Robert Gilchrist (1797 – 1844), was a Tyneside sailmaker and 'broadside balladeer'. He composed over a hundred original pieces of poetry and song, including two sonnets to the heroism of lifeboatwoman Grace Darling and three volumes of verse, Gothalbert and Hisanna (1822), A Collection of Songs, Local and Sentimental (1824) and Poems (1826). This website provides further information of his compositions, life and times.