Jean Lorimer was a friend of the poet Robert Burns, often referred to by him as the "Lassie wi' the lint-white locks" or "Chloris".
16 Facts About Jean Lorimer
1.
2.
Jean Lorimer's father, William Lorimer, was a tea and wine merchant and a farmer, at first at Craigieburn House near Moffat.
3.
Jean Lorimer became a good friend of Jean Lorimer Armour and Burns was a frequent visitor to their home.
4.
Jean Lorimer was a very attractive, blue eyed and fair haired, an unusual hair colour in the area at the time, with a fine singing voice, catching the attention of several men, such as John Lewars, James Thomson, and in particular another colleague of Burns in the excise, John Gillespie.
5.
Towards the end of her life, twenty-three years after she had last seen him, Jean Lorimer visited her spendrift husband in the debtors' prison at Carlisle, generously seeing him every day for a month.
6.
Jean Lorimer had, it is said, only married him in the first place when he threatened to commit suicide if she would not marry him.
7.
William Jean Lorimer was once considered to be the "illicit dealer" that Burns had difficulties with on his excise duties, however this is thought to be William Jean Lorimer of Cairnmill, in Nithsdale.
8.
Jean Lorimer is said to have moved to the north of England where she was employed as a governess by a succession of families before returning to Scotland in 1822, as a governess.
9.
Jean Lorimer lived under straitened circumstances, a little above begging and worse as implied by Thomas Thorburn who, whilst in Edinburgh encountered her in the street and declined her attentions, but gave her a shilling.
10.
James Hogg recorded that three associates of his, Mr Thomson, Mr Irvine and Mr Gibson, discovered Jean Lorimer and became "greatly attached to her" as a result if their admiration for Robert Burns.
11.
Jean Lorimer later was employed as a housekeeper by a gentleman and his wife in Blacket Place, Newington, Edinburgh and then, when she became too infirm to work owing to a pulmonary infection, she was provided with a small flat in Middleton's Entry, Potterow where she lived for the remainder of her life.
12.
Jean Armour on this occasion sang the Jean Lorimer inspired "O, that's the lassie o' my heart" to the tune of "Morag" and Robert Cleghorn later requested a copy.
13.
The lack of genuine deep passion in the lyrics of his songs on Jean Lorimer are seen as suggestive of a platonic friendship between them.
14.
In 1893 Dr James Adam published a book Burns's "Chloris": A Reminiscence, detailing his association with Jean Lorimer and defending her character against several of Burns's biographers, such as Allan Cunningham.
15.
James Hogg in 1834 recorded that Jean Lorimer had a lock of Burns's hair that she kept in a small box.
16.
Jean Lorimer had some direct input to the sings, for example she insisted on a change to lines in "Whistle and I'll come to ye, my lad" despite Thomson's protestations.