Elizabeth Paton

Elizabeth Paton or later Elizabeth Andrew of Lairgieside (1760 – c. 1799) was the daughter of James Paton and Eleanor Helen Paton of Aird Farm, Crossroads, Ayrshire. Following an affair with Robert Burns she gave birth on 22 May 1785 to his first child, Elizabeth "Bess" Burns, during the winter of 1783–84. When the Burns family moved to Mossgiel Farm in March 1784, Betsey returned to her own home, where Robert Burns visited her later that year. In 1786, Elizabeth made a claim on Burns, but accepted a settlement of twenty pounds

Life and character

She is said to have had a plain face but a good figure. She eventually married John Andrew, a ploughman and widower,

Isabella Begg had heard of Elizabeth Paton as "rude and uncultivated to a great degree... with a thorough (though unwomanly) contempt for every sort of refinement."'

Association with Robert Burns

Elizabeth gave birth to Robert Burns's first illegitimate child. He responded by writing three poems: or alternatively 'his bastard wean' we find:

"Welcome! lily bonie, sweet, wee dochter, Tho' ye come here a wee unsought for, And tho' your comin' I hae fought for, Baith kirk and queir; Yet, by my faith, ye're no unwrought for That I shall swear!... Lord grant that thou may ay inherit Thy mither's person, grace, an' merit, An' thy poor, worthless daddie's spirit, Without his failins, Twill please me mair to see thee Than stocket mailens...

No poems seem to have been inspired directly by Elizabeth Paton,

Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop (22 May 1785 – 8 January 1817) was Robert Burns's first child following an affair with Paton. Elizabeth married John Bishop, factor to the Baillie of Polkemmet, also recorded as an innkeeper, and had seven children. Elizabeth died aged 31, possibly during childbirth.

Elizabeth Bishop lived as a child at Mossgiel Farm, under Burns's mother's care, until Robert Burns's death. She then returned to her own mother, who was by this time married to John Andrew, a ploughman. At the age of twenty-one, Elizabeth received two hundred pounds from the money raised for the support of Burns's family.

When Burns contemplated emigration to Jamaica, he made over his heritable property and the profits from the 'Kilmarnock Edition' of his poems to his brother, Gilbert Burns, to enable him to bring up Elizabeth as if she was one of his own.