William Burns

Burns started his education at John Murdoch's school in Alloway before going to school in Ayr, but family financial problems meant Burns had to work as a farm labourer: and in practice much of his schooling seems to have come from his father.

In 1781 Burns went to work as a flax-dresser in Irvine, but he was soon out of work after an over-exuberant celebration of Hogmanay by the staff, including Burns, resulted in the works catching fire and being destroyed.He and his brother returned to farming near Mauchline.

But by now Burns had established the three loves of his life: wine, women, and song.
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The success of Burns' first collection was one of the factors which led him to abandon plans to emigrate to Jamaica to become a bookkeeper on a plantation.

Instead, Burns moved to Edinburgh.Here he was commissioned by publisher James Johnson to assist in the editing of a vast collection of Scottish folk songs.The Scots Musical Museum.This was published in five volumes over the course of sixteen years.In all some 150 of Burns' own songs were included, most notably Auld Lang Syne, based on a traditional folk song.

In 1788 Burns moved back to Ayrshire and married Jean Armour.
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Burns gave up farming in 1791 to concentrate on his writing and his Excise duties, though around this time he rejected offers of a post on the London-based Star newspaper; and declined to pursue the chance of becoming Professor of Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh.

As a major contributor to the definitive collections of Scottish songs then being assembled, Burns was becoming increasingly well known by the mid 1790s.Ironically, however, by then his heavy drinking and his unpopular support for the French Revolution was undermining some of his more locally based following (not to mention his health).Burns died of rheumatic fever on 21 July 1796, at the same time as his wife was giving birth to their ninth child.His growing fame and success at least afforded his widow and children a degree of comfort he had himself never quite attained.