Gilbert Burns

A lithographic engraving of an earlier silhouette by Howie of Robert Burns' brother.   Gilbert Burns was the poet's younger brother by only one year. It was during the last unhappy months of their father's life that Robert and Gilbert Burns arranged to take on the lease of the farm of Mossgiel near Mauchline together, and the family moved there in 1784. Gilbert continued to farm there after Robert departed for Edinburgh.   There he provided a home for Burns' illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth and also supported their mother and two sisters, Agnes and Annabella. When Burns intended to emigrate to Jamaica he drew up a document giving Gilbert the profits from the Kilmarnock edition of his poems to enable him to meet these responsibilities. Gilbert married in 1791 and had eleven children. He worked as a farmer or farm manager throughout his life.   This engraving made from an earlier silhouette by Howie was published in 1898 in the "Memorial Catalogue of the Burns Exhibition, 1896". This detailed the contents of the great exhibition of Burns material held in the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1896 as part of the events which commemorated the centenary of the poet's death.