# James Telfer

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{{Short description|Scottish poet}}
{{distinguish|Jim Telfer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name=James Telfer
|image=
|image_size=
|caption= 
|birth_date={{birth date|1800|12|3|df=y}}
|birth_place=[Southdean](/source/Southdean), [Roxburghshire](/source/Roxburghshire)
|death_date={{death date and age|1862|1|18|1800|12|3|df=y}}
|death_place=
|occupation=Poet
|known_for= 
}}
'''James Telfer''' (3 December 1800 – 18 January 1862) was a Scottish poet.

==Biography==
Telfer was the son of Isabella and John Telfer who was a shepherd. James was born in the parish of Southdean, [Roxburghshire](/source/Roxburghshire), on 3 December 1800.<ref name=odrb>{{Citation |last=MacKenzie |first=Raymond N. |title=Telfer, James (1800–1862), poet and novelist |date=2004-09-23 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-27106 |access-date=2025-04-29 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/27106 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He at first followed his father's career but he gradually educated himself to become a schoolmaster. He taught first at Castleton, Langholm, [Dumfriesshire](/source/Dumfriesshire), and then for twenty-five years conducted a small adventure school at Saughtrees, Liddisdale, Roxburghshire. On a very limited income he supported a wife and three daughters,<ref name=odrb/> and found leisure for literary work. He was an admirer and imitator of [James Hogg](/source/James_Hogg), the Ettrick Shepherd, who befriended him. As a writer of the archaic and quaint ballad style illustrated in Hogg's ‘Queen's Wake,’ Telfer eventually attained a measure of ease and even elegance in composition, and in 1824 he published a volume entitled ‘Border Ballads and Miscellaneous Poems.’ The ballad, ‘The Gloamyne Buchte,’ descriptive of the potent influence of fairy song, is a skilful development of a happy conception. Telfer contributed to Wilson's ‘Tales of the Borders,’ 1834, and in 1835 he published ‘Barbara Gray,’ an interesting prose tale. A selected volume of his prose and verse appeared in 1852. He died on 18 January 1862.

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DNB|wstitle=Telfer, James|first=Thomas Wilson|last=Bayne|authorlink=Thomas Wilson Bayne|volume=56}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Telfer, James}}
Category:1800 births
Category:1862 deaths
Category:19th-century Scottish poets
Category:Scottish male poets
Category:19th-century Scottish male writers

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