WAY Peter’s part in poet’s tragic tale

WE REVISIT DEREK PARKER’S RAMBLES THROUGH RENFREWSHIRE

Mine of information

The 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain and the Empire was commemorated last month.

One beneficiary was a black AfroAmerican implicated in the final chapter of Paisley poet Robert Tannahill’s tormented life.

Peter Burnet was one of Paisley’s first asylum-seekers.

He discovered the dead body of our town’s ill-starred poet in the gloomy culvert channelling the Candren Burn beneath Paisley Canal near his home in Queen Street.

Peter, whose grandfather had been a slave on a tobacco plantation, was born in Virginia in the United States in 1761, before coming to Scotland.

He was sent to George Tannahill, one of the poet’s relatives in Kilmarnock, to work as a millwright.

Then he came to Paisley to work for James Tannahill, Robert’s father. He was regarded as one of the family. Five feet eight inches tall, Peter cut an impressive figure as he strode along Broomlands Street, Wellmeadow, Queen

Derek Parker knew many of Paisley’s secrets – the grimy and the good.

He wandered every corner in search of the clues that would unlock Renfrewshire’s rich history.

These tales were shared with readers in his hugely popular Parker’s Way column.

We’ve opened our vault to handpick our favourites for you.

Street, and Castle Street in his brown coat, black velvet vest covered with gold spangles, knee breeches, silver-buckled leather shoes, three-cornered hat and powdered hair.

On the night of May 16, 1810, Robert Tannahill was in poor spirits but seemed to be sleeping soundly.

Hearing a noise, his mother, Janet, found his bed empty and summoned Peter and the poet’s brothers, James and Matthew.

Hurrying down Queen Street, Peter was told by a night- watchman that a figure resembling Robert Tannahill had crossed George Street into Maxwellton Street.

At the foot of Brediland Road, Peter found Robert’s coat and silver pocket watch beside the culvert.

Grappling hooks were procured and poor Tannahill’s lifeless body was dragged from the water-filed tunnel.

The poet had left home at 3am. By 5am his coffined body lay on the funeral bier in the same house. A literary star was extinguished that darkest morning in the proud poetical history of Paisley, often described as ‘a nest of singing bards.

It was 56 years before Robert Tannahill’s grave in Castlehead Church was marked with a tombstone.

Today no one knows where Peter Burnet is buried.

To further commemorate the abolition of the slave trade and the bi-centenary of Robert Tannahill’s death in 2010 it would be a fitting tribute for Peter Burnet’s grave to be located and marked with a memorial stone.