Robert Burns’ Time in Mauchline

Rob Mossgiel 1785 –Age 26

Before coming to Mauchline, Robert Burns’ family lived comfortably on Lochlea Farm near Tarbolton. His father William had a disagreement with the Landlord and died on 13th February 1784. When their father’s affairs at Lochlea were reaching crisis, Robert and his brother Gilbert rented the farm of Mossgiel, Mauchline from Gavin Hamilton. The farm was 118 acres, the rent was £90 per annum and the farm was stocked by the Landlord. The whole family put in their individual savings and each member of the family was allowed an ordinary wage for the labour they performed on the farm. Robert and his brother Gilbert received £7 per annum each.

Robert entered Mossgiel full of good intentions. He read farming books, he calculated crops and he attended markets. However, bad seed was bought the first year and a late harvest the second year led to the loss of half of the crops.

He then began to be known in the Mauchline neighbourhood as a maker of rhymes. Burns said that the first which saw the light was a ‘burlesque lamentation on a quarrel between two reverend Calvanists, both of them dramatis personae in my Holy Fair. With a certain description of the clergy, as well as the laity, it met with a roar of applause.’