Author: WILSON, James
Biography:
WILSON, James (1754-96: findmypast.com)
The dates of birth and death provided here are partly speculative but they match the few known facts of Wilson’s life as given in Rhymes of Northern Bards (1812), q.v. The editor, John Bell, Jr., chose four of Wilson’s poems for his collection and included a short biography, as follows. He was a schoolteacher at Hexham, Northumberland, who “suffered financial embarrassment” and had to leave his position. He moved to Morpeth, where he prepared his collection of poems for publication in Newcastle. A fellow teacher and poet found him a post as a master at Causey Park Bridge School, “where shortly after he died.” He might have been the son of John and Jean Wilson who was baptised on 13 Jan. 1754 at the Independent chapel of St. James, Newcastle, but if so he later became a conforming Anglican. When he married Esther (or Hester) Renwick at All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 5 Nov. 1777, he gave his occupation as schoolmaster. A boy named James Wilson, son of James Wilson (with no mother’s name provided), was baptised at Newcastle on 10 June 1781 but he may be the child buried at St. Andrew, Bothal, a year later. Hester Wilson, “wife of James Wilson,” resident at Causey Park, was buried at Hebburn on 17 June 1786. James Wilson, resident of Causey Park Bridge, was buried at Hebburn on 3 Sept. 1796. (findmypast.com 30 June 2024; John Bell, Jr., ed. Rhymes of Northern Bards [1812], 217n) HJ