Background
William Dunbar was born on November 18, 1749 in in the manor house of Thunderton, near Elgin in Morayshire, Scotland. It is said that he finally inherited, but did not assume, his father’s title and estate in Scotland.
(Scottish poet William Dunbar is usually considered one of...)
Scottish poet William Dunbar is usually considered one of the most important figures of fifteenth-century British literature, and may lay claim to being the finest lyric poet writing in English in the century and half between the death of Chaucer in 1400 and the appearance of Tottel's Miscellany in 1557. Dunbar's poems offer vivid depictions of late medieval Scottish society and serve up a striking pageant of colorful figures at the court of James IV (r. 1488-1513), with which he was associated for much of his adult life. The poems are remarkable both for their diversity and variability and for their multiplicity of voices, styles, and tones. The great variety of poems within Dunbar's canon includes religious hymns of exaltation, moral poems on a wide range of serious themes, comic and parodic poems of extreme salaciousness and scatological coarseness, general satires against the times, and satires with much more specific targets, often a single individual. This edition of eighty-four poems attributed to Dunbar includes extensive background material and explanatory notes that are sure to be of interest to students and Dunbar enthusiasts alike. The edition is rounded out with textual notes, an index of first lines, and a glossary.
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William Dunbar was born on November 18, 1749 in in the manor house of Thunderton, near Elgin in Morayshire, Scotland. It is said that he finally inherited, but did not assume, his father’s title and estate in Scotland.
Dunbar received the greater part of his education at Glasgow and then went to London for advanced study in mathematics and astronomy.
In 1771 Dunbar arrived at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), with a supply of goods to the value of £ 1, 000 which he had purchased in London for trade with the Indians. Two years later, he formed a partnership with John Ross, a prominent Scotch merchant of Philadelphia, and established a plantation in the British province of West Florida near Baton Rouge. In Jamaica he purchased a large number of African slaves for use on his plantation. The unsettled condition of the times later resulted in a series of misfortunes which swept away his accumulations; in 1775 some of his most valuable slaves were lost to him through an insurrection ; three years later his plantation was thoroughly plundered by Continental soldiers under Capt. Willing; and a short time afterward he was again raided by Spanish soldiers under Galvez.
In 1792, with Ross, he opened another plantation called “The Forest, ” nine miles south of Natchez and four miles east of the Mississippi. Applying his knowledge of chemistry and mechanics to farming, he made his plows and harrows on scientific principles, improved the cotton gin, first suggested the manufacture of cottonseed oil, and improved the method of packing cotton by introducing the square bale, utilizing a screw press he invented for that purpose. A few years of prosperity enabled him to purchase his partner’s interest in the plantation, and further success enabled him to devote much of his time to scientific investigation.
In 1798, he was appointed surveyor general of the District of Natchez, and served also as a representative of the Spanish government in defining the boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions east of the Mississippi. Upon the completion of this survey he took the oath of allegiance to the United States and became a warm supporter of its government.
During 1799 he made the first meteorological observations in the Mississippi Valley. His interest in science attracted the attention of Thomas Jefferson, to whom in 1799, Daniel Clarke wrote that “for Science, Probity, & general information [Dunbar] is the first Character in this part of the World. ” At Jefferson’s solicitation they entered upon an active correspondence, and on Jefferson’s recommendation Dunbar was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society.
In 1804, the President appointed Dunbar and George Hunter to explore the Ouachita River country, and as a result the former became the first man to give a scientific account of the Hot Springs and an analysis of their waters. His manuscript journal of the exploration came into the possession of the American Philosophical Society in 1817, and at the time of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase was published in Documents Relating to the Purchase and. Exploration of Louisiana (1904).
In 1805 he was appointed to explore the region bordering on the Red River. Among his many contributions to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society are reports on his explorations, on the delta of the Mississippi, and on the sign language by which distant tribes of Indians communicate with each other.
He wrote about the animal and plant life that he saw, and he solved the problem of finding the longitude by a single observer without any knowledge of the precise time. He also wrote articles on the fossil bones of a mammoth that he found in Louisiana, and propounded the theory that a profound calm exists inside the vortex of a cyclone. From his own observatory, fitted with elaborate foreign instruments, he observed lunar rainbows and other astronomical phenomena.
He was the first man to observe an elliptical rainbow and to make a suitable explanation thereof. He corresponded with, and held as his close friends, Sir William Herschel, Bartram, Hunter, Rittenhouse, and Rush. Even though he was indifferent to politics he was at one time chief justice of the court of quarter sessions, and later a member of the territorial legislature of Mississippi. He died at his home, “The Forest, ” in October 1810, leaving a widow and several children, each of whom was rendered independent by his large estate. His widow continued on the plantation until her death in November 1821.
(Scottish poet William Dunbar is usually considered one of...)
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Dunbar was indifferent to politics.
Dunbar had a wife and several children.
