Author: Nicholson, William
Biography:
NICHOLSON, William (1783-1849: ODNB)
Known as “the Galloway bard”, he was a packman and poet. Born on 15 Aug. 1783 at Tannimaus, Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire, he was the son of James Nicholson and Barbara (Houston) Nicholson. His father was successively a carrier, farmer, and publican. Nicholson, who was the youngest of his parents’ eight children, attributed his interest in poetry to his mother. The family moved to Kempleton, Twynholm, but, when the house there collapsed, they moved again to Barncrash, Tongland. There, he briefly attended school but his short-sightedness made reading and writing a challenge; his biographer, John McDiarmid, says that he spelled intuitively and grudgingly accepted help in preparing his poems for the press. He became a pedlar in about 1797; some years later he acquired a set of pipes and he would play music on his travels throughout Galloway, Dumfriesshire, and Ayrshire. In 1813 he prepared his collection of poems for publication by subscription; he then travelled about delivering copies to his subscribers and claimed to have made about £100 by the venture. The conviviality of his travels led to excessive drinking and, over time, he also began to hear voices. In 1826 the voices directed him to travel to London to see the King and advise him on Catholic emancipation. The trip was financially disastrous—he was robbed—and he survived only through help from various Scottish friends. On his return to Scotland, a second edition of his poems, with a memoir by McDiarmid, was prepared to help with his expenses. He seems not to have worked throughout the remainder of his life, and he died at Borgue on 16 May 1849 and was buried on 18 May 1849. One of the publishers of the second edition is the bookseller and antiquary, John Nicholson of Kirkcudbright, likely a brother. (ODNB 26 Apr. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 7 Feb. 2025; John McDiarmid, “Life of the Author”) SR