William Maxwell

Association with Robert Burns He met Burns in Dumfries where he was viewed with some suspicion by the authorities because of his Jacobin associations, but his skills as a doctor mostly overcame these difficulties amongst the populace, but less so with the aristocracy. Jessie Staig

Maxwell if merit here you crave, That merit I deny: You save fair Jessie from the grave! An angel could not die

Burns wrote to Frances Dunlop saying of Maxwell that "Maxwell is my most intimate friend, & one of the first (finest) characters I ever met; but on account of his politics is rather shunned by some high Aristocrates, though his Family & Fortune entitled him to the first circles." Reminding Frances that he was the same "Dr Maxwell whom (Edmund) Burke mentioned in the House of Commons about the affair of the daggers." Mrs Dunlop replied that Burns's muse was stained by an association with Dr Maxwell, stained with the blood of the guillotine.

Maxwell gave Burns a dirk that he had obtained for an "anker of Ferintosh' (a measure of whisky) that had belonged to Lord Balmerino and later Burns gifted this to the Birmingham gunsmith David Blair, who had gifted him a fine pair of pistols in 1788. These are the same pistols that Burns later gave to Maxwell.

For reasons unknown, Maxwell failed to rally to Burns's support in regard to George Thomson's negative unsigned obituary that had appeared in the Glasgow Mercury and the Edinburgh Evening Courant.

Maxwell corresponded with Gilbert Burns over the letters held by Frances Dunlop and on various matters with Robert Burns Junior.

Maxwell and Syme were the only two people who were in a position to read, the later destroyed correspondence between Clarinda and Burns, whilst going through the letters in Burns' possession at the time of his death, only commenting that "the person, if alive, must have an anxious, distracted heart" and had "felt the genuine passion of love".

Burns illness and death Taking over from Dr James Mundell as the family physician in 1794, Upon his return to Dumfries, John Syme visited him and was shocked by his condition, writing to Alexander Cunningham that "Dr Maxwell told me yesterday he had no hopes."

Shortly before his death, the poet presented Maxwell, as previously stated, with his pair of Excise pistols that had been gifted to him by David Blair the gunsmith. They passed to Bishop Gillis and are now preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland. Another version was "What business has a physician to waste his time on me? I am a poor pigeon not worth plucking. Alas! I have not feathers enough upon me to carry me to my grave."

Jean Armour named their last son, Maxwell Burns, in his honour, he had actually delivered the baby. Jean was unaware that Burns had intended to name him Alexander Cunningham Burns, after another good friend.