John Gibson Smith was a Scottish

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...

 poet.

He may have been from Innerleithen

Innerleithen

Innerleithen is a small town in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders.-Etymology:The name "Innerleithen" comes from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "confluence of the Leithen", because it is here that the river joins the Tweed. The prefix "Inner-/Inver-" is common in many Scottish...

, a small village near Peebles

Peebles

Peebles is a burgh in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders, lying on the River Tweed. According to the 2001 Census, the population was 8,159.-History:...

 in the south of Scotland. He moved to Ednam

Ednam

Disambiguation: "Ednam" can also refer to the aristocratic title Viscount EdnamEdnam is a small village near Kelso in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland....

 as a schoolmaster in 1834.

He was a keen gardener and wrote about all he saw. For example, his classic "The Old Churchyard" took 240 pages!

He resigned his post as Ednam schoolmaster in 1864 in order to emigrate to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

with his family and it was there he died.