AITKEN, REV. ROBERT (_son of Robert Aitken_). _b._ Crailing near Jedburgh 22 Jany. 1800; a schoolmaster in Sunderland; ordained deacon by Bishop Van Mildert 1823; minister of Wesleyan Zion chapel, Waterloo road, Liverpool to 20 Dec. 1840; C. of Perranuthnoe, Cornwall 1842–44; domestic chaplain to Earl of Caithness 1844–64; minister of Episcopalian church, Coatbridge about Oct. 1847 to 1848 or 1849; V. of Pendeen, Cornwall 1849 to death; the church, of which he was the architect, was built for him by his parishioners 1854; domestic chaplain to Earl of Seafield 1864 to death; well known throughout England as a preacher of almost unrivalled fervour; author of many sermons and pamphlets. _d._ on platform of Great Western railway station, Paddington 11 July 1873. _bur._ Pendeen 18 July. _Boase and Courtney’s Bibliotheca Cornubiensis i_, 2 _and iii_, 1025; _John Smith’s Our Scottish clergy 2 Series_ 80–87 (1849); _Church Times 6 Aug. to 24 Sep. 1875_. AITKEN, ROBERT DICKSON. _b._ Hawick, Roxburghshire 8 May 1801; a gardener, then a horsebreaker; left Hawick 1857; purchased estate of Reston Mains, Berwickshire, worth many thousands; tried in the sheriff court at Greenlaw 31 May 1860, for making people of Dunse believe he was heir to a large estate, when found guilty and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour; his career was dramatised by George Duckenfield, theatrical manager; he played the chief part in this drama at Berwick and other border towns; delivered a lecture in Hawick 31 May 1864 entitled “How I did the Dunse dunces.” _d._ the poor house, Hawick 30 April 1879. AITKEN, WILLIAM. _b._ Dunbar 1814; kept a school at Ashton-under-Lyne; went to the United States 1842; grand master of the Odd-fellows there 1846; author of _A journey up the Mississipi river_; and of articles in the _Quarterly magazine of Odd-fellows_; committed suicide at Ashton 27 Sep. 1869. _Quarterly magazine of Odd-fellows i_, 129–32 (1858) _portrait_. AITKEN, WILLIAM COSTEN. _b._ Dumfries 3 March 1817; worked for R. W. Winfield of Birmingham, brassfounder 1844–64; took out a patent for ornamenting cornice poles, &c. with porcelain or glass which was much used; manager at Skidmore’s Art manufacturing company, Coventry, retired 1872; chief organiser of Industrial Exhibition at Bingley house, Birmingham 1849, from which Prince Albert took the idea of Exhibition of 1851; contributed descriptive notes signed W.C.A. to Illustrated catalogue of Great Exhibition 1851; wrote about a third of _Birmingham and the Midland hardware district_ 1865; wrote in the _Art Journal_. _d._ Birmingham 23 March 1875. _Birmingham Daily Post 24 March 1875_.