Photo: Ayrshire farmland, with Lochlea Farm in the distance. Image by Mary and Angus Hogg
Robert’s father William Burnes rented Lochlea Farm’s 130 acres for the high price of 20 shillings an acre.
Robert was 18 years old when his family moved to Lochlea Farm in 1777. The farm was a few miles from the villages of Tarbolton and Mauchline. Lochlea Farm was almost twice the size of Mount Oliphant but the ground was swampy.
Robert and his brother Gilbert worked long hours on the farm and earned a modest wage. Robert took dancing classes and often found himself falling in and out of love with local girls.
In 1780 Robert started The Batchelors' Club with some friends in Tarbolton. He became a Freemason in St David's Lodge, No 174, Tarbolton, the following year. In the summer of 1781 Robert moved to Irvine to learn flax-dressing. Robert fell ill and the flax shop burned down during a Hogmanay celebration. Burns said he left Irvine ‘like a true poet, not worth a sixpence’, returning to Lochlea.
William had made an agreement with his landlord David McLure but didn’t have a written contract. William and his landlord disagreed about rents. William took his case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh and won but legal costs took the last of his money. On 13 February 1784, a few days after winning the case, William died. Robert later wrote: ‘When my father died, his all went among the rapacious hell-hounds that growl in the kennel of justice.'
Elizabeth Paton, a servant girl at Lochlea Farm, fell pregnant with Robert’s first child. Burns wished his sweet, wee daughter Elizabeth her mother’s grace and merit and ‘thy poor, worthless daddie's spirit’ - without his failings.
Robert and Gilbert leased nearby Mossgiel Farm in spring 1784.
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