I hope they will be suitably taken notice of." [21]
 | This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations .(January 2024) |
Burns first wrote to Findlater on 28 October 1789 from Ellisland Farm, some time before he himself moved to Dumfries: [1]
I believe I mentioned something to you yesternight of the character that Mr Corbet told me you had given of me to our Edinburgh Excise folk, but my conscience accuses me that I did not make the proper acknowledgement to you for your goodness. – Most sincerely & gratefully do I thank you, Sir, for this uncommon instance of kindness & friendship. I mean not by this as if I would propitiate your future inspection of my conduct. No, Sir; I trust to act, and I shall act, so as to defy Scrutiny; but I send this as a sheer tribute of Gratitude to a Gentleman whose goodness has laid me under very great obligations, and for whose character as a GENTLEMAN I have the highest esteem. – It may very probably never be in my power to repay, but it is equally out of my power to forget, the obligations you have laid on. [22]
Burns sent Findlater a gift of new laid eggs from Ellisland Farm with an accompanying note "Mrs Burns, like a true good wife, looking on my taste as a Standard, & knowing that she cannot give me anything --"eateable" more agreeable than a new-laid egg, she begs your acceptance of a few. They are all of them couch, not thirty hours out". [4]
Burns wrote the following couplet "To Alexander Findlater" [4]
The Exciseman and the Gentleman in one, |
In June 1791 Burns wrote to Findlater regarding an incident in which he made an error in surveying stock. This took place during his official Excise duties and resulted in a reprimand and showed that his friend, Supervisor Findlate, was still very much his manager:
I am both much surprised and vexed at that accident of Lorimer's stock. The last survey I made prior to Mr Lorimer's going to Edin'. I was very particular in my inspection and the quantity was certainly in his possession as I stated it. The surveys I have made during his absence might as well have been marked "key absent", as I never found any body but the lady .. and one of the times, it would have rejoiced all Hell to have seen her so drunk. I have not surveyed there since his return. I know the gentleman's ways are, like the grace of G-d, pass all comprehension; but I shall give the house a severe scrutiny tomorrow morning, and send you in the naked facts.
I know, Sir, and regret deeply that this business glances with a malign aspect on my character as an officer; but ... as this single instance of the least shadow of carelessness or impropriety in my conduct as an Officer, I shall be peculiarly unfortunate if my character shall fall a sacrifice to the dark manoeuvres [sic] of a Smuggler. [4] [23]
The "Smuggler" in question is often said to be none other than the brewer William Lorimer, the father of Burns's friend and correspondent Jean "Chloris" Lorimer of Kemys Hall Farm, however Mackay identifies the smuggler with a William Lorimer of Cairnmill. [24] [4] [25]
Burns had included a note "I send you some rhymes I have just finished which tickle my fancy a little."
In a letter to Robert Graham of Fintry on 7 January 1794 Burns lays out some of his ideas for improving the Excise in his areas but adds "Mr. Findlater, my Supervisor, who is not only one of the first, if not the very first, of Excisemen in your Service, but is also one of the worthiest felloes in the universe; he, I know, would be hurt at it; & as he is one of my most intimate friends, you can easily figure how it would place me, to have my plan known to be mine. [26]
In May 1794 to Peter Hill, Bookseller in Edinburgh, Burns comments on Findlater "Allow me to introduce Mr. Findlater to you, our Supervisor of Excise; & a gentleman of great information & the first worth. I lie & have long lain under great obligation to him ..." [27]
Burns wrote a personal and suggestive letter to Findlater concerning Jean "Chloris" Whelpdale nee Lorimer: [28]
I have been among the Angelic World, this forenoon. Ah!
"had ye but been where I hae been,
Ye wad hae been so canty, O!"But don't be afraid: I did not dare to touch the ark of the Covenant; nor even to cast a prophane eye to the mercy-seat, where it is hid among the feathered Cherubim. I am in the clouds elsewhere -
"Ah, Chloris, could I now but sit
As unconcerned as when
Your infant beauty could beget
Nor happiness nor pain."
