Author: Paterson, Adam
Biography:
PATERSON, Adam (1800-32: “Memoir”)
He was born on 6 Jan. 1800 in the parish of St. Andrew, Edinburgh, the youngest of eight children of David Paterson, banker and insurance broker, and Jean Howden, who had married in Edinburgh in 1784. His father traded with his eldest son, John. They went bankrupt in 1813 but the family seems to have recovered sufficiently to enable Adam Paterson to be educated at the University of Edinburgh. He was called to the bar in 1822. He then spent a year abroad, mostly in Italy, and visited the grave of his brother James who had died of consumption at Palermo in 1820. He showed symptoms of consumption in 1831 and his parents moved him first to the Isle of Bute and then to the milder climate of Torquay in Devon. Fugitive Pieces (1833) is a record of his final poems when he probably knew he was dying. It begins with “The Sabbath-Bell,” written at Barone Cottage, Rothesay, on 8 July 1832, and continues with poems written on his journey to Devon with his mother, who acted as nurse. He died of consumption on 2 Dec. 1832 at Torquay and was buried 8 Dec. at Kingskerswell, Devon. He never married. (“Memoir,” Fugitive Pieces [1833], 1-15; Scotland’s People; ancestry.co.uk 2 July 2023; findmypast.co.uk 2 July 2023; The Scotsman12 Dec. 1832; Martin, 546) AA