Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 – 23 September 1803) was an English

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sit ...

known for editing the first scholarly collection of

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

ballads (1795). After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the ideals of the French Revolution. He was also an influential

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

activist.Spencer, Colin. (1995). ''The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism''. University Press of New England. pp. 233-234. Ritson is also known for his collections of English

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. Fr ...

s, such as " Roses Are Red" and " Little Bo-Peep", in '' Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus'', published in London by Joseph Johnson.

Life and work

Early life

Ritson was born in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, of a

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

yeoman Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of Serfdom, servants in an Peerage of England, English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in Kingdom of England, mid-1 ...

family. He was educated for the law, mainly by Ralph Bradley the leading conveyancer. He then settled in London as a conveyancer at 22.

Writing career

Ritson devoted his spare time to literature, and in 1782, he published an attack on Thomas Warton's '' History of English Poetry''. The tone of his ''Observations'', in which Warton was treated as a pretender, charged with cheating and lying to cover his ignorance, caused a sensation in literary circles. In nearly all the small points with which he dealt, Ritson was in the right, and his corrections have since been adopted, but the unjustly bitter language of his criticisms roused great anger at the time, much, it would appear, to Ritson's delight. In 1783

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

and George Steevens were attacked in the same bitter fashion as Warton for their text of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

. Bishop Percy was next subjected to a furious onslaught in the preface to a collection of ''Ancient Songs'' (printed 1787, dated 1790, published 1792). In a letter (14 March 1803) to

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

Robert Southey Robert Southey (; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic poetry, Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth an ...

wrote that "Ritson is the oddest, but most honest of all our antiquarians, and he abuses Percy and Pinkerton with less mercy than justice". Ritson usually spared no pains himself to ensure accuracy in the texts of old songs,

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

s and metrical romances which he edited. His collection of the

ballads is perhaps his greatest single achievement. However, unlike the other works he edited, he gave in to his own political prejudices as a Jacobin when he included the idea, uncommon until then, that Robin Hood robbed the rich and gave to the poor rather than simply robbing the bishops and the Sheriff of Nottingham. When Ritson was asked who gave Robin Hood a commission to rob from the rich and give to the poor, his response was:

''That same power which authorises kings to take it where it can be worst spared, and give it where it is least wanted.''

Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

, who admired his industry and accuracy in spite of his temper, was almost the only man who could get on with him. According to Scott, Ritson was "a man of acute observation, profound research, and great labour". He features as 'the potato philosopher' in ''John Paterson's Mare'',

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots language, Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a ...

's allegorical satire on the

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

publishing scene first published in the ''Newcastle Magazine'' in 1825.

Spelling Spelling is a set of conventions for written language regarding how graphemes should correspond to the sounds of spoken language. Spelling is one of the elements of orthography, and highly standardized spelling is a prescriptive element. Spelli ...

became one of his eccentricities; in his later books, he increasingly adopted a reformed spelling of his own devising. As early as 1796, Ritson showed signs of mental collapse, and on 10 September 1803, he became completely insane, barricaded himself in his chambers at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

, made a bonfire of manuscripts, and was finally forcibly removed to

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. It was Historic counties of England, historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. Hoxton lies north-east of the City of London, is considered to be a part of London's East End ...

, where he died. Ritson was an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Vegetarianism

Ritson was an early

activist.Forward, Charles W. (1898)
''Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England''
London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 8 He became a vegetarian in 1772 after reading Bernard Mandeville's '' The Fable of the Bees'' and adopted a diet that was based on

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

s and

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

. His ideas were criticised in his day, but were influential to many vegetarians who came after him. Ritson has been described as a pioneer of

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

. In 1802, his '' An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty'', was published by Sir Richard Phillips. The book utilised health and moral arguments for abstaining from animal foods. Biographer Bertrand Harris Bronson has noted that based on excerpts from Ritson's daily journal his vegetarian diet consisted of muffins, cake, cheese, bread, butter, milk, beer and ale.Bronson, Bertrand H. (1938). ''Joseph Ritson, Scholar-at-Arms, Volume 1''. University of California Press. pp. 47-48

