Laidlaw
WILLIAM, the friend and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott; born in Blackhouse, Selkirkshire, Scotland, in November, 1780. After farming with with but little success at Traquair and settled in 1817 as a kind of factor and manager on the estate of Abbotsford. His acquaintance with Scott began in the autumn of 1802, and he supplied some of the materials for the third volume of the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." His own ballad, ," would alone have kept the name of "Willie" Laidlaw from being . He died May 18, 1845.