William Thom (poet)


William Thom was a Scottish poet who wrote in the Scots language. He was author of The Mitherless Bairn and other works. He was known as the 'Inverury' Poet.

Life and work

Thom was a native of Aberdeen, where he worked as a hand-loom weaver, enduring considerable hardship and poverty.
He was born in Sinclair's Close, Justice Port, Aberdeen in 1799 or 1800, and died in Dundee on 29 February 1848. According to the death record on the site scotlandspeople.gov.uk, William Thom died of "Consumption" on 28 February 1848 in the city of Dundee, Aberdeen county, Scotland, and interred on 3 March.
His most notable work is "Blind Boy's Pranks". In 1841 he published "Rhymes and Recollections of a Handloom Weaver".
A biography of William Thom appears in the book, James Hogg by Sir George Douglas in the "Famous Scots Series".
William Thom's remains are interred at Western Cemetery, Dundee, where a memorial monument was erected by admirers of the poet.