Author: Norval, James
Biography:
NORVAL, James (1814-1891: ancestry.co.uk)
The son of Annabella and William Norval, he was born in the Parkland area of Glasgow on 29 Apr. 1814 and baptised on 22 May. His parents had married on 6 Feb. 1814; Annabella's surname before her marriage may have been Norval. His father was a handloom weaver and, after a few years of schooling, Norval trained as a weaver. His mother is said to have influenced him to write poetry with her love of old ballads. He seems never to have married. He contributed poetry to the Glasgow Citizen. His poems in Scots dialect and his poems about childhood are considered among his best. He died on 4 Apr. 1891 in Cathcart, Renfrewshire, and was buried there on 7 Apr. The death notice in the Glasgow Evening Post identifies him as "the Calton poet." (David Herschel Edwards, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets [1883]; ancestry.co.uk 26 Dec. 2022; Glasgow Evening Post 8 Apr. 1891)