THE  WEAVER  POET

William Thom wis born in Sinclair's Close in Aiberdeen in 1798.  He served his time it a cotton factry fae the age o ten. His life wis ain o poverty and fan he wis 15 or 16 eers auld went tae wark it the School Hill Factry o Messrs Gordon, Barron & Co, a firm o handweavers.  

Later he went, we his wife an femily, tae Dundee an wis in Newtyle for mony eers.  They suffert mony hardships, poverty, hamelessness and seekness.  Be 1841 he wis back in Inverurie (Inverury) an sent ain o his poems tae the newspapers.  Mr Gordon, laird o Knockespock it Clatt, admiret it and an unlikely freenship wis struck up fit led tae him scrievin Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-Loom Weaver. 

​Thom gives a most affecting picture of the lives and thoughts of these men, many of them, strong with native intellect and passion, condemned to a life of unending servitude and degradation, too ragged to dare to enter a church, even if they wished, .... and yet [he] had a native feeling for poetry.

He deid in Dundee in 1848.

The book made his name and he became weel-kent, visiting London an gittin feted be society, haen a denner it Lady Blessington's hoose.  The  Spectator of 14 September 1844 (ablo) reviewed it.  The review is a thochtie bigsy kyne we yone patronising wye aboot dialect bit is important so fowk jaloose foo significant William Thom wis it the time, syne he noo be kyna owerlookit.  

Pairt o his 'The Blind Boy's Pranks' fae Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-Loom Weaver.

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THE MITHERLESS BAIRN

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS in 'FAMOUS SCOTS' 1899

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