Ebenezer Picken
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Ebenezer Picken | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1769 |
| Died | 1816 (Age 47) |
| Occupation | Poet, Merchant, Language Teacher, Music Teacher |
| Language | English, Scots |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
| Period | 1787-1816 |
Ebenezer Picken (January 1769 – 1816) was a Scottish poet and songwriter known as "The Poet of Paisley." He wrote poetry in English and Scots and produced a dictionary of Scottish words which was published posthumously.
Early life
Ebenezer Picken was born on Wellmeadow Street in Paisley, Renfrewshire in 1769.[1][2][Note 1] He was baptized 26 January 1769 at the Oakshaw East Association Congregation, to parents Ebenezer Picken and Agnes Ingraham.[3] His father was a weaver who had come to Paisley from Ayrshire due to the success in handloom weaving in Paisley. Picken was an only son, and his father gave him a good education at the Paisley Grammar School, with the intention he would enter the priesthood and join a body of Presbyterian Dissenters that he himself belonged to.[2]
Education and career
Picken studied clerical work at the University of Glasgow from 1785 to 1790.[1] However, a passion for poetic verse interfered with his studies, and he published his first small volume of poems at age eighteen in 1787.[4] He was close friends with poet and ornithologist Alexander Wilson, a fellow Paisley resident of his generation. Wilson's first published poems, in 1790, included an epistle to Picken. Both Picken and Wilson travelled to a meeting at the Edinburgh Pantheon on 14 April 1791, where they competed in a disputation on Scottish poetry. Picken argued that Allan Ramsay had done the most honour to Scottish poetry while Wilson argued for Robert Fergusson. Neither man won the competition, with the prize going to one Mr. Cumming who alleged obtained it "by false means." Picken and Wilson published their pieces together in a pamphlet entitled "The Laurel Disputed" before leaving Edinburgh.[5]
In 1791 Picken opened and taught at a school in Falkirk.[1][2] Shortly afterwards, he married Robina Belfrage, daughter of John Belfrage, Reverend of the Burgher Church in Falkirk, and sister of Reverend Henry Belfrage.[2][6] By the end of 1791, he was appointed teacher at an endowed school in Carron, Stirlingshire where he taught for five years, struggling with poverty.[1]
In 1796, after struggling as a teacher in Carron, Picken moved to Edinburgh where he attempted to manage a new mercantile business he started. This attempt at business proved unsuccessful, so he returned to teaching languages and music from his home on Bristo Street in Edinburgh.[2] Bristo Street and the buildings there were destroyed between 1967 and 1970 following Edinburgh's redevelopment plans.[7]
Later life and death
Picken and his family lived in near poverty in Edinburgh, with his language tutoring and selling subscriptions to his poetry unable to generate sufficient income.[8] His health gradually failed and he died of tuberculosis in 1816, leaving his widow Robina, three sons, and two daughters.[1]
Family
Picken ensured a good education for his two daughters: Catherine Picken and Joanna Belfrage Picken.[9] Both women attempted to establish a boarding school in Musselburgh, Midlothian but had little success due to Joanna Picken's uncomplimentary satire of locals.[9] They emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1842, and Joanna Picken followed her father's footsteps by teaching music and publishing poetry.[6]
Picken's second son, Andrew Belfrage Picken (1802—1842), served as Private Secretary to Gregor MacGregor during the Poyais Scheme, later returning to Edinburgh in poverty and emigrating to Montreal where he became a drawing teacher and poet.[1]
