Author: JAMIESON, Robert
Biography:
JAMIESON, Robert (1772-1844: ODNB)
The son of John Jamieson and his wife Elizabeth Simpson, he was born at Moray, Scotland, on 2 Apr. 1772 and baptised on 5 Apr. He graduated from King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1793 and became an assistant classical master at the Rev. Dr. Davies’s seminary in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1796. He also worked as a tutor at Riga in Latvia from 1805 to 1809. Jamieson had met Walter Scott (q.v.) and from 1801 corresponded with him about the ballads he was collecting, editing, and translating. Popular Ballads and Songs includes Jamieson’s original ballads and songs written in imitation of the ancient source texts which he had researched at numerous libraries and depositories throughout Britain. In 1809 Jamieson was appointed assistant to Thomas Thomson, Chief Registrar at the Register House in Edinburgh and he held that post until 1843. Unfortunately Jamieson was paid only irregularly and in Oct. 1820 he wrote to Scott demanding three years' wages on the grounds that Scott had been responsible for finding him the post. Scott refused and the long-standing association between the men was ended. (ODNB states that the breakdown was caused by Jamieson's wish to be the Advocates' librarian but Scott's letters are clear on the source of trouble.) Jamieson moved to the Charterhouse in London as a “Poor Brother” in 1843 and he died there on 24 Sept. 1844. He was buried on 28 Sept. in the Charterhouse chapel. Jamieson’s most important discovery was of the close affinity between Scottish and Scandinavian ballads. He worked with Henry Weber and Scott on Illustrations of the Northern Antiquities (1814), taking responsibility for the translations “from the Northern Languages” of the poems included as “Popular Heroic and Romantic Ballads.” (ODNB 14 May 2025; ancestry.co.uk 14 May 2025; Millgate; NLS Walter Scott correspondence) SR