Author: BRYDSON, Thomas
Biography:
BRYDSON, Thomas (1804-55: ODNB)
Although his birth year is usually given as 1806, ODNB has a birth date of 12 Oct. 1804 for Thomas Brydson, son of William Brydson and his wife Mary MacGeorge (who was William’s cousin). William Brydson was a Glasgow merchant and auctioneer. Thomas was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and he became a clergyman in the Church of Scotland. He served as the clerical assistant to churches in Greenock, Oban, and Kilmalcolm. In 1839 he was ordained minister at the new church at Levern, near Paisley, before moving to Kilmalcolm in 1842. He never married and died at Kilmalcolm on 28 Jan. 1855 and was buried in the Old Kirk cemetery there. Brydson was highly regarded by other poets and he contributed verse to the Edinburgh Literary Journal. Alexander Whitelaw dedicated his The Republic of Letters (1835) to Brydson and included a number of his poems in the collection. Many of Brydson’s poems reflect the close attention he paid to nature and many are tinged with melancholy, perhaps a consequence of the illness he suffered over years before his death. (ODNB 18 Mar. 2025; ancestry.co.uk 18 Mar. 2025; MSM; PPS)