Jean Armour

Template:Infobox person Wife of Robert Burns

Jean Armour (25 February 1765 – 26 March 1834), also known as the "Belle of Mauchline", was the wife of the poet Robert Burns. She inspired many of his poems and bore him nine children, three of whom survived into adulthood.

Born in Mauchline, Ayrshire in 1765, Jean Armour was second oldest of the eleven children of stonemason James Armour (died 1798) and Mary Smith Armour. She met Robert Burns on a drying green in Mauchline around 1784 when she chased his dog away from her laundry. According to Armour's testimony in 1827, she met Burns again at a local dance and they subsequently "fell acquainted".

By the time Burns's first illegitimate child, Elizabeth Paton Burns (1785 - 1817) was born to Elizabeth Paton (died 1817) on 22 May 1785, he and Jean Armour were in a relationship and by the end of the year she was pregnant with his child. Her announcement, in March 1786, that she was expecting Robert Burns's baby caused her father to faint. The certificate of an informal marriage agreement between Burns and Armour was destroyed by James Armour and he removed his daughter to Paisley to prevent local scandal. However word had spread and the Mauchline Kirk recalled her on 10 June 1786, to admit that she was unmarried and pregnant and to confirm the name of the baby's father. Burns was called on 25 June to also admit his part in the affair.

His letters from this period indicate that he intended to marry Jean Armour as soon as they realised she was pregnant, but had been discouraged by her reluctance to disobey her father's disapproval of the union. Additionally, at this point, Burns was romantically involved with 'Highland' Mary Campbell (1763 - 1786), who was also allegedly pregnant by him, and was considering a move to Jamaica. The emigration fell through and Mary died in October 1786 before she could give birth. Believing he had been abandoned by Jean Armour, he set about having himself declared single again and transferred his property to his brother Gilbert Burns (1760 - 1827) in anticipation of a move. Believing that he was about to abscond, James Armour issued a warrant against him and Burns effectively went into hiding that summer - staying at the home of his aunt, the mother of his successful first cousin, Alexander Allan - when coincidentally his first volume of poetry, commonly called the "Kilmarnock Edition" was published.

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