Janet Hamilton (12 October 1795 – 30 October 1873) was a nineteenth-century Scottish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

Life

Janet was born as Janet Thomson at Carshill,

Shotts Shotts is a small town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located almost halfway between Glasgow () and Edinburgh (). The town has a population of about 8,840. A local story has Shotts being named after the legendary giant highwayman Bertra ...

parish,

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

on October 14th 1795, the daughter of a

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

(James Thomson) and Mary Thomson (née Brownlee). She was a descendant of John Whitelaw, the forfeited covenanter from Shotts. At the age of three her family moved to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, and then to Langloan, in the parish of Old Monkland, Lanarkshire at the age of seven. For a time her parents became farm labourers, and she span and worked at the tambour-frame. Her father at length settled down in business for himself as a shoemaker, and John Hamilton, one of his young workmen, married Janet in 1809 in

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, when Janet was thirteen. They lived together at Langloan for about sixty years, and had a family of ten children, seven sons and three daughters, all of whom she taught to read, starting with the alphabet. Having learned to read as a girl, she became familiar with the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, with

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and Milton, with many standard histories, biographies, and essays, and with the poems of

Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay may refer to: *Allan Ramsay (poet) or Allan Ramsay the Elder (1686–1758), Scottish poet *Allan Ramsay (artist) Allan Ramsay (13 October 171310 August 1784) was a Scottish portrait Painting, painter. Life and career Ramsay w ...

Robert Fergusson Robert Fergusson (5 September 1750 – 17 October 1774) was a Scottish poet. After formal education at the University of St Andrews, Fergusson led a Bohemianism, bohemian life in Edinburgh, the city of his birth, then at the height of intel ...

and

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

. Before she was twenty years old, she had written numerous verses on religious themes, but family cares prevented further composition until she was about fifty-four. Then she began to write essays for a supplement to Cassell's ''Working Man's Friend'', as well as poems in English and Scots and reminiscences of village and rural Scotland during her youth. During the last 18 years of her life she was blind, and her husband and one of her daughters, Marion (28 January 1824 - 28 February 1900), read to her. A son, James (12 August 1814 - 5 November 1882), served as her

amanuensis An amanuensis ( ) ( ) or scribe is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. It may also be a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In some aca ...

. She died on 30 October 1873, aged 78, having never been "more than twenty miles from her dwelling". A large crowd of people attended her funeral, and a memorial fountain has been placed nearly opposite her cottage. She was buried in Old Monklands Cemetery in

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

. Also on her tombstone is her husband James, her sons James and Archibald (27 June 1810 - 6 June 1890), and Marion with Janet's grandson through Marion, George Hamilton (19 March 1875 - 1939).

Works

* ''Poems and essays of a miscellaneous character on subjects of general interest''. 1863 Glasgow * ''Poems of purpose and sketches in prose of Scottish peasant life and character in auld lang syne, sketches of local scenes and characters : with a glossary'' 1865. Glasgow. * ''Poems and Ballads''. With introductory papers by G. Gilfillan and A. Wallace. 1868. Glasgow * ''Poems, essays, and sketches''. 1870. Glasgow A compilation of the best of the 1863 and 1865 poetry books. * ''Pictures in Prose and Verse; or, Personal recollections of the late Janet Hamilton'' .. together with several hitherto unpublished poetic pieces. 1877. Edited by John Young. Glasgow. * ''On the Death of Matthew Gardiner DD'' (1865)

References

Attribution

Sources

* ''Pictures in Prose and Verse; or, Personal recollections of the late Janet Hamilton'' .. together with several hitherto unpublished poetic pieces. 1877. Glasgow. Pages 1–41 * ''Poems, sketches and essays''. 1880. Glasgow. Introduction to Janet Hamilton's life and character by Rev.

George Gilfillan __NOTOC__ George Gilfillan (30 January 1813 – 13 August 1878) was a Scottish author and poet. One of the spasmodic poets, Gilfillan was also an editor and commentator, with memoirs, critical dissertations in many editions of earlier British po ...

. * ''Janet Hamilton. and other papers''. By Joseph Wright. 1889 Edinburgh * Wilson, James Grant. ''Poets and Poetry of Scotland. Volume 2'' 1876 Pages 149-151. * Murdoch, Alexander G. ''Recent and Living Scottish Poets.'' 1883 Pages 334-337. * Eyre-Todd, George. ''Glasgow poets''. 1903 Pages 224-233. * Edwards, D. H. ''One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets''. 1880 Pages 248-259 * Boos, Florence. Memoirs of Victorian Working-Class Women: The Hard Way Up. Palgrave, 2017. Chapter 4 is devoted to Hamilton's "Sketches of Village Life." * Boos, Florence S., ed. ''Working-Class Women Poets in Victorian Britain: An Anthology.'' Broadview Press, 2008. This contains a selection of Hamilton poems in Scots and English with glosses and biographical materials.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Janet 1795 births 1873 deaths Scottish women poets People from Shotts Place of death missing 19th-century Scottish poets 19th-century Scottish women writers 19th-century Scottish writers