Author: Younger, John
Biography:
YOUNGER, John (1785-1860: ODNB)
The youngest of four surviving children of William Younger, a shoemaker, and his wife Jean Henderson, he was born at Longnewton, in the parish of Andrum, Roxburghshire. He had some schooling from age five but at nine he joined his father working as a cobbler. His mother, unwell even when he was born, died when he was about ten. The family moved to nearby Elliston in 1798 and St. Boswell’s in 1802. He never liked shoemaking and he used his spare time to educate himself, become an excellent angler (his River Angling for Salmon and Trout was published in 1840), and read and write verse. Like many Scottish poets, he was inspired by the example of Robert Burns (q.v.) whose poems he first encountered in a crudely printed copy purchased at St. Boswell’s fair. He married Agnes “Nannie” Riddle in 1811 and they had eleven children of whom just three were alive when he wrote his memoir late in life. He was disappointed that his Thoughts as they Rise attracted little notice but he earned second prize of £15 in a “Working Men’s Essays” competition for his The Light of the Week; or, The Temporal Advantages of the Sabbath (1849). His Scotch Corn Law Rhyme was published in 1841. He served as the St. Boswell’s postmaster 1849-56 but disliked the work even more than cobbling. He died at St. Boswell’s and was buried in the kirkyard there. He left behind a memoir, edited and published in 1881, which expresses his love of the natural world and his philosophy of life. (ODNB 4 Jan. 2021; John Younger, “Sketch of the Author’s Life,” The Light of the Week [1849]; John Younger, Autobiography of John Younger, Shoemaker, St. Boswell’s [1881]; Goodridge; ancestry.co.uk 4 Jan. 2021) SR