Author: MORRISON, John
Biography:
MORRISON, John (1782-1853: Harper)
He was born in the parish of Terregles, Kirkcudbright, but the names of his parents are not known. The family moved to a farm at Fellend, Tongland, when he was about five. He studied painting in Edinburgh and in 1803 he initiated a friendship with Walter Scott (q.v.) when he wrote to him with information about a poem in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Morrison later surveyed Scott’s estate at Abbotsford. As a surveyor he was more successful than as an artist—he completed work on many of Scotland’s roads—but he suffered financial losses when he took over his father’s farm and in 1821 Scott recommended him to William Roscoe of Liverpool (q.v.) for help in securing employment. Morrison spent just two years in Liverpool, returning to Scotland in 1823. He was a friend of James Hogg (q.v.) and included accounts of both Hogg and Scott in his “Random Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott, the Ettrick Shepherd [etc].” No records of a marriage or children have been located. He died at Glentarth Cottage, Tongland, on 7 June 1853. (Millgate; Harper; James C. Corson, Notes and Index to Sir Herbert Grierson’s Edition of The Letters of Sir Walter Scott [1979]; John Morrison, “Random Reminiscences,” Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine 10 [1843] 569-78)