Motherwell, William

(1797-1835)

   Born in Glasgow, the son of an ironmonger, he was educated in Edinburgh and in Paisley, Renfrewshire. He started work in the office of the sheriffclerk at Paisley when he was fifteen, then studied classics for a year at Glasgow University. At some stage he was a trooper in the Renfrewshire yeomanry cavalry. From 1919 to 1929 he was deputy sheriffclerk of Renfrewshire, then editor of the Paisley Advertiser before becoming editor of the Orange-Tory paper Glasgow Courier in 1830. He was summoned to a special committee in London to give information on Orangeism. He was taken ill at the meeting and died of a stroke soon afterward. Some of his publications: The Harp of Renfrewshire, 1819. Renfrewshire Characters and Scenery, 1824. Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern, 1827. Poems, Narrative and Lyrical, 1835 (supplemented and re-edited by William Kennedy [see entry] in 1848). Some of his poems: "And Hae Ye Seen My Ain True Luve?" "Facts From Fairyland," "Jeanie Morrison," "My Ain Countrie," "The Cavalier's Song," "The Covenanter's Battle Chant," "The Trooper's Ditty," "What is This World to Me?"

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http:// www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). For information on Orangeism see http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FKX/is_1-2_39/ai_n6150068. Golden Numbers. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith, eds. Doubleday, Doran, 1902. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetical Works of William Motherwell. Alexander Gardner, 1881. William Motherwell's Cultural Politics By Mary Ellen Brown. University Press of Kentucky (http://www.kentuckypress.com/viewbook.cfm?Group=13&ID=387). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).