Did Burns send Cannon to France in 1792? – A New Theory of the Narrative. Issue 2 (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Carruthers, Gerard; McLean, Ralph
• Is Part Of: Burns chronicle. Volume 131:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 139
• Page End: 155
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: Lockhart's Life of Burns (1828) -- Burns in the excise service -- Burns's politics -- the Rosamund episode -- revolutionary France -- the Abbotsford documents -- Joseph Train -- Professor John Anderson -- Anderson's ordnance experiments -- Anderson's relations with revolutionary France -- Marquis de Lafayette -- Anderson's relations with the early American republic -- George Washington; 821.6
• DOI: 10.3366/burns.2022.0054
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1365-7518

Abstract

Abstract : The story of Burns sending carronades to revolutionary France in 1792 first appears in the biography by John Gibson Lockhart (1828). An analysis of the extant evidence, including documents in the National Library of Scotland, suggests the unlikelihood of the narrative and it may be that its origins lie in the real-life events surrounding Professor John Anderson (1726–96) who did take ordnance to France in 1791.