WILLIAM

See also:

• WILLIAM MOTHERWELL (1797-1835)

MOTHERWELL (1797-1835)  , Scottish poet, antiquary and journalist, was born at Glasgow on the 13th of October 1797, the son of an ironmonger . At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed in the office of the sheriff-clerk at Paisley, and appointed sheriff-clerk depute there in 1819 . He spent his leisure in collecting materials for a volume of local ballads which he published in 1819 under the title of The Harp of Renfrewshire . In 1827 he published a further instalment in Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern, prefaced by an excellent historical introduction . He contributed verses to newspapers and magazines, Jeanie Morrison, My Heid is like to rend, Willie, and Wearie's Could Well being his best-known poems . He became editor of the Paisley Advertiser in 1828, and of the Glasgow Courier in 1830 . A small volume of his poems was published in 1832, and a larger volume with a memoir in 1846, reissued, with additions, in 1848 . MOTHERWELL, a municipal and police burgh of Lanarkshire, Scotland . Pop . (1851), 900; (1901), 30,418 . It is situated near the right bank of the Clyde, 13 M . S.E. of Glasgow by the Caledonian railway .

It takes its name from an old well dedicated to the Virgin, and owes its rapid increase to the

coal and iron mines in the neighbourhood . It has large iron and steel works, bridge-building being a distinctive industry . Boilers, steam-cranes and ironmongers' ware are also made, and there are brick, tile and fireclay works . The public buildings include the town-hall, theatre and hospital; the park was presented in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee .