Jenny Clow

Janet, Jennie or Jenny Clow was a domestic servant to Mrs Agnes Maclehose, née Craig (1759–1841), the Clarinda to Robert Burns' Sylvander. She was the daughter of Andrew (or Alexander ) Clow and Margaret Inglis Her mistress sent her to deliver a letter to the poet and he seduced her.

Life and character Following an affair with Robert Burns while he was in Edinburgh, the twenty-year-old Jenny Clow gave birth in November 1788 to his child, Robert Burns Clow,

On 6 January 1789 a letter written at Ellisland Farm to Mr Robert Ainslie makes it clear that Jenny Clow had served Burns with a writ and he intended to travel to Edinburgh, to "settle that matter with her, and free her hand of the process".

Whilst he was in Dumfries in November 1791, three years after the birth of Robert Burns Clow, Robert Burns received a letter from Agnes McLehose, informing him that Jenny Clow "to all appearances is at this moment dying. Obliged, from all the symptoms of a rapid decay, to quit her service, she is gone to a room almost without common necessaries, untended and unmourned. In circumstances so distressing, to whom can she so naturally look for aid as to the father of her child, the man for whose sake she has suffered many a sad and anxious night, shut from the world, with no other companions than guilt and solitude? You have now an opportunity to evince you indeed possess those fine feelings you have delineated, so as to claim the just admiration of your country. I am convinced I need add nothing farther to persuade you to act as every consideration of humanity must dictate." Burns asked Mrs McLehose to get a porter to take five shillings from him to Jenny Clow.

"Oh Jenny’s a weet, poor body, Jenny’s seldom dry, She draigl’t a’ her petticoats, Comin thro’ the rye"!

In November 1791 Burns obtained a week's leave from the excise and went to Edinburgh to meet with the dying Jenny Clow. He stayed at the White Hart Inn, and within a few hours of his arrival had tracked Jenny down, giving her an undisclosed sum of money.

Robert Burns Clow Jenny Clow and Robert Burns' son, Robert Burns Clow, was born in Edinburgh in 1788. Robert Burns was willing to take the baby into his home, but his mother would not part with him. Although he named his own son after Robert Burns, he never capitalised on the link with his famous poet father.