John Lapraik - a brief history

The best source of information about John Lapraik is contained in a book which was published in 1840 entitled "The Contemporaries of Burns and the more recent poets of Ayrshire". There is a full transcript of the chapter devoted to John Lapraik.

John Lapraik was born in 1727 about three miles to the west of Muirkirk, Ayrshire in south west Scotland. He was the eldest son and, on the death of his father, succeeded to the family estate. He had an interest in poetry which he maintained throughout his life.

In March 1754 he married Margaret Rankin (sister to John Rankin who was another friend of Burns) and received a dowry from her of one hundred pounds sterling. (It was agreed that in case of his demise she was to obtain an annuity of two hundred merks Scots).

"Possessed of a cheerful and kind disposition, few men were more beloved in his sphere, or better fitted for the reciprocal interchange of social life. Fond of poetry and song, he essayed the rustic lyre; and happy in his household, its strings were alone attuned for the domestic hearth. Little did he dream that the muse thus wooed in prosperity, should, at no distant period, become the solace of his misfortune!"

In about 1762, eight years after they had married, Margaret Rankin died whilst giving birth to her fifth child.

In 1766, he married for a second time, his wife was Janet Anderson of Lightshaw, who lived on a neighbouring farm.

They were financially secure and it is clear from Lapraik's poetry that they were happy together:

Ye gods! who reside in the regions above,
Deprive me of my life, or inspire her with love!
Make Jenny's fond bosom to feel for my pain,
That I may sweet peace and contentment regain...

The gods were propitious:

She smiled sweetly on me, and gave me her hand,
And with blushes did own she was at my command;
Transported with joy, while she lean'd on my breast,
I thanked the kind gods who had heard my request:
So I to all sorrows and cares bid farewell,
While Jenny does love me, no care I can feel.

The Douglas and Heron Bank, was founded in 1769 but failed less than four years later in August 1773 in what Burns called "that villanous bubble the Ayr Bank".

Lapraik had provided guarantees to friends who had taken out loans with the Bank and, when all those loans were immediately called in following the Bank's collapse, was ruined.

He struggled to overcome the losses he had sustained:

"At the end of of nine years, having by then sold off all his lands and still having failed to discharge his debts he still found himself the victim of legal prosecution, and, at length, to heap the full measure of wretchedness on the devoted head of an honest man, he was thrown into prison."

Inkwell gifted by Burns to Lapraik Following his release from gaol in 1785 he leased the neighbouring ground and mill of Muirsmill, near Nether Wellwood farm, from the Earl of Loudoun.

It was at this time that he entered into correspondence with Robert Burns (at that time a near neighbour and unknown poet) who had heard one of his songs. The three Epistles which Burns wrote to John Lapraik in 1785 were subsequently published by Burns in 1786 and, as a result, the correspondence between the two men is well known.

Evidence of their friendship is a silver inkwell made from a pony's hoof - which is on exhibition at Robert Burns House, Dumfries. The brass lid is inscribed:

Presented To Mr Lapraik by his Much respected Friend Robt Burns

In Burns First Epistle to Lapraik he proposed a meeting - which happened in late 1788 at Muirsmill.

John Lapraik sought to emulate Burns by also publishing a book entitled: Poems on several occasions in 1788, two years after Burns had first had his poems published by the same printer.

The content of the poems is interesting in that one gets an idea of what it was like to live in Ayrshire in the second half of the 18th century - much of the material in the poems relates to matters of which Lapraik had direct experience.

In fact, Lapraik's subscribers did not profit from their investment - something which so pleased another contemporary of Lapraik and Burns, James Maxwell, that he published a poem expressing delight that Lapraik's subscribers had lost their money.

Whilst Burns became famous and moved to Edinburgh, Lapraik remained at Muirsmill until 1798 when it is recorded that:

... Lapraik, then far advanced in years, removed to Muirkirk, where he opened a small public house, which served at the same time as the village Post Office, he having been, through the kindness of friends, installed into that trust.

Here he lived much respected until his death, which took place on 7th May 1807 in the eightieth year of his age.

The house still stands and is the white cottage seen to the right of the Church in the photograph).

Following his death in 1807 he was buried in the churchyard at Kirkgreen (behind the Church in the above photograph) and his grave is marked by a tabular stone which has the inscription:

In Memory of
John Lapraik late of Dalfram
who died at Muirkirk on
7th May 1807
In the 80th year of his age.

John Lapraik's memory was subsequently kept alive by the Lapraik Burns Club which arranged for the erection of a Memorial in his memory.

The Memorial Cairn is ten feet high and built from stone from Lapraik's house, Dalfram, in a field that lies between the Sorn and Cumnock roads and can be seen from the Sorn road on the Muirkirk side of Townhead farm.

There is a contemporaneous account of the ceremony when the Memorial was formally inaugurated which featured in the Muirkirk Advertiser in 1914 and is reproduced in a book, recently published, entitled "Cairntable Echoes".

There is a transcript of the full 1914 article on this site.

In summary, it contains a history of of Lapraik's forbears - going back to La Privick who, according to tradition, was a Frenchman who had come in Queen Mary's retinue to Leith and Edinburgh in 1561 - and includes a statement that John Lapraik was Burns' model in "A Man's a Man for a' That, - one of Burns' most famous poems.

Some of Lapraik's possessions were gifted in 1923 by Miss M.S. McMinn of Wellwood Fairlie to the (now defunct) Lapraik Burns Club Number 56 in the Burns Federation.

They items are now held by East Ayrshire Council, Museums Arts and Theatre Section and include a wooden armchair and the family Bible which has a list of his children and their birth dates.

Lapraik had five children with Margaret Rankin, three of whom reached the years of maturity.

Following his subsequent marriage to Janet Anderson, nine further children were born who attained the years of maturity.

In 1840 the book "The Contemporaries of Burns and the more recent poets of Ayrshire" recorded that:

Three brothers and one sister still reside near the place of their birth. The latter was married to a Mr McMinn, farmer Nether Wellwood. She is a widow - an elderly matronly woman - and perfectly remembers the visit paid by Burns to her father at Muirsmill. her brother Thomas, has long been shepherd on the farm, which is large, and consists partly of pasture. James and John reside in Muirkirk. The former is a retired farmer. The latter served his apprenticeship as a cooper, but was pressed on board a man-of-war; and, having been captured by the enemy, was ten years in French prison. After the peace he returned to Muirkirk, where he now follows his original calling. He is the only one of his trade in the village, and is on that account generally styled "the cooper". He is well-known in the neighbourhood - can spin an interesting yarn - and, like a genuine old tar, is by no means averse to his grog.

Janet Anderson lived till the 5th March 1825 when she died aged 83.

She was interred in the Churchyard of Muirkirk where a large tabular stone can still be seen recording her death - as well as that of John Lapraik and several children.

Photograph of inkwell courtesy of Dumfries Museum

Photograph of cottage courtesy of East Ayrshire Council, Baird Institute, 3 Lugar Street, Cumnock, KA18 1AD