Helen Craik

1751 - 1825  (74 years)

• Name	Helen Craik
  Birth	1751
  Gender	Female
  Death	1825
  	d aged 74
  Person ID	I103462	First tree
  Last Modified	30 Apr 2022

  
  

  Father	William (of Arbigland) Craik,   b. 1703   d. 1798 (Age 95 years)
  Family ID	F1549	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family
  Marriage	Helen Craik had fallen in love with a groom on the estate; her family had discovered it; the groom, sent to Dumfries on an errand, and failing to return, was found shot dead by the roadside, with the local authorities ruling it suicide, rather than murder, though local rumour muttered otherwise
  Family ID	F1563	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	30 Apr 2022

  
  

• Notes

  Helen Craik wrote poetry, and her manuscript book of her poems includes her 'Lines written on a blank Leaf of Mr Burns's Poems': Here native Genius, gay, unique and strong, Shines through each page, and marks the tuneful song,— Rapt Admiration her warm tribute pays, And Scotia proudly echoes all she says; Bold Independence, too, illumes the theme And claims a manly privilege to fame.— — Vainly, O Burns! wou'd rank and riches shine, Compar'd with inborn merit great as thine! These Chance may take, as Chance has often giv'n, But powrs like thine can only come from Heav'n (Neilson, 1924, 66). Burns and Helen Craik knew each other. His only known letters to any of the Craiks are addressed to her. She shared her poems with him, and both of his letters to her also enclosed poems.