Peggy Thompson

Margaret "Peggy" Thompson, later Margaret Neilson, was the housekeeper at Coilsfield House or Montgomery Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Peggy in later life moved to Ayr where her children still lived in 1840.

Association with Robert Burns

As stated Burns first met her when he was studying at Kirkoswald school in the summer of 1775 under the schoolmaster Hugh Rodger (1726-1797). She lived with her parents, next door to the school, and Robert Burns recorded that she "over-set my trigonometry, and set me off in a Tangent from the sphere of my studies".

Thomas Orr, a fellow pupil at Kirkoswald, stated that he carried letters between Burns and Peggy in the summers of 1782 and 1783. Upon her marriage Burns wrote "I am very glad that Peggy is off my hands as I am at present embarrassed enough without her" .. no doubt a reference to Elizabeth Paton's pregnancy.

In 1785, ten years later, while he was making plans to emigrate, Burns presented Peggy with a copy of his poems, having composed a special inscription for her on the fly leaf, namely "To an old Sweetheart." "Once fondly lov'd, and still remember'd dear, Sweet early object of my youthful vows, Accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere, Friendship! 'tis all cold duty now allows. And when you read the simple, artless rhymes, One friendly sigh for him - he asks no more, Who, distant, burns in flaming, torrid climes, Or haply lies beneath th'Atlantic roar.

The poem "Composed in August" is said to have been inspired by Peggy when he met her again later as Mrs. Neilsen.

Burns did not lodge in Kirkoswald during his stay in 1775, instead he lodged at Ballochneil Farm about a mile away from the village with his uncle, Samuel Broun.