James Little was born at Glasgow, on the 24th May 1821. His father, a
respectable shoemaker, was a claimant, through his maternal grandmother,
of the title and estates of the last Marquis of Annandale. With a very
limited elementary education, the subject of this notice, at an early
age, was called on to work with his father; but soon afterwards he
enlisted as a private soldier. After eight years of military life,
chiefly passed in North America and the West Indies, he purchased his
discharge, and resumed shoemaking in his native city. In 1852 he
proceeded to the United States, but subsequently returned to Glasgow. In
1856 he published a small duodecimo volume of meritorious verses, with
the title, "Sparks from Nature's Fire." Several songs from his pen have
been published, with music, in the "Lyric Gems of Scotland."