1. Robert Aiken was one of Robert Burns's closest friends and greatest admirers.
16 Facts About Robert Aiken
1. 2.
Robert Aiken's father John Aiken, was a sea captain who owned his own ships and his mother was Sarah Dalrymple, distantly related to the Dalrymples of Stair.
3.
Robert Aiken became a writer or lawyer in Ayr and was referred to by Burns as "Orator Bob" in his poem "The Kirk's Alarm".
4.
Robert Aiken was a prosperous and convivial individual, small in stature and rotund.
5.
Robert Aiken died on 17 October 1815 and is buried with her husband, who died aged 78 in 1807, in the Auld Kirk graveyard, Ayr.
6.
Robert Aiken was a cousin to the Earl of Glencairn and as stated had links with the Dalrymple family of Stair.
7.
Robert Aiken was a member of the committee of the Ayr Library Society, which allowed subscribers access to the latest books published.
8.
Robert Aiken mentioned several times was his son Andrew Hunter Robert Aiken.
9.
Burns commented that until he had heard Robert Aiken reading his poetry aloud he had failed to fully appreciate it.
10.
Robert Aiken had previously collected nearly a quarter of all subscriptions for Burns's Kilmarnock Edition.
11.
Robert Aiken was Surveyor of Taxes and it is through him in 1786 that we have a list of the carriages, riding-horses, wives, servants, children, etc.
12.
Robert Aiken took a keen interest in the Alloway Burns Club.
13.
Robert Aiken requested me to show him the ode which I had prepared for the occasion.
14.
Robert Aiken both chaired or simply attended the club's 'Burns Suppers' until his death in 1807 and Hamilton Paul recounted the following at the 1808 supper:.
15.
Allan Cunningham published an undated letter to John Richmond by Burns that suggested that Robert Aiken had been central to the failure of his attempted marriage.
16.
Gavin Hamilton's eldest daughter Jacobina or 'Beennie' recollected, how even she only became aware of the marriage at breakfast one day when Burns and Robert Aiken were present and upon apologising to Robert Aiken for the lack of his usual boiled egg Burns said "if she cared to send over the way to Mrs Burns she might have some".