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AINSLIE, ROBERT,
writer to the signet, the friend and correspondent of Robert Burns, was
born 13th January 1766. He was the eldest son of Mr. Ainslie of
Darnchester, residing at Berrywell, near Dunse, the land agent for Lord
Douglas in Berwickshire. He served his apprenticeship with Mr. Samuel
Mitchelson, in Carrubber’s close, Edinburgh, who was a great musical
amateur, and in whose house occurred the famous "Haggis scene" described
by Smollett in Humphrey Clinker. In the spring of 1787, when he had just
completed his twentieth year, Burns being at that time in Edinburgh, he
was fortunate enough to make his acquaintance, and in May of that
year, he and the poet went upon an excursion together into Berwickshire
and Teviotdale, when he introduced Burns at his father’s house, and the
reception he received from the family is pleasantly referred to, in his
gifted companion’s memoranda on this tour.
In 1789 Ainslie
passed writer to the signet. He afterwards visited Burns at Ellisland,
when the poet gave him a manuscript copy of Tarn O’Shanter, which
he presented to Sir Walter Scott. He married a lady named Cunningham, the
daughter of a colonel in the Scots Brigade in the Dutch service, by whom
he had a numerous family, of whom only two daughters survived him. He had
two brothers, and one sister, the latter of whom, whose beauty was highly
spoken of by Burns, died before him. One of his brothers, Douglas,
succeeded his father as land agent; and the other, Sir Whitelaw Ainslie,
is known as the author of an elaborate book on the Materia Medica of
India, where he for many years held the situation of medical
superintendent of the southern division of India, for which work he was
knighted by William IV. Mr. Ainslie died on the 11th April 1838. He was
the author of two religious little works, ‘A Father’s Gift to his
Children,’ and ‘Reasons for the Hope that is in Us,’ the latter comprising
many of the evidences for the truth of Christianity. He was also a
contributor to the Edinburgh Magazine, and others of the periodicals, for
forty years previous to his death. His disposition was kind and
benevolent, his manners affable and frank, and his conversation cheerful
and abounding in anecdote. Many of Burns’ letters to him will be found in
the poet’s printed correspondence.—Obituary at the time.—Personal
recollections. More Biographies on this name from the Dictionary of National Biography
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