Alexander Wilson
Weaver, naturalist, poet, schoolmaster, artist and ornithologist, Alexander Wilson was born on 6th July 1766, in a house which overlooked the River Cart near the Hammils in Paisley.
The son of a Weaver, he had two sisters and attended Paisley Grammar School when it was situated in School Wynd. At the age of ten Alexander's mother died and he had to leave school and start work as a herd boy. At the age of thirteen, be began his apprenticeship as a Weaver. By the time he reached his early twenties, he had become a packman selling muslin etc..
However, his radical views, together with some controversial poetry he had written, got him into considerable trouble, and he decided it might be wise to leave Paisley and start a new life in America.
On 14th July 1794, Alexander Wilson arrived in Newcastle, Delaware, 33 miles from Philadelphia. To earn money, he began working as a weaver, later becoming a schoolmaster and ornithologist.
He travelled hundreds of miles studying and recording the birds of America. Taking notes and sketching the birds he saw, he produced nine volumes of his American Ornithology, containing 76 plates with etchings of 236 birds and established himself as the Father of American Ornithology.
However, the long treks in adverse weather conditions, eventually affected his health, and he died at the age of 47 on the 23rd of August 1813 before his last volume was published.