Janet+Hamilton+(1795-1873)

//Janet Hamilton (1795-1873) is a Scottish poet and essayist whose writing focuses on issues of national identity, temperance, education of women, working-class life, urbanization, religion and industrialization. Her didactic poetry addresses the need for education amongst the working-class population, and her essays warn women of the dangers of illiteracy. //



(Scottish Poetry Library)

Janet Hamilton was born Janet Thomson on 12 October 1795, near Carhill, Shotts, Lanarkshire, to a working-class Christian family. Her father, James Thomson, was a shoe-maker, and her mother, Mary Brownlee, was an embroiderer. The family relocated when Hamilton was seven years to Langloan near Coatbridge, where her parents worked as field labourers (ODNB). Hamilton spent the rest of her life living in Langloan. Hamilton learned to take care of herself and tend to the house at an early age because her parents were frequently working long hours. Hamilton had no formal education, however in her mother’s spare time, she taught Hamilton how to read, which sparked a passion of literature and learning for Hamilton (Orlando). She was reading children’s half-penny books before the age of five, and by the age of eight she was reading Milton’s Paradise Lost and Allan Ramsay’s Poems, and frequently reading Shakespeare and the Bible (Orlando). By the age of nine, she began working as an embroiderer, and in her spare time she borrowed her father’s library subscription, and read books on history, geography, biography, travel, and literature. She continued to education herself alongside her daily work assignments of spinning and tambouring (Orlando).

Her father returned to shoe-making, and hired a young man as his assistant named John Hamilton (1783-1878). Janet and John married in February 1809 in a traditional Scots-style wedding, when she was 13 years old (Orlando). They resided in Langloan for the rest of their lives, where they had 10 children together, with seven children- five boys and two girls, surviving (ODNB). In her later teens, from ages 17-19, Hamilton began composing religious verses, and since she could not write, she had her husband transcribe around 20 of them (Orlando). She was inspired by the Bible, and by other influential writers such as Robert Burns and the Scots ballad tradition (Orlando). Hamilton taught all seven of her children to read and spell (because she became literate) by the age of five (Orlando), as she believed in education despite her working-class upbringing. Around the age of 50, Hamilton began to teach herself to write, which led to her contributing to several essays that advocated important topics to her, such as women’s education and workers’ self-improvement (ODNB).

In the 1850s, shortly after learning to write, Hamilton started losing her eye sight. She continued to produce poetry in the late 1850s and 1860s, by dictating them to her eldest son James (ODNB). Her poetry was written in English and in Scots (traditional Scottish dialect), as she was eventually fluent in both. All of her published poetry occurred after her blindness (Orlando), including //Poems and Essays// (1863), Poems of Purpose and Sketches in Prose of Scottish Peasant Life and Character in Auld Langsyne, Sketches of Local Scenes and Characters (1865), Poems and Ballads (1868), Poems, Essays, and Sketches (1870). Toward the end of her life, her poetry became quite popular, receiving praise in English and Scottish periodicals (Orlando). She often had visitors who commented on her humour, wit, and impressive ability to recite ballads (Orlando). She was bed-ridden for three years, and died on 30 October 1873. She was buried on 4 November in Old Monkland cemetery, Coatbridge. Many gathered at her funeral in Langloan to commemorate her life and work, as she inspired many working-class writers with her boundary-pushing poetry and her self-taught education (Orlando).



 Works Cited: “Janet Hamilton”. Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles. Web. 2 February 2015. Boos, Florence S. “Janet Hamilton”. Dictionary of National Biography. Web. 1 February 2015.

Work Cited: Works Cited Hamilton, Janet. //Poems, sketches and essays.// Ed. James Hamilton, George Gilfillan, Alexander Wallace. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. 1880. Digital file.

Murdoch, ALexander G. //Recent and Living Scottish Poets.// Glasgow:Hay Nisbet and Co. 1883. Pages 334-337. Digital File.