14 April 1792: The ballad of Spence Broughton, hung this day at the York Tyburn for robbing the Sheffield and Rotherham mail
C.J. Davison Ingledew. 1860. The Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire. London: Bell and Daldy. Get it:
.Excerpt
Full content pending custom excerpt:
To you my dear companions,
Accept these lines I pray;
A most impartial trial
Has occupied this day.
‘Tis from your dying Broughton
To show his wretched fate,
I hope you’ll make reformation
Before it is too late.
The loss of your companion
Does grieve my heart full sore,
And I know that my fair Ellen
Will my wretched fate deplore.
I think on those happy hours
That now are past and gone,
Now poor unhappy Broughton
Does wish he had ne’er been born.
One day in Saint James’s
With large and swelling pride,
Each man had a flash woman
Walking by his side;
At night we did retire
Unto some ball or play,
In these unhappy pleasures
How time did pass away.
Brought up in wicked habit,
Which brings me now in fear,
How little did I think
My time would be so near;
For now I’m overtaken,
Condemned and cast to die,
Exposed a sad example
To all that does pass by.
O that I had but gone
To some far-distant clime,
A gibbet post, poor Broughton,
Would never have been mine;
But alas, for all such wishes,
Such wishes are in vain,
Alas! it is but folly
And madness to complain.
One night I tried to slumber
And close my weeping eyes,
I heard a foot approach
Which struck me with surprise;
I listened for a moment,
A voice made this reply,
“Prepare thyself, Spence Broughton,
To-morrow you must die.”
O awful was the messenger
And dismal was the sound,
Like a man that was distracted
I rolled upon the ground;
My tears they fell in torrents,
With anguish I was torn;
I am poor unhappy Broughton,
I wish I had ne’er been born.
Farewell, my wife and children,
To you I do bid adieu,
I never should have come to this
Had I staid at home with you.
I hope thro’ my Redeemer
To gain the happy shore,
Farewell! farewell! farewell for ever,
Spence Broughton soon will be no more.
To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:
- ER: East Riding
- GM: Greater Manchester
- NR: North Riding
- NY: North Yorkshire
- SY: South Yorkshire
- WR: West Riding
- WY: West Yorkshire
Comment
Comment
Something to say? Get in touch
Original
To you my dear companions,
Accept these lines I pray;
A most impartial trial
Has occupied this day.
‘Tis from your dying Broughton
To show his wretched fate,
I hope you’ll make reformation
Before it is too late.
The loss of your companion
Does grieve my heart full sore,
And I know that my fair Ellen
Will my wretched fate deplore.
I think on those happy hours
That now are past and gone,
Now poor unhappy Broughton
Does wish he had ne’er been born.
One day in Saint James’s
With large and swelling pride,
Each man had a flash woman
Walking by his side;
At night we did retire
Unto some ball or play,
In these unhappy pleasures
How time did pass away.
Brought up in wicked habit,
Which brings me now in fear,
How little did I think
My time would be so near;
For now I’m overtaken,
Condemned and cast to die,
Exposed a sad example
To all that does pass by.
O that I had but gone
To some far-distant clime,
A gibbet post, poor Broughton,
Would never have been mine;
But alas, for all such wishes,
Such wishes are in vain,
Alas! it is but folly
And madness to complain.
One night I tried to slumber
And close my weeping eyes,
I heard a foot approach
Which struck me with surprise;
I listened for a moment,
A voice made this reply,
“Prepare thyself, Spence Broughton,
To-morrow you must die.”
O awful was the messenger
And dismal was the sound,
Like a man that was distracted
I rolled upon the ground;
My tears they fell in torrents,
With anguish I was torn;
I am poor unhappy Broughton,
I wish I had ne’er been born.
Farewell, my wife and children,
To you I do bid adieu,
I never should have come to this
Had I staid at home with you.
I hope thro’ my Redeemer
To gain the happy shore,
Farewell! farewell! farewell for ever,
Spence Broughton soon will be no more.
411 words.
Tags
Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.
Similar
- 10 December 1769: Part of the northern ballad about Bill Brown, a Brightside (Sheffield) steelworker and hare-poacher killed by gamekeepers today near Rotherham
- 27 July 1612: Jennet Preston, the only Yorkshirewoman among the Pendle witches, is found guilty at York of the murder of Thomas Lister of Westby Hall, Gisburn (Ribble Valley)
- 19 October 1808: William Perigo of Bramley finds that Mary Bateman defrauded him in promising to cure his wife Rebecca’s palpitations, and suspects she died of poisoning
- 6 March 1684: The highwayman and racketeer John Nevison is captured at an alehouse near Sandal Castle, Wakefield
- 8 February 1745: Pioneering but pennyless philologist Eugene Aram murders a wealthy Knaresborough wastrel
- 3 December 1816: A revolutionary bread riot is averted at Sheffield
- 17 May 1602: Michael Steele of Skelton (York) complains to Star Chamber about the following comic playlet, alleging an adulterous affair with his maidservant, Francis Thornton
- 29 November 1673: A verse warns Charles II against his brother James, six days after the latter’s marriage to an Italian Catholic
- 25 February 1879: 500 await the black flag signalling the hanging at Armley Gaol (Leeds) of Charles Peace – steelworker, violinist, picture-framer, burglar, stalker, murderer
- 5 February 1852: A local poet recounts the fate of some of his 81 neighbours drowned this morning in Holmfirth Flood through the miserliness of the mill-owners
Search
Donate
Music & books
The Headingley Gallimaufrians: a choir of the weird and wonderful.
Music from and about Yorkshire by Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder.
RSS feed
Bluesky
Extwitter