Early life Wilson was born in a Presbyterian family in
Paisley, Scotland on July 6, 1766. Alexander senior ("Saunders") had given up smuggling and taken up weaving where he did well and he supplemented income with liquor distilling. The American revolution had caused economic hardship and after the death of Wilson's mother, Mary McNab, his father remarried and moved to
Auchinbathie. Wilson got a little bit of schooling but spent time herding livestock and at thirteen he apprenticed with his brother-in-law William Duncan. He also worked four years as a
journeyman, shooting grouse in free time and peddling wares across Scotland.
Poetry and emigration While working as a weaver in Paisley, Wilson became seriously interested in poetry. He was inspired by the dialect verse of
Robert Burns, who was only seven years older. He was close friends with fellow Paisley poet
Ebenezer Picken. In addition to ballads and pastoral pieces, Wilson wrote satirical commentary on the conditions of weavers in the mills. In 1792 he wrote a poem called "Watty and Meg: A wife reformed" on a drunkard and his wife, which was quite popular. His authorship of a satirical poem "The Shark, or Lang Mills Detected" with severe personal statements about a mill owner named William Sharp resulted in a libel suit. He then began to blackmail Sharp and this led to Wilson's arrest. His work was said to be inflammatory, against the English, and libelous; he was often in trouble with the law. Because he devoted little time to his trade as a weaver, Wilson lived in poverty. In 1794, he decided to emigrate to America.
From teaching to ornithology in the 19th century With a nephew, Wilson left Scotland in May 1794 at the age of and landed in Delaware. He walked to Philadelphia where he tried work in printing and weaving. Opportunities were scarce for weavers in the Philadelphia area, and Wilson turned to teaching. Wilson taught at the
Milestown School in Bristol Township, the present-day
East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, for five years from 1796 to 1801. He then moved on to teach briefly in New Jersey. Eventually, Wilson settled into a position at
Gray's Ferry, Pennsylvania, and took up residence in nearby
Kingsessing. There, he met the famous naturalist
William Bartram, who encouraged Wilson's interest in
ornithology and painting. Resolved to publish a collection of illustrations of all the birds of North America, Wilson traveled widely, collecting and painting. He also secured subscribers to fund his work, the nine-volume
American Ornithology (1808–1814), which was published by Bradford & Inskeep, booksellers in Philadelphia. Wilson's primary engraver was
Alexander Lawson (c.1773–1846), who completed 50 (60%) of the copper plates used to produce the hand-colored prints (76 total) that were interleaved in each volume. Of the 268 species of birds described in its pages, 26 had not previously been described. His illustrations of birds in poses were an inspiration for James Audubon and other illustrators and naturalists. In 1813, Wilson was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society. by Wilson
Death Wilson died on August 23, 1813, "of dysentery, overwork, and chronic poverty" according to one report. He was buried in Philadelphia, in the cemetery at
Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') church. The two final volumes of
American Ornithology were completed by Wilson's friend and patron
George Ord, who was an executor of Wilson's estate. An image entitled "Swedish Lutheran Church", which depicts an apparently elderly individual mourning at the grave of Wilson, was drawn by
Thomas Sully (1783–1872), engraved and printed in 1828 by Cephas G. Childs and B. Rogers, respectively, and published in a book of landscapes,
Views of Philadelphia (1827–1830). == Legacy ==