Description: Print of 'Singing Sam of Derbyshire' by 'W Williams fl 1760'.
Picture the Past asked whether anyone could supply further information on this character and perhaps identify the strange-looking musical instrument he is carrying. Website contributor Linda Brockway then drew attention to the artsderbyshire website, which has a section titled 'Homemade Fiddles and Homegrown Tunes' (accessed March 2015):
'... music has always played a part in the lives of villages and towns around Derbyshire. A wandering minstrel called Singing Sam lived approximately 250 years ago. He would perform his own compositions to the tunes he could scrape from a homemade fiddle!
Singing Sam appears as an illustration in a fascinating book called The ballads & songs of Derbyshire edited by Llewellyn Jewitt (1816-1866) and published in 1867. This book details over 50 ballads originating from Derbyshire ...
The compositions are presented as lyrics, some with musical scores also, and with a brief history of the origins of the ballad and the composer. With song titles such as The Derby Ram, The Humours of Hayfield Fair, The Drunken Butcher of Tideswell, Little John's End, Squire Vernon's Fox Chace, Old Nun's Green; and composers such as Sir Aston Cokain of Ashbourne, Eliza Cooke, Humphrey Brereton, Richard Howitt, Tom Handford (blacksmith) and James Bannard 'Wandering Poet in his 74th year'; it is a fine example of music originating from all walks of life and how the music reflected various aspects of living in Derbyshire from the nobility to wandering minstrel.
Of particular interest, turn to page 145 for Derbyshire Men (first published 1864). It is a ballad by Mr Walter Kirkland that commences with the well known old Derbyshire saying that is often appropriated by other counties: "I' Darbyshire who're born and bred, Are strong i' th' arm, bu' weak i' th' head." And for pure place-name checks, turn to page 266 for 'The Beggar's Ramble', which in the quest for 'the nearest road unto the beggar's wells' takes the reader on a journey through the entire county.'