Show Navigation

Burns

Robert Burns

Colonel William Nicol Burns, third Son of the Poet

Period:
19th Century
Description:

A mezzotint engraving of an earlier oil painting by Sir Daniel Macnee of one of Robert Burns' sons in later life.

 

William Nicol Burns was the sixth child of Robert Burns and his wife, Jean Armour Burns and one of three sons to survive into adulthood. He was named after the poet's friend William Nicol, the companion of his Highland tour and hero of the poem, "Willie Brew'd A Peck O' Maut".

 

He made a distinguished career in the East India Company, rising to the rank of Colonel and retired to Cheltenham. In 1851 he purchased the family's last home in Mill Street Dumfries in order to preserve the house in which his father had died.

 

This mezzotint, made from an earlier oil portrait by Sir Daniel Macnee 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.

Materials/Media:
paper
Dimensions:
width: 77 mm, length: 99 mm
Source:
Dumfries Museum & Camera Obscura
Accession number:
DUMFM:0198.187
Digital Number:
DMBN248n
Creation Date:
1898
Copyright:
Dumfries & Galloway Council