John Skinner (poet)

John Skinner (31 October 1721 – 16 June 1807) was a Scottish historian and songwriter.

Born in Balfour, Aberdeenshire, he was a son of a schoolmaster at Birse, and was educated at Marischal College.

Brought up as a Presbyterian, he became an Episcopalian and ministered to a congregation at Longside, near Peterhead, for 65 years. He wrote from the Episcopal point of view, and several songs of which The Reel of Tullochgorum and are the best known, and he also rendered some of the Psalms into Latin. He kept up a rhyming correspondence with Robert Burns.

He died at the home of his son, John Skinner, Bishop Coadjutor of Aberdeen on 16 June 1807.

Sources[]

• Author and Bookinfo.com

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.

See also[]

• Scottish literature

Wikisource has original works written by or about: John Skinner