Adam Skirving (1719 in

Haddington, East Lothian The Royal Burgh of Haddington ( sco, Haidintoun, gd, Baile Adainn) is a town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is the main administrative, cultural and geographical centre for East Lothian. It lies about east of Edinburgh. The name Haddington is ...

April 1803) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

song writer A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

known for ''

Hey, Johnnie Cope, are Ye Waking Yet? "Hey, Johnnie Cope, are Ye Wauking Yet?", also "Hey Johnnie Cope, are you awake yet?", "Heigh! Johnnie Cowp, are ye wauken yet?", or simply "Johnny Cope" is a Scottish folk song that also features in bagpipe recitals. Background The song commemor ...

''.

Life

Skirving was born in 1719. He became a farmer at

Garleton Castle Garleton Castle is a courtyard castle, dating from the sixteenth century, about north of Haddington, just north of the Garleton Hills in East Lothian, Scotland.Coventry,Martin (2001) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Goblinshead. p.224 Structur ...

, near Haddington, and this is where he was married twice. His eldest son Archibald Skirving painted portraits whilst his second son, Robert, inherited his mother's musical talents but went into the army. All three of these wrote verses but it is Adam who is best remembered as a song writer and his wife is credited with some of the tunes. Skirving was a farmer at "Prora" but he was not keen to write and spent much of his time playing golf, socialising and visiting the horse races. Skirving died in April 1803. He was buried at

Athelstaneford Athelstaneford () is a village in East Lothian, Scotland. It lies almost 6 kilometres (3.5 mi) north-east of the market town of Haddington and about 28 kilometres (17 mi) east of Edinburgh. Battle of Athelstaneford According to popul ...

. His reputation rests on two Jacobite

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s on the

Battle of Prestonpans The Battle of Prestonpans, also known as the Battle of Gladsmuir, was fought on 21 September 1745, near Prestonpans, in East Lothian, the first significant engagement of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Jacobite forces, led by the Stuart exile C ...

, one of which, ''

'', whilst very far from an accurate narrative, is popular enough to be found in many collections of Scottish songs. Skirving wrote the words to a well known tune.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skirving, Adam 1719 births 1803 deaths Scottish songwriters People from Haddington, East Lothian