Author: Gilchrist, Robert
Biography:
GILCHRIST, Robert (1797-1844: Welford)
No birth or baptismal records have been found but there is no reason to doubt the birth date of 8 Sept. 1797 first given in Thomas Allan’s Tyneside Songs and Readings (1891) and accepted by subsequent authorities including Paul Gilchrist, a direct descendant. He was born in Gateshead, Durham, to John Gilchrist (1764-1829) and his wife Mary Green. His father was a sailmaker with premises at 39 Quay, Newcastle. Robert, having completed an apprenticeship in sailmaking and made a freeman of Newcastle, inherited the business on his father’s death. He began writing verses during his apprenticeship. His colleagues presented him with an engraved silver medal in 1818 in warm appreciation of his efforts but his first published book led to T. Ferguson’s (q.v.) satire, Gothalbert of the Tyne (1823). Gilchrist married Margaret Bradley Morrison on 15 Nov. 1823 in All Saints church, Newcastle; they had five sons. Gilchrist was much in demand for singing at public occasions and meetings but his civic career also prospered: he was steward of the Incorporated Company of Sailmakers (1829-30, 1833-44), a member of the Herbage Committee which defended the rights of the freemen of Newcastle, and an elected official for the Board of Governors of the Newcastle Poor Law Union (1838-42). The family is recorded as living at Shieldfield, Newcastle, in 1841 and Gilchrist died there at home of stomach cancer on 11 July 1844. Death notices give his age as 47. He was buried in the Ballast Hills cemetery in Newcastle. (Welford; ancestry.co.uk 4 Sept. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 4 Sept. 2024; Allan’s Illustrated Edition of Tyneside Songs and Readings [1891]; Durham Chronicle 19 July 1844; Paul Gilchrist, “ ‘Hail, Tyneside Lads in Collier Fleets’: Song Culture, Sailing and Sailors in North-East England,” in B. Beaven, K. Bell, and R. James, eds., Port Towns and Urban Cultures [2016]) SR