Jean Armour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jean Armour Burns | |
 Jean Armour, painted by John Alexander Gilfillan, in 1822
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| Born | 25 February 1765 Mauchline, Ayrshire, Scotland |
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| Died | 26 March 1834 Dumfries, Scotland |
| Occupation | wife of Robert Burns |
Jean Armour or Jean Armour Burns (February 25, 1765 - March 26, 1834), also known as the Belle of Mauchline, was the wife of the poet Robert Burns. She inspired many of his poems and bore him nine children, three of whom survived into adulthood.
[edit] Biography
Born in Mauchline, Ayrshire in 1765, Jean Armour was second oldest of the eleven children of stonemason James Armour (died 1798) and Mary Smith Armour. She met Robert Burns on a drying green in Mauchline around 1784 when she chased his dog away from her laundry. According to Armour's testimony in 1827, she met Burns again at a local dance and they subsequently 'fell acquainted'.
By the time Burns's first illegitimate child, Elizabeth Paton Burns (1785 - 1817) was born to Elizabeth Paton (died 1817) on May 22, 1785, he and Jean Armour were in a relationship and by the end of the year she was pregnant to him. Her announcement, in March 1786, that she was expecting Robert Burns's baby caused her father to faint. The certificate of an informal marriage agreement between Burns and Armour was destroyed by James Armour and removed his daughter to Paisley to prevent local scandal. However word had spread and the Mauchline Kirk recalled her on June 10 1786, to admit that she was unmarried and pregnant and to confirm the name of the baby's father. Burns was called on June 25 to also admit his part in the affair.
His letters from this period indicate that he intended to marry Jean Armour as soon as they realised she was pregnant, but had been discouraged by her reluctance to disobey her father's disapproval of the union. Additionally, at this point, Burns was romantically involved with 'Highland' Mary Campbell (1763 - 1786), who was also allegedly pregnant to him, and was considering a move to Jamaica. The emigration fell through and Mary died in October 1786 before she produced the child. Believing he had been abandoned by Jean Armour he set about having himself declared single again and transferred his property to his brother Gilbert Burns (1760 - 1827) in anticipation of a move. Believing that he was about to abscond, James Armour issued a warrant against him and Burns effectively went into hiding that summer, when co-incidentally his first volume of poetry, commonly called The Kilmarnock Edition was published.
Jean remained with her parents in the village of Mauchline, and Robert in the farm at Mossgiel. The couple continued to live apart even after the birth of their twins Robert (1786 - 1857) and Jean on September 3 1786 and following the success of The Kilmarnock Edition, Burns moved temporarily to Edinburgh. Her returned intermittently to Mauchline, during which time Jean fell pregnant to him again. When Burns returned permanently on February 23, 1788 he found Jean was destitute and had been expelled from the family home. They reconciled their relationship, Burns found her a place to stay. On March 3 she went into labour and delivered a second set of twins, two girls, one of whom died on March 10, the other on March 22. In the wake of Burns's new found celebrity as a poet, James Armour relented and allowed his daughter to be married to him. Although their marriage was registered on August 5, 1788 in Mauchline, the parish records describe them as having been 'irregularly married some years ago'. She and Burns moved to Ellisland farm where they stayed until 1791 when they moved to Dumfries, where both would live for the rest of their lives.
Jean Armour and Robert Burns had nine children together (he had another four by other women), the last of whom was born on the day of his funeral in July 1796.
Her widowhood and the straightened circumstances she found herself in after Burns's death attracted national attention and a charitable fund was collected for her and the children. She survived her husband for 38 years, and lived to see his name become celebrated throughout the world. Twenty years after his death his celebrity had reached such a point that his remains were removed from their modest grave in St Michael's Kirkyard, Dumfries, and placed in a specially commissioned Mausoleum.
Here, Jean Armour was buried when she died in 1834.
Statues of Jean were erected in Mauchline in 2002 and in Dumfries,opposite St Micheal's kirk in 2004
[edit] Sources
- Jean Armour's birth and marriage dates derived from Scotlandspeople.gov.uk, the Official Government source for Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland.
- Dirt and Deity: A Life of Robert Burns, Ian McIntyre, HarperCollins 1995.
- The Complete Works of Robert Burns, Chambers, 1867.
- The Burns Encyclopedia, Maurice Lindsay, Robert Hale, 1959
