From a young age he had shown a great interest in poetry and as he grew up he also started writing songs in the local Geordie dialect.
As a Freeman, Gilchrist took part in the annual Barge Day event, by which the civic dignitaries sailed the length of the Corporation's boundaries on the River Tyne[8] and was foremost in the Freemen's steamboat.
In this, there are no local songs, but many sacred works which show him to favour the philosophy of the Glasites, a form of "primitive Christianity".
Gilchrist also wrote two poems in honour of English heroine Grace Horsley Darling, who saved 13 people from the wreck of the SS Forfarshire.
[9] In (or around) 1846 "The Songs of the Tyne being a collection of Popular Local Songs Number 10" was published by John Ross, Printer and publisher, Royal Aecade, Newcastle, which contained The Amphitrite, Blind Willie Singin', The collier's keek at the Nation and Voyage to Lunnen.
Robert Gilchrist died (possibly from a form of stomach cancer) on 11 July 1844 at the Old House in Shieldfield.