The author of a sweet pastoral lyric, which has been praised both by
Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham, Isobel Pagan claims a biographical
notice. She was born in the parish of New Cumnock, Ayrshire, about the
year 1741. Deserted by her relations in youth, and possessing only an
imperfect education, she was led into a course of irregularities which
an early moral training would have probably prevented. She was lame and
singularly ill-favoured, but her manners were spirited and amusing. Her
chief employment was the composition of verses, and these she sung as a
mode of subsistence. She published, in 1805, a volume of doggerel
rhymes, and was in the habit of satirising in verse those who had
offended her. Her one happy effort in song-making has preserved her
name. She lived chiefly in the neighbourhood of Muirkirk. She died on
the 3d November 1821, in her eightieth year, and her remains were
interred in the churchyard of Muirkirk. A tombstone marks her grave.