Scottish poet, born in Glasgow, educated in Edinburgh; entered a lawyer's office in Paisley in 1811 and became Sheriff-Clerk Depute of Renfrewshire 1818; he was editor of the Paisley Advertiser in 1828, and of the Glasgow Courier in 1830; he wrote biographical notices of local poets, and edited "Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern," in 1827; but his own fame was established by "Poems, Narrative and Lyrical," 1832, the gem of the collection being "Jeanie Morison"; he died in Glasgow (1797-1835).