Mary Morison or Mary Morrison (1771 – 29 June 1791),Burns Encyclopedia
Retrieved : 2012-03-11 may have been the ''"lovely Mary Morison"'', whom the poet

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who ha ...

admired as a girl of sixteen. She was the daughter of

Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

John Morison of

Mauchline Mauchline (; gd, Maghlinn) is a town and civil parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In the 2001 census Mauchline had a recorded population of 4,105. It is home to the National Burns Memorial. Location The town lies by the Glasgow and South Wes ...

. Her tombstone carries the inscription - ''"In memory of Adjutant John Morison, etc., etc.; also his daughter - the poet's bonnie Mary Morison - who died 29th June, 1791, aged 20; and his second spouse etc."''.World Burns Club
retrieved : 2012-03-11

Life and character

Morison died young, at the age of 20, being a victim of

consumption Consumption may refer to: *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically * Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curre ...

in 1791. She is buried in Mauchline churchyard. Hunter records that she had a foot amputated after a horse-riding accident, therefore the cause of death may actually have been septicaemia. She either lived at 'Brownlea' at the east side of Castle Street where it met with 'the Knowe', and the other is 'The Place', which was a tenement that stood to the east side of the Cross.

Association with Robert Burns

Mary's tombstone in the Mauchline churchyard, as stated, records that she was the daughter of Adjutant John Morison of the 104th Regiment and that she was Robert Burns's 'bonnie Mary' in his famous song 'Mary Morison'. In 1825 A. N. Carmichael erected the present tombstone in his aunt's memory, many years after her death. Local tradition however records that she was not an intimate of the poet and may have actually met him only once during tea at a friends house.Hunter, Page 169 The Rev Dr Edgar of Mauchline is recorded to have said that Morison's sister thought that identity of the 'Mary' of the poem 'Mary Morison' was indeed her sibling. Most authorities feel that the name was used by Burns for

Alison Begbie Alison Begbie, Ellison Begbie or Elizabeth Gebbie (1762–1823), is said to have been the daughter of a farmer, born in the parish of Galston, and at the time of her courtship by Robert Burns she is thought to have been a servant or housekeeper ...

as he called the song 'one of my juvenile works', which he was unlikely to say about a song written in 1784/5 when the Mary would have been a girl of about fourteen and twelve years younger than Burns himself. Gilbert, the poet's brother, related that

, Peggy Alison and Mary Morison were, all one and the same person, Alison Begbie. The poet, having had difficult in getting Alison Begbie's name to pair in rhyme had at first used the name 'Peggy Alison'. 'Mary Morison' was the finest of his early songs, written prior to The Kilmarnock Volume, but not included and only sent to George Thomson on 20 March 1793.Mary Morison
Retrieved : 2012-03-11

Life and character

Association with Robert Burns

See also