Background
He was born in 1798, the son of James Shudi Broadwood and the grandson of John Broadwood, both piano makers in London.
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John Broadwood
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When he was young, his family moved to the Broadwood family home: Lyne House in Capel, Surrey. lieutenant is certain that he was a clergyman, because he officiated at a wedding in 1850. He died at Lyne House in 1864.
He is known for the book or pamphlet dated 1843, originally published anonymously, usually known as lieutenant contains 16 folk songs, "set to music exactly as they are now sung", and with the words "given in their original rough state with an occasional slight alteration to render the sense intelligible".
According to the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, he "is to be honoured in the annals of English folk-song". In 1943, the music critic Frank Howes wrote a scholarly article about him to "celebrate the centenary year of scientific method applied editorially to the oral tradition of English folk-song".
The title page
This reads as follows:
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. The Airs are set to music exactly as they are now sung, to rescue them from oblivion and to afford a specimen of genuine Old English Melody.
The Words are given in their original Rough State with an occasional slight alteration to render the sense intelligible.
The songs
The 16 songs collected by Broadwood are reproduced in a book which the authors have kindly released online into the public domain under a Creative Commons licence. Alternative titles and (where identified) Roud Folk Song Index numbers and other information are included in parentheses. "The Moon Shines Bright" (702)
"A Wassail, A Wassail" (209)
"The Noble Lord"
"Rosebuds in June" (812)
"A Sweet Country Life" (2406)
"The Ploughboy" ("The Jolly Ploughboy", "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys") (202)
"The Privateer"
"The Fourteenth of July" (980)
"Gipsy Song"
"The Husbandman" (873?)
"The Bailiff"s Daughter of Islington" (483) (Child Ballad Number 105)
"The Poacher"s Song" ("Thorny Moor Woods") (222)
"In Lancashire"
"Come Listen"
"The Woodcutter" ("Harvest Supper Song") (310)
"Lord Bateman" (40) (Child Ballad Number 53).
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Quotations: "given in their original rough state with an occasional slight alteration to render the sense intelligible".
