Selling & Singing Ballads in the 18th Century

Itinerant ballad-sellers often appear on the margins of 18th century artwork, often singing or selling ballads that provide commentary on the main action in the artwork itself. The ballads and similar broadsides also appear to be hung up in interiors, as seen in Kitchen Interior or The Fellow 'Prentices at their Looms.

Ballad sellers were also called “ballad mongers” (see references from 1738, 1730, and 1800). While itinerant ballad-sellers are well-documented in England, I haven’t found evidence for this in the American colonies (though there are examples of ballad singing in 18th century America).

Broadside ballads are available through the English Broadside Ballad Archive and the Lewis Walpole Library.

A Merry new Song, 1688

A Rake’s Progress: The Tavern Scene by William Hogarth, 1735

The Lamentable Fall of Madam Geneva Sepr 29 1736

The Enraged Musician by William Hogarth, 1741

The fellow 'prentices at their looms by William Hogarth, 1747

The Industrious 'Prentice out of his Time, & Married to his Master's Daughter by William Hogarth, 1747

The March of the Guards to Finchley by William Hogarth, 1749-1750

Gin Lane by William Hogarth, 1750-1751

London Cries: Fun Upon Fun by Paul Sandby, 1759

Friendly as a ballad singer at ye country wake, 1760?

the F-sh-m-grs Downfall or Poors Triumph, c. 1762

Satire on the Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, 1763

The Ballad Singer by Henry Robert Morland, 1764

The City Chanters, 1771

A German ballad singer, 1772

The Old Ballad Singer, 1775

A Girl Buying a Ballad by Henry Walton, 1778

Dotage, c. 1780s

The Ballad Singers, c. 1781

Preparing to Start, 1787

Ten Views of Encampments in Hyde-Park and Black-Heath by Paul Sandby, 1780

Robin O’Green of Burnley, 1780

Detail from Promenade of the Ambassadors of Tipu Sultan in the Park of Saint-Cloud by Charles-Eloi Asselin, 1788

The Young Ballad Singers, 1790-1798

A ballad-seller, 1790s

A Ballad-Seller’s Stall by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1793

He would be a Soldier, or the History of John Bulls warlike Expedition, 1793; a soldier’s wife (in the lower right-hand corner) wears a pocket apron while carrying her children and a ballad titled “O Bony Lass will you live in a Barrack” (similar to O Say Bonny Lass)

The farmer come to town on a foolish errand, 1794

The Country Ballad Singers, 1794

Worcester Cathedral by Joseph Mallord William Turner, c. 1794-1795

A New Love Song only ha’penny a piece, 1796

Maid Buying a Love-Ditty by Pehr Hilleström, c. 1796

Diligence and Dissipation: The wanton turn’d out of doors for misconduct, 1797

The Wandering Sailor by Henry Singleton, 1798

Weeping by Thomas Rowlandson, 1800

Rapture by Thomas Rowlandson, 1800

Le suprême bon ton, 1800-1805

The Ballad Singers by Thomas Rowlandson

Last Dying Speech and Confession

A printed document purporting to report the last words of a condemned criminal; an enterprising ballad-seller could sell such documents at public executions. For more on this, see “Tracking the petty traitor across genres,” “Ballads and the emotional life of crime,” and “The maiden’s bloody garland: Thomas Warton and the elite appropriation of popular song” in Ballads and Broadsides in Britain, 1500-1800, or “Criminal biography and the last dying confessions” in Crime, Policing and Punishment in England, 1660-1914.

The Idle Prentice Executed at Tyburn by William Hogarth, 1747

London Cries: Last Dying Speech and Confession by Paul Sandby, c. 1759

Last Dying Speech and Confession by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1798

Cries of London: Last dying Speech & Confession by Thomas Rowlandson, 1799

Miscellaneous 18th century references to selling & singing ballads

The Virginia Gazette
March 14, 1751

The Pennsylvania Evening Post, and Public Advertiser
January 1, 1782

The Carlisle Gazette, and the Western Repository of Knowledge
May 22, 1793

Pennsylvania Weekly Telegraph
February 2, 1795