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 parents removed to Lochend, near the Loch of Lindores. He never received any school education. He was taught to read by his mother, and writing and arithmetic by his brother Alexander. The two lads, from the thirteenth year of the elder, earned their living by breaking stones on the road between Lindores and Newburgh. John, having been apprenticed to weaving in the village of Collessie, became so expert in the craft that in 1825 he set up looms for himself in a house immediately adjoining his father's, and with Alexander for apprentice. The failure of the trade all over Scotland in this year ruined them all. The two brothers returned to their former occupation of outdoor labourers. Alexander tells how John would eagerly seize any scrap of white paper that offered itself whereon to write out his poems. Before 1831 he had a large collection of manuscripts of the most miscellaneous sort. In October 1829 he was a day-labourer on the estate of Inchtyre. His integrity and capacity in this humble position 80 commended him to the proprietor that, on the death in 1835 of the overseer, he was appointed his successor at a salary of 26l. per annum, with fodder for a cow, and with his brother for assistant. Unfortunately the estate changed hands, and the situation was lost. In 1838, to Alexander's 'Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry ' he contributed five pieces. In 1889 appeared ' Lectures on Practical Economy ' by both brothers. In the title-page he describes himself as a 'Fifeshire Forester.' Under the same signature of a 'Fifeshire Forester' he contributed many poems to the two Scottish periodicals called the 'Scottish Christian Herald' and the 'Christian Instructor' — the latter under the editorship of Dr. Andrew Thomson. In 1838 his health failed; he therefore gave up manual labour, and endeavoured to gain a livelihood out of literary work. He died of consumption on Sunday, 1 Sept. 1839, in his twenty-seventh year.

 BETHUNE, JOHN DRINKWATER (1762–1844), originally John Drinkwater, historian of the siege of Gibraltar, was born at Latchford, near Warrington, in June 1762. His father, John Drinkwater, formerly a surgeon in the navy, was at the time of his birth a medical practitioner at Salford, then a suburb of Manchester. At the age of fifteen he joined as an ensign a regiment of volunteers raised by a subscription in Manchester, at a time of indignant excitement produced by the news of General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. The Manchester regiment, as it was called, more properly the 72nd regiment of the line, or Royal Manchester Volunteers, was not, however, sent to America, but to Gibraltar. Gibraltar was besieged in June 1779 by a Spanish-French force [see, Lord Heathfield]. During the whole of the siege, which lasted until February 1783, Drinkwater kept a careful record of events. With the peace the 72nd, in which Drinkwater had become a captain, was ordered home and disbanded. From his memoranda chiefly Drinkwater compiled the work 'A History of the Siege of Gibraltar, 1779–1783, with a description and account of that garrison from the earliest period. By John Drinkwater, Captain in the late Seventy-second Regiment, or Royal Manchester Volunteers.' Plans and views accompanied the letterpress of the volume, which appears to have been published in 1785, and was dedicated by permission to the king. The narrative, one of our few military classics, went through four editions in as many years. A cheap reprint of it was added in 1844 to the Home and Colonial Library. In 1787 Drinkwater purchased a company in the second battalion of the 1st or Royal regiment of foot, then stationed at Gibraltar, whither he proceeded. By Lord Heathfield, who had been governor of Gibraltar during the siege, he was publicly thanked for his work. During this second stay at Gibraltar, Drinkwater established a garrison library, which served as a model for many other similar institutions.

Drinkwater accompanied his regiment to Toulon, and acted as military secretary during its occupation by the English. After the English annexation of Corsica he became secretary for the military department and deputy judge-advocate during the English occupation of that island and the vice-royalty of Sir Gilbert Elliot, afterwards Earl of Minto. Corsica having been evacuated, Drinkwater returned with Sir Gilbert in the Minerva, carrying the pendant of Nelson as commodore, with whom he had formed while in Corsica a close intimacy. Sir John Jervis's squadron off Cape St. Vincent having been reached, Drinkwater witnessed the battle of St. Vincent. The news of the victory was brought to England by Drinkwater. Nelson was not mentioned in the published despatches; and considering his services to have been under-estimated, Drinkwater published anonymously a 'Narrative of the Battle of St. Vincent,' in which full justice was done to Nelson.

In 1794 Drinkwater had become by purchase major, and in 1796 lieutenant-colonel.