Elizabeth Bishop (Burns)

Elizabeth Paton or later Elizabeth Andrew of Lairgieside was the daughter of James Paton and Eleanor Helen Paton of Aird Farm, Crossroads, Ayrshire. Following an affair with Robert Burns she gave birth on 22 May 1785 to his first child, Elizabeth "Bess" Burns, the "Dear-bought Bess", who was baptised when only two days old. Betsey met Robert Burns when she was employed as a servant girl at the Burns's Lochlea Farm during the winter of 1783–84. When the Burns family moved to Mossgiel Farm in March 1784, Betsey returned to her own home, where Robert Burns visited her later that year. In 1786, Elizabeth made a claim on Burns, but accepted a settlement of twenty pounds which the poet paid out of the profits of the Kilmarnock Edition. Loving Burns with heartfelt devotion, she continued to see him after the Burns family had moved to Mossgiel Farm, and he returned these sentiments with more physical than spiritual devotions. Isabella Begg, Burns's youngest sister, stated that although Robert did not love her, "he never treated her unkindly."