Susanna Blamire

A songwriter and admirer of Scottish verse, Susanna Blamire was born in Cumberland, England, miles from the Scotland border. Her father was a yeoman and her mother died when Blamire was seven; when her father remarried, Susanna and her siblings went to live with their aunt, Mrs. Mary Stevenson Simpson. Most accounts describe the Simpson household as being festive and filled with music and dancing. Susanna Blamire accompanied her newly married sister Sarah to Scotland in 1767, where she remained for several years. She also visited London and Ireland.

Blamire wrote Scottish songs, including “The Siller Croun” and “The Nabob,” poems in Standard English, and poems in the Cumberland dialect. Her first dated poem is “Written in a Churchyard, on seeing a number of cattle grazing in it” (1766); she is also the author of the 1,156-line poem “Stocklewath; or, The Cumbrian Village.” Blamire’s poetry is accessible and often concerned with the lives of working people. Her poetry and songs were written for friends, not for publication; her sister preserved Blamire’s work, and it was first published in 1842. 

Susanna Blamire suffered from a heart and lung condition and died in Carlisle.