ALEXANDER WILSON. 
XV 
life ; but they have also enabled me to support an honest 
and respectable situation in the world, and have been the 
sources of almost all my enjoyments.” 
The American biographer states, that the unkind usage 
of Wilson’s stepmother drove him to forsake his paternal 
roof, and to seek an asylum in that of his brother-in-law, 
William Duncan. This is altogether incorrect. Those 
who had the means of knowing the truth, agree that she 
always treated him with kindness and attention ; and 
Wilson himself uniformly spoke of her with respect and 
gratitude. That he did reside in the house of William 
Duncan is true ; but it was during the term of his appren- 
ticeship, when, if not a matter of absolute necessity, it 
was at least one of mutual convenience. The wandering 
habits of his earlier years have also been attributed to 
the harsh treatment experienced at home ; but while these 
may be sufficiently accounted for otherwise, — as will 
appear in the course of our narrative, — it is due to the 
memory of a deserving woman to rescue her from so 
groundless an imputation. 
In his thirteenth year, on the 31st July, 1779, Wilson 
was bound apprentice, as a weaver, to William Duncan, 
who had married his eldest sister. The duration of his 
apprenticeship was three years, not five, as has been 
erroneously stated. The original indenture bears date as 
above, and has at the end the following lines in his own 
handwriting : — ■ 
Be ’t kent to a’ the warld in rhime, 
That wi’ right mickle wark an’ toil, 
For three lang years I’ve ser’t my time, 
Whiles feasted wi’ the hazel oil. 
Agst. 1782. 
These lines shew that he had completed his apprentice- 
ship in 1782, after serving three years ; and they likewise 
shew, that he had, even then, in his sixteenth year, notwith- 
standing the very unpoetical nature of his profession, 
