Robert Nicoll (7 January 1814 – 7 December 1837) was a
Scottish poet and lyricist whose life, although short, left a lasting impact.
Life
Robert was born at the farm of Little Tullybeltane, in the parish of Auchtergaven,
Perthshire. When Robert was five years old his father was reduced to poverty, and forced to work as a day labourer. His mother, Grace Fenwick, was able to compensate for his father's inability to give his son more than a slight education by teaching Robert and his siblings to read and write. Robert had eight siblings and he was the second son; however, his older brother died as a child, making him the oldest son. His mother, Grace, recalled that Robert was such a quick child, that he was speaking at nine months in the way of an eighteen-month-old child - a genius from the very beginning. At five years old, Robert was reading the New Testament. When the Nicoll family became extremely poor, Robert's mother did not have time to read, which was a great passion of hers. To entertain her while she was working or tending to the household, Robert would read books deemed appropriate for his age group. He studied under several teachers, most notably a Mr. Marshall, who died young. Hearing of his death, Robert wrote to his mother, lamenting, "In fine, he was a young man who has left few equals. I myself owe more to him than years can repay. I could read before I knew him, but he taught me to think." Another instructor, James Anderson of Tullybeltane was a poet himself.
At 16 the boy was apprenticed to a grocer and wine merchant at Perth. Nicoll is quoted in ''The Life of Robert Nicoll'' as stating, "to further my progress in life, I bound myself apprentice to Mrs. J. H. Robertson, wine-merchant and grocer in Perth. When I came to Perth, I bought Cobbett's ''English Grammar'', and by constant study soon made myself master of it, and then commenced writing as before; and you know the result." Regardless of the barriers he faced, Robert pursued his academic journey, aware of the value of his intelligence even at the age of 16.
Literary career
In 1833 he began to contribute to ''Johnstone's Magazine'' (later ''
Tait's Magazine''), and in the next year, his apprenticeship was cancelled. He visited Edinburgh, and was kindly received there, but obtained no employment. However, in 1835, he published ''Poems and Lyrics'' with Edinburgh printer William Tait, which was dedicated to the popular Scottish author "Mrs. Johnstone" (
Christian Isobel Johnstone
Christian Isobel Johnstone (1781–1857) was a prolific journalist and author in Scotland in the nineteenth century. She was a significant early feminist and an advocate of other liberal causes in her era. She wrote anonymously, and under the pseud ...
). In critics' opinion, the best of Nicoll's lyrics are those written in the
Scottish dialect
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
. Due to this circumstance, and his precocity as a writer of verse and prose, Nicoll was often compared to fellow Scottish poet
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 ...
. One of Nicoll's most famous poems, featured in ''The Monthly Miscellany of Religion and Letters'' in 1840 i
"God is Everywhere,"which begins:
After this publication, Nicolls opened a circulating library at
Dundee, and in 1836 became editor of the ''
Leeds Times
The ''Leeds Times'' was a weekly newspaper established in 1833, and published at the office in Briggate, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its w ...
''. Additionally, he was a member of the provisional committee of the Leeds Working Men's Association and of the Leeds Radical Association. While in Dundee, he took on a work partner, a local tradesman who was also in desperate need of money. Robert realized that this partnership was a poor choice since the library business could barely sustain one person, let alone two. In 1836, Robert gave the business over to his partner completely. As he had left the business without gaining anything, his losses concerned his mother, who was in a great measure responsible for his ambitions.
In the midst of a frigid winter and worsening health, on 9 December 1836, Robert Nicoll married Alice Griffiths Suter (or Soutar), the niece of Mr. Peter Brown, editor of the ''Dundee Advertiser'' in Dundee. Though the marriage was happy, the couple were under immense financial stress to pay off Nicoll's debts, support themselves, and care for Alice's mother, Mrs. Suter, who came to live with them.
Illness and death
Espousing pronounced
Radical opinions, Nicoll overtaxed his slender physical resources in electioneering work for Sir
William Molesworth in the summer of 1837. Due to the stress and pure exhaustion of the election, he was obliged to resign his successful editorship due to his decreasing health. His final letter to his mother dated 13 September 1837 admits the severity of his illness and explains that he did not tell her because he knew it would keep her unsettled. His appetite lessened due to his medications, accelerating the conclusion of his prolonged decline. He died on December 7, 1837, at the house of his friend
William Tait, at Trinity, near Edinburgh, after a long battle with an illness caused by stress, exhaustion and lack of proper appetite and rest. He is buried in North Leith Burial Ground on Coburg Street in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 1844, the second edition of ''Poems and Lyrics'' appeared with an anonymous memoir of the author by
Christian Isobel Johnstone
Christian Isobel Johnstone (1781–1857) was a prolific journalist and author in Scotland in the nineteenth century. She was a significant early feminist and an advocate of other liberal causes in her era. She wrote anonymously, and under the pseud ...
. An appreciation of Nicoll's character and his poetry was included in
Charles Kingsley's article on Burns and his School in the ''
North British Review
The ''North British Review'' was a Scottish periodical. It was founded in 1844 to act as the organ of the new Free Church of Scotland, the first editor being David Welsh. It was published until 1871; in the last few years of its existence it had a ...
'' for November 1851. In 1884,
Peter Robert Drummond wrote a detailed autobiography entitled, ''
Life of Robert Nicoll, Poet.'' The poem "We are Lowly" was set to music by Sophia Dobson Colett.
Works
*''Poems and Lyrics'' (1835)
References
External links
*
Works by or about Robert Nichollat
Hathi Trust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
Robert Nicoll biographyand selected works at gerald-massey.org
*Smiles, Samuel. " Robert Nicoll." ''Brief Biographies.'' New York: American Book Exchange, 1881, pp. 186–195
googlebooksAccessed May 17, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicoll
1814 births
1837 deaths
Scottish poets
19th-century poets