Allan Stewart, a short-lived poet of no inconsiderable merit, was born
in the village of Houston, Renfrewshire, on the 30th January 1812. His
father prosecuted the humble vocation of a sawyer. Deprived of his
mother in early life, the loss was in some degree repaired by the kind
attentions of his maternal aunt, Martha Muir, whose letters on religious
subjects have been published. Receiving an ordinary education at school,
he followed the trade of a weaver in Paisley. His leisure hours were
employed in reading, and in the composition of verses. He died of typhus
fever, at Paisley, on the 12th November 1837, in his twenty-sixth year.
His "Poetical Remains" were published in 1838, in a thin duodecimo
volume, with a well-written biographical sketch from the pen of his
friend, Mr Charles Fleming.
Stewart was a person of modest demeanour, and of a thoughtful and
somewhat melancholy cast. His verses are generally of a superior order;
his songs abound in sweetness of expression and elegance of sentiment.