Historical records matching Elizabeth "Bess" Paton Bishop
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About Elizabeth "Bess" Paton Bishop
GEDCOM Note
'Dear-bought Bess', as Burns called his first illegitimate daughter, was born to the servant girl in the Burns household, Elizabeth Patton. Her birth was celebrated in 'A Poet's Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter' (or as the poet more pithily put it, 'his Bastart Wean'). The poet asked: "Lord grant that thou may ay inherit Thy mither's looks an' gracefu' merit; An' thy poor, worthless daddy's spirit, Without his failins, 'Twill please me mair to see thee heir it, Than stocket mailens...'
'Dear-bought Bess' was baptised when two days old.
Burns meditated flight to Jamaica in July 1786, he made out a Deed of Assignment, binding Gilbert Burns to 'ailment, clothe and educate her.. as if she was his own... until she arrive at the age of fifteen years'. To enable his brother to honour this engagement, the poet left all his movable effects and the profits from 'the publication of my Poems presently in the Press'. When Elizabeth Paton reached the age of twenty-one, she received £200 from the fund which had been set up to support the poet's family.
She lived at Mossgiel Farm, under Burn's mother's care, until Robert Burns death. She then returned to her own mother, who was by this time happily married to John Andrew, a ploughman.
She married John Bishop, factor to Baillie of Polkemmet, and had seven children. Some claim she died in childbirth. She is buried in Whitburn Churchyard.
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Elizabeth "Bess" Paton Bishop's Timeline
| 1785 |
May 22, 1785
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Tarbolton, South Ayrshire, Scotland (United Kingdom)
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May 24, 1785
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| 1807 |
November 18, 1807
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Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, Scotland (United Kingdom)
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| 1809 |
June 3, 1809
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Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, Scotland (United Kingdom)
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| 1811 |
April 9, 1811
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West Lothian, Scotland
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April 9, 1811
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Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, Scotland (United Kingdom)
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| 1813 |
July 15, 1813
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Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, Scotland (United Kingdom)
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| 1815 |
May 19, 1815
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Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, Scotland (United Kingdom)
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| 1816 |
1816
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Whitburn, West Lothian, Scotland
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