A Liverpool ballad singer

Some of the best observations of mid-19th century life in England come from outsiders such as the American writers, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving and Herman Melville. They noticed and recorded what English writers often took for granted.

Here is a wonderful description of a Liverpool ballad singer by Herman Melville.

In Redburn, a semi-fictional account of his voyage to Liverpool in 1839, Herman Melville describes the character of a street ballad-singer.

"But one of the most curious features of the scene is the number of sailor ballad-singers, who, after singing their verses, hand you a printed copy, and beg you to buy. One of these persons, dressed like a man-of-war's-man, I observed every day standing at a corner in the middle of the street. He had a full, noble voice, like a church-organ; and his notes rose high above the surrounding din. But the remarkable thing about this ballad-singer was one of his arms, which, while singing, he somehow swung vertically round and round in the air, as if it revolved on a pivot. The feat was unnaturally unaccountable; and he performed it with the view of attracting sympathy; since he said that in falling from a frigate's mast-head to the deck, he had met with an injury, which had resulted in making his wonderful arm what it was.

I made the acquaintance of this man, and found him no common character. He was full of marvelous adventures, and abounded in terrific stories of pirates and sea murders, and all sorts of nautical enormities. He was a monomaniac upon these subjects; he was a Newgate Calendar of the robberies and assassinations of the day, happening in the sailor quarters of the town; and most of his ballads were upon kindred subjects. He composed many of his own verses, and had them printed for sale on his own account. To show how expeditious he was at this business, it may be mentioned, that one evening on leaving the dock to go to supper, I perceived a crowd gathered about the Old Fort Tavern; and mingling with the rest, I learned that a woman of the town had just been killed at the bar by a drunken Spanish sailor from Cadiz. The murderer was carried off by the police before my eyes, and the very next morning the ballad-singer with the miraculous arm, was singing the tragedy in front of the boarding-houses, and handing round printed copies of the song, which, of course, were eagerly bought up by the seamen."

The ballad is probably now lost to view; given the speed of composition the ballad singer in the tale above may simply have reprinted a ballad from stock which more or less told the same story. Murder ballads were pretty commonplace; most printers would have had a few to hand which could be utilised to fit any particular set of circumstances. A really sensational story like the Red Barn murder however would generate lots of new songs which could sell very well indeed.