80 The Wilson Bulletin— No. 71. 



pious, passionately fond of music and in many ways a superior 

 woman. It was her fond hope that Alec would become a min- 

 ister of the gospel and it is said that for a short time he was 

 placed under the tuition of Mr. Barlas, then a student of di- 

 vinity. She died of consumption when he was but ten years 

 of age, and the father left with the surviving members of his 

 family, a son and two daughters, soon married a widow, 

 Catherine Uric ncc Brown, who also had a family of young 

 hopefuls. It has been said that Ord has given an erroneous 

 impression of his stepmother. T am not so sure that he has ; 

 yet Wilson always wrote of her with respect and gratitude. 

 Of Wilson's childhood little is known beyond knowledge of 

 of a limited and interrupted attendance at the Latin-Grammar 

 school of Paisley and the statement, since disputed, that he 

 was a " herd callan " for at least one season at the Bakerfield 

 farm. Jardine states that he was herd to a Mr. Stevenson of 

 Treepwood, near Lockwinnoch. According to tradition " he 

 was a very careless herd, letting the the kye transgress on the 

 corn, being very often busied with some book." By some 

 good fortune his father had come into possession of a collec- 

 tion of magazines and essays, and these were the very first 

 books to give him a fondness for reading and reflection. 



Soon his father, burdened with an ever increasing family, 

 could no longer support him in school, and after his thirteenth 

 birthday he was apprenticed for a term of three years to his 

 brother-in-law William Duncan, who bound himself to fur- 

 nish the boy with bed, board, clothing and washing suitable to 

 his station, and with John Finlayson, a journeyman, as cau- 

 tioner, to instruct him in the art of weaving, the indenture be- 

 ing signed on July 31, 1770. For perhaps four years after serv- 

 ing his time, Wilson continued at this employment as a journ- 

 eyman in Paisley, Lockv/innoch, and finally in Queensferry, 

 near Edinburgh, whither his former master had removed; 

 the wages being about a shilling a day. The time had come 

 when the fame and genius of the greatest of all Scottish bards 

 thrilled all Caledonia ; and Wilson longing to emulate his ex- 

 ample, produced a numl)er of verses in the Scottish dialect, of 



