Author: Balfour, Alexander
Biography:
BALFOUR, Alexander (1767-1829: ODNB)
Novelist and poet. Born at Monikie, Forfarshire, and baptised on 1 Mar. 1767, he was the son of William Balfour and Ann (Honyman) Balfour. After limited formal education, he was apprenticed to a weaver. However, at about the age of 12, Balfour began writing poetry that was published in local newspapers; he also taught in the parish school. He moved to Arbroath for work in 1793, and there married Margaret Walker in 1794; they were to have two sons and three daughters. He successfully took over his employer’s business in 1797, while continuing to contribute verse to periodicals and miscellanies. With the 1815 bankruptcy of a London company he was managing at Trottick (near Dundee), Balfour’s financial situation became precarious and he moved first to another position at Balgonie and, in 1818, to Edinburgh where he worked in Archibald Constable’s publishing house. His first novel, Campbell; or, The Scottish Probationer, was issued by Oliver and Boyd in 1819; in the same year, he edited a collection of Richard Gall’s poetry, and in 1820 he published Contemplation; with Other Poems. Balfour’s other novels, The Farmer’s Three Daughters (1822), The Founding of Glenthorn (1823), and Highland Mary (1826) (all published by A.K. Newman, London), were favourably received. Although he had to give up employment when his health deteriorated with the onset of paralysis, he continued writing, including contributions to the Saturday Evening Post (writing as “Penseroso”), some of which were later collected in the posthumous Weeds and Wildflowers. In his final years, he received £100 from the government, via George Canning, as an acknowledgement of his literary contributions and financial need. The RLF awarded him £10 in 1820. He died at Edinburgh on 12 Sept. 1829 and was buried in St. Cuthbert's cemetery on 15 Sept. His widow received £25 from the RLF. Two chapbook publications, issued at Brechin in 1835, are by him but seem to have been unauthorised. (ODNB 7 Feb. 2019; ancestry.co.uk 7 Feb. 2018, 6 Jan. 2025; EN2; D. M. Moir, “Memoir,” Weeds and Wildflowers; RLF file 413) SR