// Engraving by George J. Stodart after John Watson Gordon, 1876. Courtesy The Walter Scott Digital Archive, Edinburgh University Library.
James Hogg was baptised on 9 December 1770 in Ettrick Church in Selkirkshire, Scotland, the second of the four sons of Robert Hogg (1729-1820), a former shepherd and small peasant farmer, the date of his birth going unrecorded. Hogg seems to have been particularly close to his mother, Margaret Laidlaw (1730-1813), whose family was noted in the district for its athleticism and for its store of ballads and other traditional lore. His autobiographical Memoir of the Author's Life records that his formal education at the parish school was cut short after a few months at the age of seven years when his father became bankrupt and Hogg himself was obliged to
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Citation: Hughes, Gillian. "James Hogg". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2168, accessed 21 November 2024.]
