page_title: John Murdoch (teacher)
section_title: Association with Robert Burns
hierarchical_section_title: John Murdoch (teacher) / Association with Robert Burns
caption_attribution_description: English: Auld Kirk of St John the Baptist, Ayr, Scotland. External View.
context_page_description: John Murdoch of Ayr was Robert Burns's most significant teacher or tutor and he was a friend of the Burnes family. He was born in 1747 and first taught Gilbert and Robert Burns in Alloway when he was only aged eighteen. He remained in contact with the Burnes family for several years after leaving Ayrshire for London. Murdoch, William Burnes and Richard Brown were amongst the most significant influences on Burns life during his early years in Ayrshire.
context_section_description: In May 1765, whilst living at Alloway, William Burnes interviewed and employed the Ayr Academy educated and university graduate eighteen year old John Murdoch to act as tutor or preceptor to his children and those of four of his neighbours; Robert was about seven at the time. The interview had taken place at Simpson's Inn, Ayr where he also required Murdoch to provide a specimen of his handwriting and he questioned him on his teaching methods. Murdoch was a student at the Ayr Burgh School at the time, improving his English skills and was recommended by David Tennant, English master at the school. 
  He was provided with room and board by the children's parents in rotation and the school building was close to the Burnes family home, sadly demolished in 1878.
  After the family moved to Mount Oliphant, Robert and Gilbert continued to attend his school in Alloway for another two years, walking there and back, but their attendance was irregular. Murdoch went to work for a wealthy farmer who had a number of sons.
  When Murdoch was about to leave to work in Carrick he decided to spend the night with the Burnes family and brought a small compendium of English Grammar and the book Titus Andronicus. Murdoch read the play out loud and all went well until till he came to the part where a female in the play has her hands cut off and her tongue cut out. At this point, the family with one voice desired that he would read no more. William Burnes observed, that if we would not hear it out, it would be needless to leave the play with us. Robert replied that if it was left he would burn it. William considered rebuking Robert for this response to his tutor's kindness, but Murdoch commented that he liked to see so much sensibility. He left instead a comedic work, the School for Love.
  Murdoch moved away for several years, returning to Ayr from Dumfries in 1772 and Burns wrote that he "sent us Pope's Works, and some other poetry, the first that we had an opportunity of reading, excepting what is contained in the English Collection, and in the volume of the Edinburgh Magazine for 1772".
  The fourteen year old Robert Burns spent three weeks boarding and lodging with Murdoch, interrupted by harvest time, receiving instruction in English for a week in Ayr at the Sandgate, accompanied by his friend John Tennant of Laigh Corton Farm and he also began to learn French during the last two weeks, reading Fénelon's Telemaque. His father had also intended that Robert would become better able to instruct his brothers and sisters.
  Murdoch was appointed at Ayr Burgh School as the established teacher of the English language and also the ex officio Ayr literary Society librarian, a position that enabled William Burnes to borrow books for his family even though they were not members. He lent Robert the 'Life of Hannibal', which was the first book he read outside of his school-books. He is said to have been a pedantic teacher however he kept in touch with the Burnes family. On half holidays he would often visit the Burnes family home, many times accompanied by academic companions who would join with William Burnes in deep and also discussions.
  Murdoch observed that Agnes Burnes would join in when she was free and that William was "an excellent husband, if I may judge from his assiduous attention to the ease and comfort of his worthy partner and from her affecionate behaviour to him, as well as her unwearied attention to the duties of a mother".
  In a letter to James Currie, Murdoch said that William Burnes was 'The saint, the father, and the husband' "a tender and affectionate father of whose manly qualities and rational and Christian virtues he would not pretend to give a description ... In this mean cottage I really believe there dwelt a larger portion of content than in any palace in Europe.".
  Murdoch visited William Burns in 1790, a journeyman sadler, who had moved to London. William was Robert Burns's younger brother. Shortly after his visit and before he could make a second William died. Murdoch helped with the funeral arrangements, attended it as the principal 
caption: The old Kirk of Ayr.
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