John Broadwood

For detais of the lif and significance ofthe Rev. John Broadwood (1798-1864) of Lyne in Sussex we are indebted to Stanley Godman.1 John Broadwood is best known for his pioneering collection of sixteen folk songs published privately and anonymously as Old English Songs...--usually dated to 1843 but on the basis of evidence in the Surrey History Centre, Woking, probably not pubihsed until 1847.2

1. Stanley Godman, "John Broadwood: New Light on the Folk Song Pioneer," The Monthly Musical Record (May-June 1957): 105-8; Stanley Godman, "John Broadwood, the Earliest English Folksong Collector," West Sussex Gazette (30 January 1964). Copies of both articles are available in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House.

2. [Rev. John Broadwood], Old English Songs, As Now Sung by the Peasantry of the Weald of Surrey and Sussex, and Collected by One Who Has Learnt Them by Hearing Them Sung Every Christmas from Early Childhood, by the Country People, Who Go About to the Neighbouring Houses, Singing, or "Wassailing" as It is Called, at that Season, harmonised by G. H. Dusart(London: Balls, for private circulation, [1843]).