Richard Gall (1776–1801), was a Scottish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

. Gall, the son of a

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, was born at

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, near

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, in December 1776. Having attended the parish school of Haddington, he was apprenticed at the age of eleven to his maternal uncle, a carpenter, and builder. He afterward became a printer's apprentice in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, and there he gave his leisure to study. He then became travelling clerk to a Mr. Ramsay, in whose employment he remained till his death, 10 May 1801. His powers attracted considerable attention during his lifetime, and he enjoyed the friendship of Burns and Thomas Campbell. Several of his songs were set to music and became popular. Two of these, 'The Farewell to Ayrshire,’ and 'Now bank and brae are clad in green,’ were falsely assigned to Burns; the former was sent by Gall to Johnson's 'Scots Poetical Museum,’ with Burns's name prefixed, and the latter appeared in Cromek's 'Reliques of Burns.' An edition of Gall's 'Poems and Songs' was published at Edinburgh in 1819.

References

1776 births 1801 deaths 18th-century Scottish poets 19th-century Scottish poets {{UK-poet-stub