Selkirk was a contemporary of the earliest Geordie dialect poet/songwriters John (Jack) Shield and Thomas Thompson.
At one stage, Selkirk moved to London in an attempt to find success as a merchant but this eluded him, and he returned to his native Tyneside in 1830, having failed in his endeavour.
[1] The report of the inquest in the Newcastle Chronicle dated 18 November 1843 stated "...on the body of John Selkirk aged 60 who fell into the river near Sandgate on Saturday evening, and was drowned.
The deceased was a person of singular habits and disposition, and had formerly been a respectable merchant in London; but latterly was so reduced in circumstances as to subsist upon the charity of the benevolent.
For some time in the past he had slept nights on the shavings of a joiner's shop in Sandgate, and refused to accept parochial relief.