Biography

Balfour was born in the parish of Monikie

Monikie

Monikie is a village in Angus, Scotland, north-east of Dundee, and which takes its name from the civil parish of Monikie.-History:The village grew from small beginnings as just one of many hamlets. The other large village in the parish is Newbigging...

, Forfarshire, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, on 1 March 1767. His parents were both of the humblest peasantry. Being a twin, he was from his birth under the care of a relative. He was physically weak. His education was of the scantiest. When a mere lad he was apprenticed to a weaver

Weaver

The Ploceidae, or weavers, are small passerine birds related to the finches.These are seed-eating birds with rounded conical bills, most of which are from Sub-Saharan Africa, with fewer species in tropical Asia. A few species have been introduced outside their native range. The weaver group is...

. Later he taught in a school in his native parish, and many lived to remember him gratefully for his rough and ready but successful teaching of them. In his twenty-sixth year (1793) he became one of the clerks of a merchant manufacturer in Arbroath

Arbroath

Arbroath or Aberbrothock is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, and has a population of 22,785...

. In 1794 he married.

He commenced writing at the age of twelve. Not very long after he filled 'the poets' corner' in the local newspaper. Later he contributed verse to the British Chronicle newspaper and to the Bee of Dr. Anderson. In 1793 he was one of the writers in the Dundee Repository and in 1796 in the Aberdeen Magazine

Four years after his removal to Arbroath he changed his situation, and two years later, on the death of his first employer, he carried on the business in partnership with his widow. On her retirement in 1800 he look another partner, and, having succeeded in obtaining a government contract to supply the navy with canvas

Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

, in a few years he possessed considerable property.

During the war with France, he published patriotic poems and songs in the Dundee Advertiser, which were reprinted in London. To the Northern Minstrel of Newcastle-on-Tyne he furnished many songs, and a number of poems to the Montrose Literary Mirror. Ha wrote an account of Arbroath

Arbroath

Arbroath or Aberbrothock is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, and has a population of 22,785...

 for Sir David Brewster's

David Brewster

Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA FSSA MICE was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.-Early life:...

 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and several papers for Alexander Tilloch

Alexander Tilloch

-Early life:The son of John Tilloch, a tobacco merchant and magistrate of Glasgow, he was born there on 28 February 1759. He was educated at Glasgow University, and turned his attention to printing. In 1781 he began work on stereotypes. In 1725 William Ged had obtained a privilege for a development...

's Philosophical Magazine

Philosophical Magazine

The Philosophical Magazine is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. Initiated by Alexander Tilloch in 1798, in 1822 Richard Taylor became joint editor and it has been published continuously by Taylor & Francis ever since; it was the journal of choice for such luminaries as...

.

In 1814 he removed to Trottick, near Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

, as manager of a branch of a London house. In the following year it became bankrupt, and Balfour was again thrown on the world. He found a poor employment as manager of a manufacturing establishment at Balgonie, Fifeshire. In October 1818, for the sake of his children's education, he transferred himself to Edinburgh, and obtained a situation as clerk in the great publishing house of the Messrs. Blackwood. Unhappily in the course of a few months he was struck down by paralysis

Paralysis

Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...

, and in June 1818 was obliged to relinquish his employment. He recovered so far that he could be wheeled about in a specially prepared chair. His intellect was untouched, and he devoted himself to literature.

In 1819 appeared his Campbell; or the Scottish Probationer (3 vols.). The novel was well received. In the same year he edited Richard Gall

Richard Gall

Richard Gall , was a Scottish poet.Gall, the son of a notary, was born at Linkhouse, near Dunbar, in December 1776. Having attended the parish school of Haddington, he was apprenticed at the age of eleven to his maternal uncle, a carpenter and builder. He afterwards became a printer's apprentice in...

's 'Poems,' with a memoir. In 1820 he published Contemplation, and other Poems (1 vol). In 1822 came his second novel of the Farmer's Three Daughters (3 vols.), and in 1823 the Foundling of Glenthorn; or the Smuggler's Cave, a Romance (3 vols.). In 1825 he republished from Constable's Edinburgh Magazine Characters omitted in Crabbe's Parish Register (1 vol.), and his Highland Mary (4 vols.) in 1827.

He died on 12 September 1829. The Remains, entitled Weeds and Wildflowers, were edited by Dr. D. M. Moir with a sympathetic memoir. Balfour wrote his novels for The Minerva Press, as needing 'daily bread' but he never pandered to the low morals of its habitual readers. Pathos and shrewdness of insight and a very graphic faculty of sketching character are his chief characteristics. Canning sent him a grant of £1OO. in recognition of his ability and misfortunes.