Rev. John Broadwood (13 May 1798 – 26 January 1864) was the first English

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

collector.

Life and legacy

John Broadwood was born in 1798 in Marylebone, London. He was the son of

James Shudi Broadwood James Shudi Broadwood (20 December 1772 – 8 August 1851) was a piano maker in London and a magistrate in Surrey. James Shudi Broadwood was born on 20 December 1772 at Great Pulteney Street, London. His parents, John Broadwood, piano manufacturer ...

and the grandson of John Broadwood, both piano makers in London. When he was young, his family moved to the Broadwood family home: Lyne House in

Capel, Surrey Capel () is a village and civil parish in southern Surrey, England. It is equidistant between Dorking and Horsham – about away. Around Capel, to the west, skirts the A24 road (England), A24 road. Capel is approximately north of the West Sus ...

. In 1825, he married Charlotte King of

Loxwood Loxwood is a small village and civil parish with several outlying settlements, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, within the Low Weald. The Wey and Arun Canal passes to the East and South of the village. This Civil Parish is at ...

, Sussex. He was a clergyman, and officiated at a wedding in 1850. The 1851 Census of Horsham identified that Broadwood lived at

Wiggonholt Wiggonholt is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Parham, West Sussex, Parham, in the Horsham (district), Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is southeast of Pulborough on the A283 road. The village consists of a fa ...

, and was described as the "Curate of Wiggonholt". He died at Lyne House in 1864. Broadwood is known for the book or pamphlet dated 1843, originally published anonymously, usually known as ''Old English Songs''. It contains 16 folk songs, "set to music exactly as they are now sung", and with the words "given in their original rough state with an occasional slight alteration to render the sense intelligible". His niece, the noted song collector

Lucy Broadwood Lucy Etheldred Broadwood (9 August 1858 – 22 August 1929) was an English folksong collector and researcher, and great-granddaughter of John Broadwood, founder of the piano manufacturers Broadwood and Sons. As one of the founder members of the ...

, said that ''Old English Songs'' "is the first serious collection of English traditional songs that we possess"; and related that he insisted to George A. Dusart, the

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

church organist who arranged ''Old English Songs'' for publication, that the songs should be set down exactly as he had heard them. According to the composer

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

, Broadwood "is to be honoured in the annals of English folk-song". In 1943, the music critic Frank Howes wrote a scholarly article about him to "celebrate the centenary year of scientific method applied editorially to the oral tradition of English folk-song".

''Old English Songs''

The title page

This reads as follows:Half Man Half Biscuit (2000), Trouble over Bridgwater, CD inlay.

The songs

The 16 songs collected by Broadwood are reproduced in a book which the authors have released online into the public domain under a Creative Commons licence. Alternative titles and (where identified)

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

numbers and other information are included in parentheses. # "The Moon Shines Bright" (702) # "A Wassail, A Wassail" (209) # "The Noble Lord" # "Rosebuds in June" (812) # "A Sweet Country Life" (2406) # "The Ploughboy" ("The Jolly Ploughboy", "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys") (202) # "The Privateer" # "The Fourteenth of July" (980) # "Gipsy Song" # "The Husbandman" (873?) # " The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" (483) (

Child Ballad The Child Ballads are List of the Child Ballads, 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies ...

No. 105) # "The Poacher's Song" (" Thorny Moor Woods") (222) # "In Lancashire" # "Come Listen" # "The Woodcutter" ("Harvest Supper Song") (310) # " Lord Bateman" (40) (Child Ballad No. 53)

References

External links

*
Biography at Sussexpeople website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadwood, John 1798 births Date of birth unknown 1864 deaths Broadwood family English folk-song collectors English people of Swiss descent People from Marylebone People from Horsham District 19th-century British musicologists