Birth
Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, the son of a gardener and tenant farmer. 

Education
Though poor, his father valued education, hiring a tutor for his children, and also teaching them himself, and an old woman who lived with the family told him stories of the devils, ghosts, fairies, brownies, witches and warlocks of local folklore.

Early poetry
Most of Burns’ early poetry was written in song form to well known Scottish tunes, the first being Handsome Nell, a tribute to Nelly Kirkpatrick of Dalrymple, a ‘bonie, sweet, sonsie lass’5 a year younger than himself, who was his working partner at harvest time. 

Farming
In 1777 (18) the Burns family moved to a 130 acre farm in Lochlie. 

Surveying
He spent his 19th summer learning surveying, and he made good progress until he was diverted from his studies by the attractions of a local ‘fillette’. 

Masonic connections
He became chairman of a local debating club, and joined the local Masonic Lodge in 1781 (22). At this time, he says, ‘vive l’amour et vive la bagatelle’ were his sole principles of action. 

Further education
He worked for a time as a flax dresser in Irvine, where he lost all his possessions in a house fire, and formed a friendship with a fellow who introduced him to ideas of illicit love, which he says he had 'previously regarded with horror'. 

Father dies and he takes a lease on a farm
He returned to Lochlie when his father became ill, and when his father died in 1784 (25) Burns took the lease on Mossgiel farm near Mauchline with his brother, Gilbert. 

Affairs of the heart
Affairs with various women led to the birth of a daughter by Elizabeth Paton, welcomed into the world by A Poet’s Welcome to a Bastart Wean, children by Jenny Clow and Ann Park, and twins by Jean Armour, whose father issued a writ against him. 

Plans to emigrate : publishes first poems
He resolved to emigrate to the West Indies, probably intending to take the ‘Highland Mary’ of his poems, Mary Campbell, with him, and, looking for ways of raising £20 for the fare, decided to try to publish his poems, which he had been collecting in a commonplace book since 1783 (24). Poems Chiefly in the Scots Dialect was printed by his fellow-mason John Wilson of Kilmarnock in 1786 (27), and proved successful, attracting critical acclaim and an invitation from Dr Blacklock to visit Edinburgh in order to prepare a second edition, which appeared in the following year. Publication was again arranged through his Masonic connections. 

Leases Ellisland farm
With the proceeds from this edition he secured the lease on Ellisland farm in Nithsdale in 1788 (29), where Jean Armour joined him as his wife. 

Works on Scottish songs
In Edinburgh he had begun collecting and revising Scottish folk songs and ballads, in association first with James Johnson and later with George Thomson. Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum, published in six volumes between 1787 (28) and 1803 (d7), included some 160 of Burns’ compositions, for which he consistently refused any form of payment, regarding the work as an honour and a patriotic duty. 

Exciseman
From 1789 (30) he worked as an Exciseman for the Excise Division in Dumfries, a position secured for him by James Cunningham, the Earl of Glencairn (another mason). George Thomson’s A Select Collection Of Scottish Airs was published in six volumes between 1793 (34) and 1841 (d45), and included 114 songs by Burns. 

Death
He died in July 1796 (37).

Robert Burns Biography : Links

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