1. David Sillar was a Scottish farmer, poet, grocer, schoolteacher and baillie who was a close friend of the poet Robert Burns.
20 Facts About David Sillar
1. 2.
David Sillar died in 1830, aged 70, after a long illness, and was buried in Irvine's Old Parish Church cemetery.
3.
David Sillar's eroded gravestone was replaced by a facsimile thanks to the Irvine Burns Club.
4.
David Sillar's father was Patrick Sillar, tenant farmer at Spittalside near Tarbolton, Ayrshire.
5.
David Sillar first married a widow, Mrs Margaret Kerr, nee Gemmell shortly after moving to Irvine and had seven children and his second wife was the sister of John Bryan of the Sun Inn, Kilmarnock.
6.
David Sillar had tried his hand in 1784 as a teacher in Irvine, setting up a school of navigation in East Back Road, with however the same result as before.
7.
David Sillar had a younger brother William who died young and left him a considerable sum of money together with the lease of Spittalside Farm.
8.
David Sillar's wife ran the farm and he ran his school, returning to work in the fields at the end of each week.
9.
David Sillar is not recorded as having been a generous benefactor, possibly due to his experiences in life.
10.
David Sillar outlived all his family apart from his son who lived in Liverpool.
11.
David Sillar both played the dulcimer and the fiddle for which he composed.
12.
David Sillar was a year younger than Robert and was probably Burns's closest friend, his Dainty Davie during his Lochlea days.
13.
David Sillar wore the only tied hair in the parish; and in the church, his plaid, which was of a particular colour, I think fillemot, he wrapped in a particular manner round his shoulders.
14.
David Sillar was not a founder member of the Tarbolton Bachelor Club, however he joined in 1781 and a holograph copy of the rules of the club inn his hand survives.
15.
David Sillar was a correspondent with Burns after he left Tarbolton in 1785 and was the subject of two poems by Robert, namely the 'Epistle to Davie.
16.
Tait's "Poems and Songs" were published in 1790 and like David Sillar's have achieved little or no acclaim.
17.
In 1789 David Sillar published a volume of poetry titled 'Poems' that was 247 pages long, using Robert's printer, John Wilson of Kilmarnock and dedicated to Hugh Montgomery, Esq of Skelmorlie.
18.
The Irvine Burns Club possesses two original letters from Robert Burns to David Sillar, purchased by the club in 1975 from the Rev David Sillar, Wetherby, Yorkshire, a great-great-grandson.
19.
David Sillar's subscribed to the Burns Monument at Alloway and was one of the first to do so.
20.
David Sillar was the first on the members' list and Gilbert Burns was a member of the Mauchline Conversation Society that met to discuss a wide range of topics such as moral questions, politics, etc.