Dr James Adams MD knew Burns's "Chloris" as a child and he also knew Mrs. Findlater, both of whom had numerous Burns manuscripts which they used to give to Adams’s father, their doctor, instead of payment for medical services. Mrs. Findlater’s had so many manuscripts that Adams recalled how he and her son as children "frequently used the unwritten sides of the sheets for our artistic aspirations in delineating houses, beasts, and boats." [29]
Jessie Lewars, also known as Mrs. James Thomson, was the youngest daughter of John Lewars, a supervisor of excise. Following the death of her 69-year-old father in 1789, Jessie was only 11 years old, when she and her brother John moved to a house in Millhole Brae that lay opposite that of Robert Burns in Dumfries. Jessie was a close Burns family friend and when nearly at the age of eighteen helped the family by nursing Robert in the days leading up to his death and doing the domestic chores.
Gavin Hamilton was one of Robert Burns's closest friends and a patron. The first 'Kilmarnock Edition' of his poems were dedicated to Gavin Hamilton.
John Richmond (1765–1846) was one of Robert Burns's closest friends and confidants. He was born in Sorn parish at Montgarswood, Ayrshire, Scotland. His father, Henry Richmond, was a merchant in Mauchline and owned Montgarswood Farm that lies near Sorn. This farm passed to James, John's brother, having once been farmed by William Fisher, Burns's Holy Willie.
James Smith of Mauchline was one of Robert Burns's closest friends and confidants. He was born in 1765, son of a Mauchline merchant, Ayrshire, Scotland. In 1775, when he was only ten years, old his father, Robert Smith, a prosperous local merchant, was killed in a riding accident, falling from his horse whilst returning from Ayr. His mother, Jean Smith, remarried James Lamie who owned the adjoining house.
John Murdoch of Ayr was Robert Burns's most significant teacher or tutor and he was a friend of the Burnes family. He was born in 1747 and first taught Gilbert and Robert Burns in Alloway when he was only aged eighteen. He remained in contact with the Burnes family for several years after leaving Ayrshire for London. Murdoch, William Burnes and Richard Brown were amongst the most significant influences on Burns life during his early years in Ayrshire.
John Ballantine (1743–1812), was a Scottish merchant and banker and one of the greatest friends, admirers and closest confidants of Robert Burns. Significantly Ballantine gave the poet advice on the selection of poems for his First Kilmarnock Edition as well as being asked for his opinion on the bard's poems.
Margaret Chalmers (1763–1843) or Mrs Lewis Hay was a lifelong friend of Robert Burns and had once turned down his offer of marriage. She married Lewis Hay and upon his death in 1800 she emigrated to Pau where she died in 1843. She corresponded with the poet between 1787 and 1792 although most of these letters were destroyed. One of his last completed works,“Fairest Maid on Devon Banks”, may have been written with her in mind, however her cousin Charlotte Hamilton is the stronger contender.
Alexander Cunningham was one of Robert Burns's closest friends from his time in Edinburgh. They stayed in contact, through at least 19 letters from the poet; and Cunningham was the ardent admirer who encouraged and joined others such as John Syme to raise funds for the poet's family after his death. Cunningham was one of the small group of associates whom Burns actively approached for constructive criticism of his work.
Robert Ainslie (1766–1838) was a Scottish lawyer, and one of Robert Burns's long-term friends from his Edinburgh days. He was probably the closest confidant of Burns, whom he met first at a Masonic or Crochallan Fencibles event. Ainslie accompanied the poet on the first part of his Border Tour. Robert's father, also Robert, was a lawyer a bailie at Duns and a land-steward on Lord Douglas's Berwickshire estates. Robert married Jean Cunningham on 22 December 1798.
John Syme was a Scottish lawyer and one of the poet Robert Burns's closest friends during his time in Dumfries. In the summers of 1793 and 1794 he joined Burns on his two short tours of Galloway. Syme and Alexander Cunningham were amongst the most active of the friends and admirers of Burns's works who raised funds for the poet's family and for his mausoleum with the assistance of others such as James Currie. Together with Dr Willam Maxwell he arranged Burns's funeral.
Robert Graham of Fintry was the 12th Laird of Fintry near Dundee and was one of Robert Burns's most supportive patrons, correspondent and loyal associate. Appointed a Commissioner of the Scottish Board of Excise he assisted Burns with his Excise career and during his 'loyalty' difficulties. He was a great admirer of his poetry and Burns wrote several epistles to him. Burns referred to him as "Friend of my Life - True Patron of my Rhymes."
