ALEXANDER WILSON. 
19 
Tlie father of this remarkable person was Alex- 
ander Wilson, a weaver in the town of Paisley, and 
bore the character of being a shrewd, upright, and 
sensible man. His eldest son, Alexander, better 
known as “ Wilson the American Ornithologist" 
was bom in that town on the 6th July, 1766. We 
have little account of Wilsons childhood ; but as it 
appears that his parents had determined to set him 
apart for the sacred office at so early an age as his 
tenth year, we may infer that he had evinced some 
mental precocity. That such was their purpose is 
manifest from a poem, descriptive of himself, under 
the title of “ The Solitary Tutor,” written by Wil- 
son after he had settled in America, and in which 
this passage occurs : 
“ His pare»ts saw, with partial, fond delight, 
Unfolding genius crown their fostering care. 
And talk’d with tears of that enrapturing sight, 
When, clad in sable gown, with solemn air, 
The walls of God’s own house should coho back his pray’r.” 
In pursuance of this intention, he was placed under 
the charge of Mr. Barlas, then a student of divinity ; 
but his kind and affectionate mother having died 
soon afterwards, and his father having ero long en- 
tered into a second marriage, and found himself 
unable to defray the expenses of a liberal education 
for his son, the youth was, at the age of thirteen, 
bound apprentice for three years, as a weaver in 
Paisley, to William Duncan, who had married his 
eldest sister. 
