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Poe's Scottish Connections
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Searching For Poe In Scotland
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David Hunt, present caretaker of the Fairlie Estate at which his 1750s predicessor, James Allan, worked, is seen discussing Allan's work, his family, and his nephew Robert Burns editing his Kilmarnock Edition, published in 1786. A plaque of this fact has been installed on one of the estate buildings' walls. Allan and Burns' father, William, were brothers-in-law. These facts we discovered, and have published in local newspapers, The Burns Chronicle, and elsewhere.
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Other than ex-patriot Scots and Scottish-Americans, generally, we Americans do not know Robert Burns, his life, work, or influence upon the world. Mrs. Anne Geddes, formally of the Dick Institute, in Kilmarnock, can be credited for our finding the unknown connection of Scots National Bard, Robert Burns, to an uncle, James Allan, Caretaker of Fairlie Estate, Dundonald, Ayrshire. Mr. Allan was married to Burns' mother's half-sister, Jean Broun. James was common uncle to Burns and Edgar Allan Poe's adoptive father, John Allan. This connection is fully detailed throughout our book, "Mar'se Eddie" in the Shire, Poe's Scottish Connections.
These facts have been published in three articles by Burns Chronicle editor, Peter Westwood. Burns' poem, "The Cotter's Saturday Night," was written for uncle James and aunt Jean Allan, who put up their nephew in their modest cottage while he completed revision of his Kilmarnock Edition volume of poems. However, Burnsians have long known that it was dedicated to Burns' good friend and patron, Robert Aiken, Esq.
The more significant family relationship amongst John Allan, Robert Burns, and Edgar Allan Poe was never known by scholars on either side of the Atlantic Ocean until my discovery. In the photocopy, above, from the Irvine Kirk archives, is the page on which the facts of many Allan family who are buried in the kirk cemetery was documented. In the entry above, the fact that John Allan was the adoptive father of Edgar Allan Poe existed, is but one example of knowledge known only by local historians. One such historian is our dear friend, Billy Kerr, who provided this extract, and many photos of Allan family headstones in the kirkyard. All these data were broadcast in the recent BBC Scotland Radio program produced by Billy Kay, mentioned elsewhere.
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This is a photograph of the portion of the Irvine Parish Kirk Academy that Poe attended. Professor Arthur Hobson Quinn, formerly of the University of Pennsylvania, but now deceased (1945), established the bias in his biography of Edgar Allan Poe that, "If Poe went to school at Irvine, as has been asserted [by Hervey Allen, in his biography, Israfel], it could have been at this time little more than a few days." Edgar Allan Poe A critical Biography, from the Johns Hopkins Paperbacks edition, 1998. p66.
I have read nothing of the intervening year between Allan's arrival at Irvine and Poe's placement at Stoke Newton; nevertheless, it was more like a few months, but nevermind. For the present, we share the above view of what is left of the Irvine Academy of 1815: the white "proud stone" remnants of the north gable of the building, long since torn down from what are now flats. Photographs and facts of the school, where John Allan and John Galt attended as well, exist in the Burns Museum up the High Street, because of Galt's connection with the poet. Until our research, no one in Scotland new of the Allan relationship with Burns.
The old school was located within a stone's throw of the John Allan House, on the Gatehead path, between the High Street and the bridge. The path is now a shopping mall, on the High Street end, of which, is a plaque to the memory of Allan's and Robert Burns' literary cousin, John Galt, mentioned in these pages. I have inquired of the Church and the East Ayrshire Council regarding permission to place a plaque on the remaining wall commemorating these facts.
Unfortunately, I had run out of time for our last visit, and have not been able to return. Nevertheless, local historians interested in our project are pressing on with our requests. In its time, the Irvine Academy was comparable to that of Bransby's Academy at Stoke Newington, London, but far more selective of its scholars, and corporal. The few attendees and graduates of this school were the sons of Ayrshire rich, and in turn, became the burgess of the shire (represent the landed gentry population at Parliament, in London). This site and all facts connected with it were provided courtesy of Mr. David Smith, Steward of the Burns Museum.
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David Smith, now retired Steward of the Burns Museum, showing one of the rare books in its important collection of "The [Professor James] Hogg Room."
In "The Hogg Room" (library), was a complete collection of many books of biography and creative work of and by Poe. From materials in this room, Mrs. Kenmotsu found data and illustrations of the Irvine Academy, known by locals to have been attended by Poe. Moreover, the mural of Burns' life that is painted inside the museum has evidence of Poe's connections with Burns and others in this old town. Finally, the Burns Statue has connections with Poe. It was a gift of John Spiers, who was married to an Edgar Allan Poe relative, and both are now buried in the Poe Family lair, Northern Necropolis, Glasgow. (See headstone photograph)
During Smith's narrated tour of Poe's connections to Irvine, he informed Brill at the Irvine church, to the south of the old Academy, that "All Poe's spirits are buried in this cemetery." These subjects, and Brill's pronouncement at that time that, "Poe is the Father of American Literature," became the basis of a BBC Scotland Radio broadcast on "Poe's Irvine Connections."
The images on this page represent what is no longer to be found of Poe's stay with his aunt in Irvine, as well as how things appear to passersby of the town who have no interest nor knowledge of America's greatest literary figure, as a child in their mists.
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The photograph of an Allan family headstone in the Irvine Churchyard is but one of many relics that have been cross-referenced in the Church Records of the Allan connection with Edgar Allan Poe. In his Israfel biography of Poe, Hervey Allen referred to it as, "...There, on the graves of the Allan relatives, a carven ship bellied its stone sails to an eternal breeze from the realms of nowhere."
Just visible at the bottom of the headstone is one of the ships which Poe so adroitly described and discussed in many of his poems and stories. Allen mentions "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," to which we add for the visitor's reading, “A Decent into the Maelström,” among the many which use sea imagery. We quote the inscription above the ship in our book.
The photographs of Irvine Church headstones, and of pages in old records, were taken by local Irvine historian, Billy Kerr, and sent to the author, with a growing collection of other facts and his activities which aid our project. He was an interviewee of the recent BBC Scotland Radio broadcast, "Scots Gothic--Edgar Allan Poe in Ayrshire."
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The pose struck by Bob Brill is on the exact site where the artist for Mr. Gracie's article drew his representation of Poe. Not only did John Allan take his son on such learning excursions, but Poe's English usher as well during a writing lesson on the grounds of the Irvine Parish Church. If one were standing at the front door of the church to its right of the photograph, and looking to the north, one would see the exterior wall of the flats to which the old Academy was anchored.
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