Author: Scott, Andrew
Biography:
SCOTT, Andrew (1757-1839: ODNB)
Known as “the Bowden poet,” he was born to Rachel (Briggs or Brigges) and John Scott, a day labourer, in Bowden, Roxburghshire. He had little education and worked as a cowherd and farm-servant. In the memoir he prefixed to the 1811 edition of his poems, he states that he first became interested in writing verse by reading Allan Ramsay’s Gentle Shepherd when he was twelve. In about 1775, he enlisted and fought in the American War of Independence. He was imprisoned after the surrender of Cornwallis but was released in 1784 and returned to Scotland, making his way to Bowden. There he married Mary Sinclair in 1786; they had five children. Accounts of him claim he was encouraged to write poetry by Walter Scott (q.v.) but there is no evidence for this; his 1804 application to Scott for advice on his manuscript was met with a polite refusal (Scott is not listed as a subscriber). He wrote to Scott again in 1823, sending him a souvenir musket and a poem. He was a church officer in Bowden during the years before his death. He was buried in the churchyard of Bowden. (Letters of Walter Scott, [1932] 1:228; NLS, Walter Scott Letters; ODNB 22 Sept. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 22 Sept. 2020; MSM)