Currie, JAMES

Currie, JAMES, the earliest editor of Burns, was born at Kirkpatrick Fleming manse, in Dumfries-shire, 31st May 1756. He spent five years at Cabin Point, Virginia, in a mercantile situation (1771-76), then studied medicine at Edinburgh and Glasgow; and settling in Liverpool in 1780, soon obtained a good practice. His chief medical work was the able Reports on the Effects of Water in Febrile Disease (1797); but he is best remembered by his edition of Burns (1800; 7th ed. 1813), with a Life and criticism of the poet's writings, which he undertook solely for the benefit of Burns's family, and which was long the basis of all subsequent editions. Dr Currie died at Sidmouth, 31st August 1805. See the Life by his son (2 vols. 1831).