Winsome WillieWilliam SIMSON was born at Tenpoundland, near Ochiltree, in 1758 and studied at Glasgow University. He became the schoolmaster of Ochiltree in 1780, and then transferred to Cumnock in 1788. He wrote a number of poems - including one to Robert BURNS - who replied with his Epistle to William Simson in May 1785. Burns probably visited William in Cumnock and he gave him his name of "Winsome Willie" William Simson died in 1815 and his grave is in the old cemetery. The stone in inscribed with a poem by Adam Brown Todd
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