Author: Campbell, Alexander
Biography:
CAMPBELL, Alexander (1764-1824: ODNB)
pseudonym Timothy Twig
He was born on 22 Feb. 1764 (baptised 25 Feb.) at Tombea on the banks of Loch Lubnaig, Perthshire, to Duncan Campbell and Janet (Lomond) Campbell and educated at the Callander parish school. He moved to Edinburgh to study music and became a harpsichord and vocal teacher. In this capacity, he met the young Walter Scott (q.v.) who later tried to assist his former teacher but described him as “a man of many accomplishments but dashed with a bizarrerie of temper which made them useless to their proprietor” (Lockhart, Life of Scott, [1837] 1.53). His 1796 Odes were published as by “a student of medicine” but this pursuit was soon abandoned. He was likely a better musician than poet or author but his 1802 A Tour From Edinburgh Through Various Parts of North Britain (which he both wrote and illustrated) was well-received. Scott sought to relieve his ongoing financial distress by employing him to transcribe manuscripts and contributing to Albyn’s Anthology. Campbell was unlucky in marriage; his first wife died and the second (the widow of the highland chieftain Ranald MacDonald) left him. He died of apoplexy on 15 May 1824 and buried in the Canongate churchyard, Edinburgh. (ODNB 21 Aug 2018; ancestry.co.uk 21 Aug 2018, 22 Dec. 2024; SM) SR