[BROADSIDE] The Unhappy Lady of Hackney

Folded bifolium (36 x 23.5cm); printed in black to recto only on rag paper; with large woodcut image showing a couple in a countryside scene with trees, birds, and houses in the distance; text in four columns with decorative borders; creased in accordance with age, a couple of brown spots; else a wonderful survival, the print remaining particularly clear. 

A contemporary or near-contemporary publication, with the ballad telling the tragic story of a young woman who falls victim to a deceitful suitor. 

Historical records suggest that this ballad was based on the real life story of Susannah Holworthy of Clapton, a young woman of a wealthy family who was 'tempted' by her sister's husband: “he overcame me once with wine / And us'd me at his pleasure / then took me from my parents dear / in sorrow out of measure”, the ballad proclaims. Abducted and hidden, she falls pregnant, but shortly before her death in childbirth, she dispatches a letter to her parents naming their son-in-law as the cause of her disappearance and death. Her eldest brother, 'a hopeful youth', dies of grief; her parents exhume her body on suspicion of murder, and her sister ‘rav’d like thunder / To think her husband was so base / To prove her sister's ruin.’

Likely an embellished version of what would now be considered a tabloid scandal, this remains a rare example of this piece of street literature. The imprint, with the single woodcut, is not traced. 

SKU: 1800215