When things began to mend he married (9 August 1811) Agnes Riddle, and settled at St. Boswells, some three miles from Longnewton, as the village shoemaker.
Having bought a copy of Burns for sixpence at St. Boswells fair, John began to feel that he too was a poet, but it was not until 1834 that he published a little volume (in the metre of 'Don Juan'), entitled 'Thoughts as they Rise' (Glasgow, 12mo).
After 'sweethearting' and love lyrics, he held the next best thing in the world to be fly-fishing, and he turned his intimate knowledge of this last subject to good account when he dated from St. Boswells Green in September 1839 his 'River Angling for Salmon and Trout, more particularly as practised in the Tweed and its Tributaries' (Edinburgh, 1840, 16mo, two editions; revised, Kelso, 1860, 16mo, and 1864, 8vo; it was highly praised in the 'Field' for its 'practical' value).
His perception of lyrical poetry and natural beauty was exquisite, but he had a disgust, partly envious, for 'the classics,' and he looked on the Waverley Novels as 'old piper stories,' ‘dwarf and witch tales,' and monstrous caricatures of Scottish manners.
About 1849 he was appointed village postmaster, but the routine work proved beyond his patience, and in January 1856 he threw up the post and returned to cobbling.