Collection guides

About the collection

Major 'named' collections of ballads 

• The Roxburghe Ballads: almost 1,500 17th-century broadside ballads mostly English and largely in Black Letter. Shelved at C.20.f.7–10 (numbered Rox.I-IV) are in three volumes. They were assembled for Robert Harley (1661–1724) by John Bagford (the ballads are distinct from Bagford’s personal collection, see immediately below). The collection was later owned by John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe (1740–1804).
• The Bagford Ballads: 420 17th-century ballads and fragments assembled by John Bagford (1650–1716) for his own library. Shelved at C.40.m.9–11 in 3 volumes; they are separate from the collection Bagford formed for Robert Harley (at the core of the Roxburghe Ballads) and separate from his collection of title pages.
• The Luttrell Ballads: nearly 600 ballads, broadsides, proclamations etc., mainly from the times of Charles II and James II (approximately 1660–1688) at C.20.f.3–5 (numbered 'Lutt.I–III') all collected by Narcissus Luttrell (1657–1732).

Smaller collections of ballads dispersed through the Library

Volumes containing early printed ballads are listed on Explore the British Library and can be found by searching with shelfmarks collated below. Type the shelfmark as one search string with no punctuation and use an asterisk at the end to retrieve records for individual items, for example: 82l8* or 112f44* will list individual ballad titles contained in the volumes.

Most volumes contain examples of ballads printed over broad periods, but shelfmarks for selected volumes with prominent representations of English language ballads are grouped here chronologically (do note that this is not a comprehensive list):

• Huth.50 69 Elizabethan ballads and five from later dates, collected by Henry Huth (1815–1878) 

• 82.l.8 70 ballads from the King George III collection
• 112.f.44 ballads, broadsides and proclamations, assembled by Narcissus Luttrell
• 806.k.16 includes the only recorded copy of 'Newes from Flaunders. A new Ballad of the great overthrow that the valliant Captaine Graue Maurice, Sir F. Veere, and other of the Queene of England's friends: gaue to the Archduke [Albert], and his army of Spaniards upon Sunday being the 22 of June ... 1600.'
• 807.g.5 includes the rare ballad, ca. 1680 ‘The Fox-Hunting’ (with musical annotation)
• 839.m.2 with ‘A General Sale of rebellious household-stuffs. [A song.] To the tune of Old Simon the King’
• 1872.a.1 with 183 ballads including the rare ballad  ‘An elegy upon Mr. Hobbes’
• 1875.d.16 A collection of ballads and other broadside sheets, published by J. Pitts and others between 1665 and 1870
• 1876.f.1 (2 volumes) includes 'A newsong called Love in a Tub.'
• 11602.i.5 with the broadside poem ‘Against Marriage: directed to that inconsiderable animal called Husband’
• C.20.f.2 ‘Poetical Ballads’, includes 'Freezland-Fair or the icey Bear-Garden. A new ballad [on the Frost-Fair on the Thames, in 1684]. 
• C.20.f.14 ‘Book of Fortune’ with 41 unique ballads from the 1650s
• C.22.f.6 225 London ballads printed between 1660–1710
• C.38.i.25 ballads, several with musical notation, including 'Titus Tell-Troth: or, the Plot-founder confounded. A ... new song.'
• C.39.k.6 74 ‘Osterley Park Library’ ballads
• C.116.i.2 includes a rare copy of 'The Charming Bride and Jovial Bridegroom' ... A new play-house song. [From “The Fatal Marriage” by T. Southern.]
• C.121.g.9 with 'A New-thing, of Nothing: or, A Song made of Nothing, the newest in print; He that seriously mindes it, will find Nothing in't
• C.161.f.2 includes the broadside ‘Strange news from Shadwell, being a true and just relation of the death of Alice Fowler, who had for many years been accounted a witch’ 