William Nicol (1744–1797) was a Scottish schoolmaster, and, if ill-tempered and vain, one of Robert Burns's close friends. He was born in Annan parish at Dumbretton, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Burns referred to him in one letter as "Kind hearted Willie" and he accompanied the poet on his August 1787 tour of the Highlands. Burns's third son, William Nicol, born at Ellisland Farm in 1791, was named after his friend, the poet commenting that his newborn son had "that propensity to witty wickedness and manfu' mischief, which even at twa days auld I foresaw would form the striking features of his disposition."
Jean Lorimer (1775–1831) was a friend of the poet Robert Burns, often referred to by him as the "Lassie wi' the lint-white locks" or "Chloris". Lorimer was born at Craigieburn House on a small estate near Moffat and from 1788 to 1791 was a neighbour of Burns when he was living at Ellisland Farm, her father's new farm being at Kemmishall or Kemys Hall, Kirkmahoe Parish, two miles to the south of Ellisland on the opposite bank of the Nith. Burns commented "The Lady on whom it was made, is one of the finest women in Scotland" in a letter to George Thomson, enclosing one of the two dozen or so songs that he wrote for her. They first met when she was a teenager through his excise duties bringing him to their farm.
John McMurdo (1743–1803) was a friend of Robert Burns who became the chamberlain to the Duke of Queensberry at Drumlanrig Castle where the poet was a frequent visitor. His eldest daughter Jean (1777-1839) was also a close friend of Burns, who wrote the song "Bonie Jean" in her honour. As an old Nithsdale family the McMurdos were related to the Sharpes of Hoddam, the Charteris of Amisfield, the Fergussons of Craigdarroch, Dr James Currie and the Duncans of Torthorwald amongst others.
Edward Whigham (1750–1823) was the landlord of a coaching inn, a bailie, Provost of Sanquhar, bibliophile and one of Robert Burns's close friends during his Nithsdale and Dumfries days. Edward married Jane Osborne who died on 6 October 1846.
Francis Wallace Burns (1789–1803) was the second son of the poet Robert Burns, born when the poet was 30 and his wife Jean Armour was 24. Francis was born at Ellisland Farm in Dunscore parish, Nithsdale on the 18 August 1789. His first and middle names were added in honour of Frances Dunlop of Dunlop, Robert's friend, patron and mentor. Her maiden name was Frances Anna Wallace and what is known of his early life comes from the many letters to Frances in which he was mentioned. His father died in 1796 and little is known of Francis's short life after this date.
William Nicol Burns (1791–1872) was the sixth child, third born and second surviving son born to the poet Robert Burns when he was 32 and his wife Jean Armour was 26. William was born at Ellisland Farm in Dunscore parish, shortly before the family moved to Dumfries in 1791. His first and middle name was added in honour of William Nicol, Robert's friend.
Robert Burns Junior or Robert Burns ll (1786–1857) was the first son and one of the first pair of twins born to the poet Robert Burns and his wife Jean Armour. He was born on the 3 September 1786 and baptised on 5 September. John Tennant of Glenconner was a witness at the baptism. His twin sister was Jean Burns, who died of unknown causes in infancy on 20 October 1787. His father, who often called him 'Bobbie', died when Robert Junior was only nine years old, at which point he was the eldest of a family of five legitimate male offspring.
John Lewars (1769–1826) was an excise officer and land surveyor. He was one of Robert Burns's colleagues and friends during his Nithsdale and Dumfries days. John moved with his sister Jessie Lewars in around 1793 to a house in Millhole Brae that lay immediately opposite that of Robert Burns in Dumfries. Jessie Lewars was a very close Burns family friend and helped the family by nursing Robert in the days leading up to his death, doing the domestic chores and caring for the children.
William Maxwell (1769–1826) was a medical doctor who treated Robert Burns during his final illness. He was one of Robert Burns's intimate friends during his Nithsdale and Dumfries days, noted for his Jacobite links that struck a chord with the poet's own symapthies. His father, James Maxwell, took part in the 1745 uprising, and his grandfather, William, had fought in the 1715 uprising. Maxwell never married, but fathered a natural daughter, Elizabeth, who lived with him in Edinburgh.
