HECTOR

See also:

• HECTOR MACNEILL (1946-1818)

MACNEILL (1946-1818)  , Scottish poet, was born near Roslin, Midlothian, on the 22nd of October 1746, the son of an impoverished army captain . He went to Bristol as a clerk at the age of fourteen, and soon afterwards was despatched to the West Indies . From 1780 to 1786 he acted as assistant secretary on board the flagships of Admiral Geary and Sir Richard Bickerton (1727-1792) . Most of his later life was spent in Scotland, and it was in the house of a friend at Stirling that he wrote most of his songs and his Scotland's Shaith, or the History of Will and Jean (1795), a narrative poem intended to show the deteriorating influences of whisky and pothouse politics . A sequel, The Waes of War, appeared next year . In 1800 he published The Memoirs of Charles Macpherson, Esq., a novel under-stood to be a narrative of his own hardships and adventures . A complete edition of the poems he wished to own appeared in 1812 . His songs " Mary of Castlecary," " Come under my plaidy," " My boy Tammy," " 0 tell me how for to woo," " I lo'ed ne'er a lassie but ane," " The plaid amang the hether," and " Jeanie's black e'e," are notable for their sweetness and simplicity . He died at Edinburgh on the 15th of March 1818 .