Bibliography

*''Verses addressed to the Ladies of Stockton. First printed in the Newcastle Miscellany, MDCCLXXII'', 1780 *''Observations on the three first volumes of the history of English poetry by T. W. in a letter to the author'', by Thomas Warton and Joseph Ritson, 1782 *''A Select Collection of English Songs'', 1783 *''Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The nursery Parnassus: a choice collection of pretty songs and verses for the amusement of all little good children who can neither read nor run'', 1784 *''The Spartan Manual, or Tablet of Morality, being a genuine collection of the apophthegms, maxims and precepts of the philosophers ... and other ... celebrated characters of antiquity, etc'', 1785 *''A Digest of the proceedings of the Court Leet of the Manor and Liberty of the Savoy'', 1789 *''Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry: From Authentic Manuscripts and Old Printed Copies'', 1791, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) *''The Office of Constable: being an entirely new compendium of the law concerning that ancient minister for the conservation of the peace, etc'', 1791 *''Cursory criticisms on the edition of Shakespeare published by Edmond Malone'', 1792 *''The Northumberland Garland; or, Newcastle Nightingale: a matchless collection of famous songs''. Edited by Joseph Ritson, 1793 *''Law-Tracts. L.P'', 1794 *''Poems on interesting events in the reign of Edward III. written in the year MCCCLII. ... With a preface, dissertations, notes, and a glossary by J. Ritson'', by Laurence Minot and Joseph Ritson (editor), 1795 *''Ancient Songs and Ballads from the Reign of King Henry the Second to the Revolution in Two Volumes'', (BiblioBazaar, 2009) *''Bibliographia poetica: a catalogue of Engleish sic poets, of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth, centurys, with a short account of their works'', by Joseph Ritson, Philip Bliss, James Boswell, and John Payne Collier, 1802 *'' Ancient Engleish Metrical Romanceës'', 1802, (Kessinger Publishing, 2009)
''An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty''
edited by Sir Richard Philips, London, 1802, (Kessinger Publishing, 2009) *''A catalogue of the entire and curious library and manuscripts of the late Joseph Ritson'', 1803 *''The jurisdiction of the Court leet: Exemplified in the articles which the jury or inquest for the King, in that court, is charged and sworn, and by law enjoined, to inquire of and present, W. Clarke and Sons; 2d ed, with great additions'', edition 1809 *''Northern Garlands'', R. Triphook, 1810 *''The Office of Bailiff of a Liberty'', 1811 *''A Select Collection of English Songs, with Their Original Airs: and a Historical Essay on the Origin and Progress of National Song'', London, 1813, (Adamant Media Corporation, 2005) *''The Caledonian Muse: A Chronological Selection of Scottish Poetry from the Earliest Times'', 1821, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) *''Some account of the life and publications of the late Joseph Ritson, esq,'' by Joseph Haslewood, 1824 *''Life of King Arthur from Ancient Historians and Authentic Documents'', London, 1825, (Kessinger Publishing, 2003) *''Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots and of Strathclyde, Cumberland, Galloway and Murray'', London, 1828, (BiblioBazaar, 2008) *''Memoirs of The Celts or Gauls'', Joseph Ritson and Joseph Frank, 1829, (BiblioBazaar, 2009) *''Letters from Joseph Ritson to George Paton'', 1829, (Kessinger Publishing, 2008) *''Fairy Tales, Now First Collected: To which are prefixed two dissertations: 1. On Pygmies. 2. On Fairies'', London, 1831, (Adamant Media Corporation, 2004) *''Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Now Extant Relative to That Celebrated English Outlaw: To Which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life'', London, 1832, (Adamant Media Corporation, 2004) *''The Letters of Joseph Ritson edited chiefly from originals in the possession of his nephew J. Frank. To which is prefixed a memoir of the author'', by Joseph Ritson, Joseph Frank, and Nicholas Harris Nicolas, 1833, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) *''Gammer Gurton's Garland or the Nursery Parnassus: A Choice Collection of Pretty Songs and Verses'', 1866, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) *''Scotish Songs'' ''(sic)'', 1869, (Kessinger Publishing, 2008) *''Fairy Tales, Legends & Romances Illustrating Shakespeare & Other Early English Writers'', 1875, (Kessinger Publishing, 2003) *''The Boy Knight ; or, Kindness Rewarded'', James B. Knapp, 1877 *''Ancient Popular Poetry V1: From Authentic Manuscripts and Old Printed Copies'', by Joseph Ritson and Edmund Goldsmid, 1884, (Kessinger Publishing, 2009) *''Ancient English metrical romances'', E. & G. Goldsmid, 1884 *''Northern Garlands: A Collection of Songs'', 1887 *''A dissertation on romance and minstrelsy: To which is appended the ancient metrical romance of Ywaine and Gawin'', 1891, (Kessinger Publishing, 2007) *''Joseph Ritson: A Critical Biography'', by Henry A. Burd, Illinois, 1916, (BiblioBazaar, 2008) *''Joseph Ritson, scholar-at-arms. With plates, including portraits, and a bibliography'', by Bertrand Harris Bronson, 1938

References

* *

External links

* * * * *
Allan's Illustrated Edition of Tyneside songs and readings

Google e-book Northern Garland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritson, Joseph 1752 births 1803 deaths 18th-century English writers 18th-century English male writers 19th-century English writers Arthurian scholars English vegetarianism activists Collectors of fairy tales Converts to Hinduism from Christianity English animal rights scholars English essayists English antiquarians English atheists English folk-song collectors English literary critics People from Stockton-on-Tees