Author: Service, David
Biography:
SERVICE, David (1775-1828: ancestry.co.uk) pseudonym: Dr. Sigma
Although he lived in Yarmouth, Norfolk, for most of his adult life, he was born in Cardross, Dunbartonshire, to Catherine (McFarlane) and Robert Service. He worked as a herd-boy for five years on the banks of the Clyde before being apprenticed, in 1789, to his uncle, James Service, a shoemaker in Greenock. After completing his apprenticeship in 1794, he spent some time in Edinburgh, moved to London in 1796, and went to Yarmouth in 1797. There he married Mary Ward in 1798; they had four children. In about 1800 they spent some time in Sussex but returned to Yarmouth and he died there. Mary survived him and is recorded in the 1851 Census, living with her daughter’s family and listed as a laundress in receipt of parish relief. His other publications, too short to be in the database, include Elegy on the Death of Mr. Swanton, Painter, in Great Yarmouth (1802), A Voyage and Travels in the Region of the Brain (1808), and A Brief Sketch of the Different Professions (2nd edn, 1828). His Caledonian Herdboy is dedicated to James Deniston of Colegrain with thanks for his kindness to Robert Service. Crispin, dedicated to Sir James Colquhoun, begins with a one-page poem by Henry Barwick (q.v.). (ancestry.co.uk 25 Sept. 2020; Goodridge) SR
Other Names:
- D. Service