Dalziel, Alexander (d 1819)

He became factor of the Earl of Glencairn's estate of Finlayston, in the parish of Kilmalcolm, Renfrewshire. Cromek alleged that Dalz\iel was the person who brought the Kilmarnock Edition to Glencairn's notice and encouraged the Earl to persuade Burns to produce a second edition in Edinburgh a claim which has also been made for Dalrymple of Orangefield. (Ferguson points out that the one claim does not necessarily invalidate the other!)

When Glencairn died at Falmouth, Burns wrote on 10^th March 1791 to Dalziel: 'I can easily guess from my own heart what you have felt on a late most melancholy event. God knows what I have suffered at the loss of my best Friend, my first, my dearest Patron and Benefactor; the man to whom I owe all that I am and have! I am gone into mourning for him, and with more sincerity of grief that I fear some will, who by Nature's ties ought to feel on the occasion.

'I will be exceedingly obliged to you indeed, to let me know the news of the Noble Family, how the poor Mother and the 2 sisters support their loss. I had a packet of Poetic bagatelles ready to send to Lady Betty when I saw the fatal tidings in the Newspaper. I see by the same channel that the honored Remains of my noble Patron are designed to be brought to the Family Burial place. Dare I trouble you to let me know privately before the day of interment, that I may cross the country and steal among the croud to pay a tear to the last sight of my ever-revered Benefactor? It will oblidge me beyond expression.'

Clearly, Dalziel was a good friend of the poet. After Burns's death, Dalziel became one of the founder members of Greenock Burns Club.