Biography Hew Ainslie

Poet Biography

Hew Ainslie Scottish-American poet, born in Bargeny Mains, Ayrshire, 5 April 1792. He was sent to the Ayr Academy to complete his education, but was forced to leave at fourteen years of age, due to ill-health.
He married in 1812, and emmigrated to the United States in July 1822.
He eventually moved to Cincinnati and became a partner in a brewery.
Following both flood and fire in subsequent business ventures
untill his retirement , he was employed in superintending the erection of mills, factories, and breweries in the western states. Ainslie's best-known book, "A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns" (1820), A collection of his Scottish songs and ballads, edited by his friend William Wilson, was issued in New York in 1855. Ainslie is one of the minor Scottish poets represented in "Whistle Binkie" (Glasgow, 1853) and in Wilson's "Poets and Poetry of Scotland" (New York, 1876). In 1864 he visited his native land and received evidences of esteem and friendship from literary men. His best-known poems are "The Ingle Side" and "On wi' the Tartan,"
Hew Ainslie died in Louisville. Kentucky, 11 March 1878