Nelly or Nellie Kilpatrick, Helen Kilpatrick or later Nelly Bone (1759–1820). Nelly (usually short for "Helen") was possibly

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

's first love and muse as stated by Isabella Burns.

Early life

Nelly is usually used as a nickname for "Helen." Some authors give her birth year as 1760. Nelly may have been the daughter of John Kilpatrick,Mackay, page 52 the miller and his wife Jane Reid of Perclewan Mill near Dalrymple.Burns Encyclopedia
Retrieved : 2012-02-06 She was baptised on 1 March 1759.

Life and character

Coylton, old parish church, Hamilton Aisle

He stated that she had a sweet voice and was wont to sing songs as she worked in the fields.Scotland's Culture
2012-02-06 Nelly married William Bone, coachman to the Laird of

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

. After the move from Millmannoch Mill, Nelly lived in the old hamlet of Percluan or Purclewan, at the mill there and may have also met

both there and at Purclewan's smithy where Henry McCandlish, known as Henry Candlish, was the blacksmith. Robert Burns was a close friend of Dr James McCandlish, or Candlish, the blacksmith's son and they had been classmates. Jean, the Sister of James Smith of Mauchline, Burns's close friend, married James Candlish. A parish record at St. Quivox in Ayrshire states that a William Kilpatrick Bone was born to William Bone and his wife Helen Kilpatrick Bone on 12 May 1798. Nelly had a brother, William, who erected her parents' tombstone in the old Low Coylton Kirkyard.Hunter, Page 156

Family origins

At the beginning of the eighteenth century

Millmannoch Millmannoch, also once known locally as the 'Mill of Mannoch'Paterson, Page 211 or Kilmannoch, is a ruined mill and hamlet in the old Barony of Sundrum, South Ayrshire, Parish of Coylton, Scotland about a mile from Coylton and Drongan. The 'Tryst ...

Mill was occupied by a family called Kilpatrick, who also carried on the trade of blacksmithing, because at that time milling lasted around seven months of the year, usually September to April, and as a result millers had to look for alternative work during late spring and summer. Part of the smithy at Millmannoch was still standing in the early 20th century and, it is recorded in front of it there was a large boulder of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

sunk to the level of the ground with a "dog" fixed into it for cart wheel , the metal band or ring on a cartwheel. William Kilpatrick was the miller at Millmannoch; his wife was Hellen Craford (sic). William and Helen had a son, Allan Kilpatrick, born at Millmannoch on 4 October 1725; his wife was Margaret Good who died on 12 August 1770, aged 37. This Allan is sometimes said to have been Nelly's father. Allan moved to Purclewan (Percluan) with his father and like him, worked at two jobs, miller and blacksmith, resulting in some confusion in reports over the profession of Nelly's father; he died aged 57. The headstone was erected by their son William Kilpatrick of Barnhill; his spouse was Agnes Logan (1767–1852) and they had a daughter Agnes (1796–1862). Hill has it that Allan may have been the blacksmith at Mount Oliphant, however the smithy for the farm was the nearby Millmannoch. Mount Oliphant is only about one and a half miles away, an easy walk for Nelly to help with the harvest.Rootsweb
etrieved: 2012-04-29

The true identity of Nell

Burns himself did not identify her by her surname. Some significant doubts exist about the true identity of Burns's first romantic love. It was thought at first to be a

Nelly Blair Nelly Blair, later Nelly Smith (17591820) is sometimes suggested as being Scottish poet Robert Burns' first love. The true identity of Nell Burns himself did not identify his 'Handsome Nell' by name. Nelly Kilpatrick has been suggested as being ...

until Burns's sister

Isobel Isobel, is the Scottish form of the female given name Isabel. It originates from the medieval form of the name Elisabeth (Hebrew Elisheba). Isobel is a feminine given name. People named Isobel include: * Isobel of Huntingdon (1199-1251), Scottish ...

