Author: Wilson, John Mackay
Biography:
WILSON, John Mackay (1804-1835: ODNB)
The eldest son of Jean (Mackay) and William Wilson, he was born at Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed. His father was a millwright but had moved to Tweedmouth to work as a sawyer. Wilson was educated at the local school and briefly worked as a teacher before being apprenticed to William Lochhead, a Berwick printer. Lochhead printed Wilson’s first book, issued when he was twenty. Wilson travelled to Edinburgh and London several times but was disappointed in his ambition to make his name as a poet. In 1831 he began lecturing in towns across England for the Society of Friends in support of temperance and, in 1832, he was appointed editor of the Berwick Advertiser. At about the same time, he began writing tales that were published in periodicals, achieving far greater success than he ever had with his verse. The tales, collected and issued in forty-eight weekly numbers, made his name. They were continued after his death to support his widow (her first name was Sarah but no other details of their marriage have been found), and reissued in collections several times. He died at Berwick and was buried in the Tweedmouth churchyard. (ODNB 19 Dec. 2020; ancestry.co.uk 19 Dec. 2020; findmypast.co.uk 19 Dec. 2020; Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore and Legend 3 [1889]) SR