The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2038   Message #2898159
Posted By: Steve Gardham
01-May-10 - 03:31 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Betsy Watson
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Betsy Watson
Looking more closely at the London printing, the chuchwarden is the recipient of her pre-suicide account. It is a typical relocation copy. Accuracy and facts weren't strong points of broadside hacks. Anything that would sell. Some of the more prolific London printers went to great lengths to trick their buyers. However, the basic facts of the case lead me to the conclusion that it is very likely based on a real event and that the Mate broadside is faithful to this.
Whatever its origin it certainly was popular to have been so widely printed and still in oral tradition a century later. A typical piece of early nineteenth century lamentation akin to the goodnight ballads of criminals awaiting execution. These were also written by hacks although from the viewpoint of the prisoner.
It contains some pretty poetry echoing traditional stanzas in similar lamentations.