Author: THOMSON, David
Biography:
THOMSON, David (1779-1845: ancestry.co.uk)
A weaver by trade and known as the “Gala Swain” or “Galashiels poet,” Thomson was born at Galashiels, Selkirkshire, on 16 Mar. 1779 to Gilbert Thomson and his wife Ann Laing. He was baptised on 19 Sept. 1779. (Robert Hall’s The History of Galashiels [1898] gives his father’s name as William.) His father was one of the founders and owners of the Botany woollen mill. David and his brother William established the Rosebank woollen mill on Union Street, Galashiels, in 1804. Their partnership dissolved in about 1825 but was the subject of a lawsuit between the brothers which was not settled until 1837. Although no record has been located, Thomson married Helen Young in about 1804; they had six children before her death in 1817. He may have married for a second time. Thomson knew both Walter Scott and James Hogg (qq.v.). As sheriff of Selkirk, Scott was invited to the annual investiture of the town Deacon in Galashiels and the invitation would be sent in the form of a poem by Thomson. In Dec. 1825 Scott wrote in a letter to J. G. Lockhart about a visit to Abbotsford by Hogg and Thomson; he described Thomson as “a good enough fellow.” Several letters from Thomson to Scott are held by the NLS. In one, dated 23 July 1829, he asked Scott to intercede for him with the Duke of Northumberland from whom he hoped to gain employment on his estate. Thomson subsequently moved to Warkworth, Northumberland, and he died there on 27 Sept. 1847. He is buried in the cemetery at St. Lawrence’s church, Warkworth. (ancestry.co.uk 5 Sept. 2025; Robert Hall, The History of Galashiels [1898]; J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott [1837], 5: 226-28; H. J. C. Grierson, The Letters of Sir Walter Scott [1932], 9: 333; NLS MS 3909, ff 205-06) SR