Mauchline

Photo: Poosie Nansie's hostelry in Mauchline. Image by LJ Cunningham

Jean Armour was one of the Mauchline Belles. Burns married her and they set up home in the village of Mauchline in 1788.

In 1784 Robert Burns moved to Mossgiel Farm, near Mauchline. He rented the farm from Gavin Hamilton, a fellow Freemason and friend who encouraged Burns to publish his poems. Hamilton was a well respected figure in the village of Mauchline but occasionally fell foul of the Reverend William ‘Daddy’ Auld, Mauchline’s parish minister.  

Reverend Auld complained about his parishioners when he wrote for Sir John Sinclair's ‘Statistical Account’ in 1791, ‘…about 50 years ago there were few females who wore scarlet or silks. But now nothing is more common than silk capes and silk cloaks.’

Some of the well-dressed young ladies that the Reverend Auld would have seen in his parish were the six Belles of Maunchline that Burns immortalised in verse. 

The Belles of Mauchline

In Mauchline there dwells six proper young belles,
The pride of the place and its neighbourhood a';
Their carriage and dress, a stranger would guess,
In Lon'on or Paris, they'd gotten it a'.

Miss Miller is fine, Miss Markland's divine,
Miss Smith she has wit, and Miss Betty is braw:
There's beauty and fortune to get wi' Miss Morton,
But Armour's the jewel for me o' them a'.

Betty Miller and Helen Miller were the daughters of John Miller, a Mauchline innkeeper. Jean Markland was the daughter of a local merchant, Christina Morton married a Mauchline draper, and Jean Smith was the sister of Robert's friend James Smith. 

Burns courted Jean Armour, the daughter of James Armour a master mason from Mauchline.

Robert Burns also wrote of the Mauchline Belles in his unfinished poem, ‘O leave novels, ye Mauchline belles’:

O leave novels, ye Mauchline belles,
Ye're safer at your spinning-wheel;
Such witching books are baited hooks
For rakish rooks, like Rob Mossgiel;
Your fine Tom Jones and Grandisons,
They make your youthful fancies reel;
They heat your brains, and fire your veins,
And then you're prey for Rob Mossgiel.

Beware a tongue that's smoothly hung,
A heart that warmly seems to feel;
That feeling heart but acts a part-
'Tis rakish art in Rob Mossgiel.
The frank address, the soft caress,
Are worse than poisoned darts of steel;
The frank address, and politesse,
Are all finesse in Rob Mossgiel.

Jean Armour gave birth to twins to Burns. She named their children Jean and Robert. In 1788 Burns set up home with Jean in Mauchline village. Today Burns’s House in Mauchline is open as a museum.

The young poet spent many nights in Nanse Tinnock’s Inn and wrote about his friends and enemies from Mauchline in many of his works, including: ‘The Holy Fair’, 'The Kirk's Alarm', 'A Mauchline Wedding' and 'Holy Willie's Prayer'.

In November 1788 Robert Burns and his family moved to Ellisland Farm.