About: William Nicol (teacher)

William Nicol (1744–1797) was a Scottish schoolmaster, and, if ill-tempered and vain, one of Robert Burns's close friends. He was born in Annan parish at Dumbretton, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Burns referred to him in one letter as "Kind hearted Willie" and he accompanied the poet on his August 1787 tour of the Highlands. Burns's third son, William Nicol, born at Ellisland Farm in 1791, was named after his friend, the poet commenting that his newborn son had "that propensity to witty wickedness and manfu' mischief, which even at twa days auld I foresaw would form the striking features of his disposition."