Robert Gilfillan (7 July 1798 – 4 December 1850) 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 writte ...

and

songwriter 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 ...

Life

He was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, Scotland, the son of Robert Gilfillan (died 1834), a master weaver, and his wife, Marion Law. In 1811 the family moved to

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

. Around 1812/13 he was apprenticed as a cooper to John Thomson of Peatnook in Leith. In 1818 he returned to Dunfermline to work as a grocer. He returned to Leith in 1821 and worked in various warehouses and wine stores. His connection with Dunfermline was by no means severed as it was in the town’s Masonic Lodge, Lodge St. John, No. 26 that he was initiated into Freemasonry in December 1821 and, like

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 ...

, he did so before he became famous. He contributed to ''

Blackwood's Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine''. The first number appeared in April 1817 ...

'' and ''

Noctes Ambrosianae The ''Noctes Ambrosianae'', a series of 71 imaginary colloquies, appeared in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' from 1822 to 1835. The earlier ones had several different authors, including John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, James Hogg and Professor Joh ...

'' he also represented the Scotman newspaper in Leith. From 1837 he was a collector of the police rates at Leith, based at Leith Town Hall (now Leith Police Station). In April 1850 he organised the restoration of the memorial to

Robert Fergusson Robert Fergusson (5 September 1750 – 16 October 1774) was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson led a bohemian life in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intellectual and c ...

Canongate Kirkyard The Canongate Kirkyard ( en, Churchyard) stands around Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. The churchyard was used for burials from the late 1680s until the mid-20th century. The most celebrated burials at the kirkyard are ...

on the

Royal Mile The Royal Mile () is a succession of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town of the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. The term was first used descriptively in W. M. Gilbert's ''Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century'' (1901), des ...

. He died of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

at his home in East HermitageEdinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1850–51 on

Leith Links Leith Links ( gd, Fìghdean Lìte) is the principal open space within Leith, the docks district of Edinburgh, Scotland. This public park is divided by a road into two main areas, a western section and an eastern section, both being largely flat ...

where he lived with his niece, Marion Gilfillan. He is buried in

South Leith Parish Church South Leith Parish Church, originally the Kirk of Our Lady, St Mary, is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is the principal church and congregation in Leith, in Edinburgh. Its kirkyard is the burial place for John Home (author of ''D ...

yard, just south-east of the church.

Publications

*''Original Songs'' (1831) 150-page book of songs *''Songs'' (1835) second edition adding 50 songs *''Songs'' (1839) third edition adding 60 further songs Noteworthy poems include ''The Exile's song'' and ''The Happy Days of Youth''.

References

External links

Significant Scots: Robert Gilfillan
Scottish poets 1798 births 1850 deaths People from Dunfermline Scottish songwriters 19th-century Scottish people {{Scotland-poet-stub