United Kingdom

My father died of a fever in the West Indies when I was but two, that was in 1774 and mother and I were living in Glasgow. A short while later she married a wealthy man named James Hogg, but I don't remember him and mother never talked about him. I don't know whether he died or they were divorced, rather the latter I think. Anyway, mother managed to provide for our welfare after a fashion and with a lot of church going which always gave her strength. She managed well enough to enroll me in the Royal High School, hoping that I would eventually become a minister in the Church of Scotland.