Alexander Findlater was a friend and colleague of Robert Burns and also his immediate superior, as Supervisor, in the Excise service. He knew the poet very well and was a great advocate for Burns after his death and in response to biographies by authors such as Robert Heron, Allan Cunningham and James Currie.
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Life and character
Findlater was born at Burntisland in Fife in 1754. His father was James Findlater, an army officer who became an Excise officer. His mother was Helen Ballantyne, daughter of Ronald and Janet Ballantyne. Alexander had five brothers and four sisters. The Revd Alexander Findlater of Hamilton was his grandfather. On 30 April 1778 he married Susan Forrester of Falkirk. Susan (b.1749) died in 1810 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Susan's mother was a Napier of Craigannet and was descended from John Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms. Findlater had three further children through his marriage with Catherine Anderson. Alexander may have had a total of five daughters and six brothers.
In 1774 he became an Excise officer and by 1778 he was working in Coupar Angus. June 1790 saw Findlater as an Examiner of Excise and by April 1791 he had achieved the position of Supervisor of Excise with the formal swearing in on 27 October 1791 and he and his family were based in Dumfries, arriving around six months before Burns moved into the town. Findlater was promoted to general Supervisor in Edinburgh in 1797 and to Collector in Glasgow in 1811, succeeding William Corbet.
Findlater retired in 1825, aged 71 after 11 years in post as Collector. He lived at North Wellington Place in Glasgow and died in 1839. His first burial place was in the Anderston's North Street Burial ground with a memorial erected by the Sandyford Burns Club. His grave was moved to the south side of Glasgow's Linn Cemetery in the 1960s following redevelopment of the Anderston area.
Association with Robert Burns
On 23 December 1791 Findlater wrote to William Corbet, saying that Buirns was "an active, faithful and zealous officer ... capable of achieving a more arduous task than any difficulty that the theory or practice of our business can exhibit."
Findlater spoke to William Corbet, Supervisor General of Excise, on Burns's behalf about his wish to join the Port Division which came with an extra £20 in salary. He was granted the move however Mrs Dunlop was probably the major influencer.
On 11 June 1792 Findlater spent the whole with Burns visiting a brewery, victuallers, chandlers, wine and spirit merchants, etc. He commented that "Mr Burns had but lately taken charge of this Division, and from that cause, and his inexperience in the Brewery Branch of business, has fallen into these errors but promises, and I will bestow, due attention in future, which indeed he is rarely deficient in.
Findlater was Burns's immediate superior in the Excise and became his friend, defending Burns against the claims of disloyalty and ineffiency that were levelled against him in December 1792. John Syme recalled that he lunched with William Corbet, Alexander Findlater and Robert during the investigation into these accusations.
On 22 December 1794, Findlater having taken ill, Burns became Acting Supervisor in his place for several months until late April 1795. January 1795 was the coldest for many years and Burns's extra duties might take him forty mile on horseback through the snow, with a day starting before dawn and finishing an hour before midnight. The effort naturally damaged his health and his extra pay only amounted to £12 against Burns's extra accommodation costs, etc. Findlater, as Supervisor, was paid a salary of around £200 a year. He revealed his frustration in a letter to Patrick Heron, saying "The business is incessant drudgery, and would be nearly a complete bar to every species of literary pursuit."
A prominent accusation was that Burns was a hopeless drunkard, however Findlater pointed out that the Excise dismissed or demoted officers with such problems, they certainly did not promote them as in Burns's acting post as supervisor. Findlater greatly appreciated Burns's strenuous efforts and devotion to duty and this helped cement their friendship as well as giving him indelible insights into Burns's character.
Correspondence
Burns first wrote to Findlater on 28 October 1789 from Ellisland Farm, some time before he himself moved to Dumfries:
I believe I mentioned something to you yesternight of the character that Mr Corbet told me you had given of me to our Edinburgh Excise folk, but my conscience accuses me that I did not make the proper acknowledgement to you for your goodness. – Most sincerely & gratefully do I thank you, Sir, for this uncommon instance of kindness & friendship. I mean not by this as if I would propitiate your future inspection of my conduct. No, Sir; I trust to act, and I shall act, so as to defy Scrutiny; but I send this as a sheer tribute of Gratitude to a Gentleman whose goodness has laid me under very great obligations, and for whose character as a GENTLEMAN I have the highest esteem. – It may very probably never be in my power to repay, but it is equally out of my power to forget, the obligations you have laid on.
Burns sent Findlater a gift of new laid eggs from Ellisland Farm with an accompanying note "Mrs Burns, like a true good wife, looking on my taste as a Standard, & knowing that she cannot give me anything --"eateable" more agreeable than a new-laid egg, she begs your acceptance of a few. They are all of them couch, not thirty hours out".
Burns wrote the following couplet "To Alexander Findlater"
In June 1791 Burns wrote to Findlater regarding an incident in which he made an error in surveying stock. This took place during his official Excise duties and resulted in a reprimand and showed that his friend, Supervisor Findlate, was still very much his manager:
I am both much surprised and vexed at that accident of Lorimer's stock. The last survey I made prior to Mr Lorimer's going to Edin'. I was very particular in my inspection and the quantity was certainly in his possession as I stated it. The surveys I have made during his absence might as well have been marked "key absent", as I never found any body but the lady .. and one of the times, it would have rejoiced all Hell to have seen her so drunk. I have not surveyed there since his return. I know the gentleman's ways are, like the grace of G-d, pass all comprehension; but I shall give the house a severe scrutiny tomorrow morning, and send you in the naked facts.