gave the name Nelly Kilpatrick, however

was only three years old at the time and some doubt must be cast on her recollections at this stage in her life. Isobel stated that Nelly Kilpatrick was the daughter of the blacksmith of Perclewan. Nelly Kilpatrick would have been only a few weeks younger than Robert Burns, however he stated that his Nell was a year younger than himself.Mackay, page 51

Association with Robert Burns

When

was 15 he met "Handsome Nell", his first young love, a ''"bonnie, sweet, sonsie lass"'', although he apparently never told her of his love. Nelly Bone, is better known as Nelly Kilpatrick. They are first recorded to have met when William Burnes hired some extra help to bring in the harvest while they were at nearby Mount Oliphant Farm and Burns came to be paired with her, following the Ayrshire custom of that time. In his autobiographical letter to Dr Hunter he wrote: ''"Indeed, I did not not well know myself I liked so much to loiter behind with her when returning in the evening from our labours; why the tones of her voice made my heart-strings thrill like an

Aeolian harp An Aeolian harp (also wind harp) is a musical instrument that is played by the wind. Named for Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of the wind, the traditional Aeolian harp is essentially a wooden box including a sounding board, with strings stretched ...

, and particularly why my pulse beat such a furious rantann when I looked and fingered over her hand to pick out the nettle-stings and thistles."'' He wrote a poem to Nell, unpublished during his life, but it appeared in his ''Commonplace Book'' and set to the tune of Nelly’s favourite

reel A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the en ...

. He had heard her singing a song by a local country

laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

's son who was courting her and felt that he could do better, so it was with Nelly in mind that he wrote his first song "

Handsome Nell ''Handsome Nell'' was the first song written by Robert Burns, often treated as a poem, that was first published in the last volume of James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum in 1803 (No.551) with an untitled tune. Burns recorded in holograph on pa ...

", given the tune "I am a Man Unmarried" in his first ''Commonplace Book''-

The tune to the song has not come down to us. Some years later Burns wrote of this song, saying - ''"I never had the least thought or inclination of turning poet till I got once heartily in love, and then rhyme and song were, in a manner, the spontaneous language of my heart. I remember I composed it in a wild enthusiasm of passion, and to this hour I never recollect it but my heart melts, and my blood sallies at the remembrance."''The World Burns Club.
Retrieved : 2012-02-06 Nelly has been said to figure in Burns's poem, ''"Halloween"''
Retrieved : 2012-02-06

and the verse :

Notes

References

* Annandale, Charles (Editor) (1890). ''The Works of Robert Burns''. London : Blackie & Son. * Dougall, Charles S. (1911). ''The Burns Country''. London: A & C Black. * Douglas, William Scott (Edit.) (1938). ''The Kilmarnock Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns''. Glasgow : The Scottish Daily Express. * Ewing, James Cameron & Cook, Davidson (Editors). (1938). ''

Robert Burns's Commonplace Book 1783–1785 ''Robert Burns's Commonplace Book 1783–1785'' is the first of three commonplace books that were produced by the poet. The contents cover drafts of songs and poems, observations, ideas, epitaphs, etc. Commonplace Books Robert Burns's three Co ...

''. Glasgow : Gowans & Gray. * Hill, John C. Rev. (1961). ''The Love Songs and Heroines of Robert Burns.'' London : J. M. Dent. * Hunter, Douglas & McQueen, Colin Hunter. (2009). ''Hunter's Illustrated History of the Family, Friends, and Contemporaries of Robert Burns.'' Published by the authors. . * MacIntosh, Donald (2006). ''Travels in Galloway''. Glasgow : Neil Wilson. . * Mackay, James (2004). ''Burns. A Biography of Robert Burns''. Darvel : Alloway Publishing. . * McMichael, George. ''Notes on the Way Through Ayrshire''. Ayr : Hugh Henry. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kilpatrick, Nelly Robert Burns History of East Ayrshire 18th-century Scottish women 1759 births 1820 deaths People from East Ayrshire