• 112.f.44 broadsides, ballads, proclamations; collected by Narcissus Luttrell
• 806.k.16 includes the political ballad, 'Here's coming and going; or, going and coming; or, Hey for Litchfield Races.'
• 1346.m.7 Edinburgh printed ballads from 1776
• 1357.m.8 ballads and songs, printed by Fowler in Salisbury; 1777–1800; collected by Edward George Ballard (1791–1860) 
• 1871.f.13 A collection of ballads printed on single sheets, between 1750–1840
• 1872.a.1 with the broadside poem, 'Kiss my A... is no Treason; or an historical and critical dissertation upon the art of selling bargains.'
• 1875.d.16 A collection of ballads and other broadside sheets, published by J. Pitts and others between 1665 and 1870
• 1876.e.20 A collection of ballads printed between 1770–1830
• 1876.f.1 (2 volumes) includes the illustrated ballad 'Bob Booty's lost deal, or, The cards shuffled fair at last.'
• 11606.aa.22-24 3 volumes of ballads printed between 1779–1816; mostly Glasgow & Newcastle-upon-Tyne; collected by Elizabeth Davison
• 11621.c.11 English regional printed
• 11621.e.1–6 ballads, songbooks and chapbooks
• 11621.h.1 includes ‘The Saylors Song, or D-nk--k [Dunkirk] restored. A new ballad, etc.’
• 11621.i.11 including, 'Little Farms. A new song; to the tune of God save the king' 
• 11630.g.36 ballads printed chiefly by J Pitts between 1790–1820
• 11631.aaa.56 Edinburgh printed
• 12331.ee.40 ballads and chapbooks; 3 parts; printed between 1733–1832
• C.20.f.2 ‘Poetical Ballads’
• C.20.f.6 with 'The wine-cooper's delight, to the tune of, The delights of the bottle.'
• C.22.f.6 225 London ballads printed between 1660–1710
• C.116.i.2 includes the illustrated ballad ‘Bite upon the Miser, or, Trick upon the parson by the sailor’
• C.121.g.8 mostly Dublin and Irish printed
• C.121.g.9 includes ‘A New Song, on Parker, a delegate, and head of the Mutiny at Sheerness, etc.’
• C.161.f.2 93 ballads and broadside poems
• L.R.31.b.19 2 volumes of regional ballads printed between 1730–1830, collected by Sabine Baring-Gould

• 1871.f.13 collection of ballads printed on single sheets, between 1750–1840
• 1875.d.13 collection of ballads and broadsides chiefly printed in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and district between 1799–1830
• 1875.d.16 A collection of ballads and other broadside sheets, published by J. Pitts and others between 1665 and 1870
• 1876.e.20 A collection of ballads printed between 1770–1830
• 11606.aa.22–24 3 volumes of ballads; 1779–1816; mostly Glasgow & Newcastle-upon-Tyne; collected by Elizabeth Davison
• 11621.h.1 includes the 1870 ballad, ‘A Peace Invocation, and Three Ways of Living’
• 11621.h.11 7 volumes of London ballads printed between 1860–1870; collected by Thomas Crampton (1816–1888)
• 11621.i.12 regional printed ballads printed between 1780–1820; collected by Thomas Bell (1785–1860?)
• 11630.g.36 ballads printed chiefly by J Pitts between 1790–1820
• 12331.ee.40 ballads and chapbooks; 3 parts printed between 1733–1832
• C.116.i.1 includes the 1848 ballad, Chartists are coming
• C.116.i.2 includes The Cruel Cooper of Ratcliffe
• C.116.i.3 ballads printed in Ireland
• L.R.271.a.2 10 volumes of regional ballads to 1870, collected by Sabine Baring-Gould

What is available online?

Digital facsimiles, text transcriptions and some audio performance recordings of The Roxburghe Ballads are freely available on the English Broadside Ballad Archive website.

Some printed items which have been digitised and made available freely online can be found by searching our main catalogue Explore the British Library. From the search results, selecting 'online' in the left hand window will display materials that can be viewed online outside the Library. Select 'I want this' to view an individual item. 

Digital images of seven volumes of 19th-century ballads formed by Thomas Crampton are freely available on Explore the British Library.

The British Library's Discovering Literature: Shakespeare and the Renaissance space offer images and essays on the context of a small selection of ballads from the period.
 

What is available in our Reading Rooms?

Bound volumes with printed facsimiles of the Roxburghe, Bagford and Luttrell Collections are shelved in the Rare Books Reading Room at shelfmark RAX. Looking through the sheets in these volumes in sequence can provide a really useful first impression of the appearance and themes of ballads. Registered readers can request some volumes with ballads to the Rare Books & Music Reading Room using Explore the British Library.

What is available in other organisations?

Significant collections of ballads can be investigated in a number of major research libraries.

• Broadside Ballads Online from the Bodleian Library presents a digital collection of English printed ballad-sheets from between the 16th and 20th centuries, linked to other resources for the study of the English ballad tradition.
• The National Library of Scotland's Crawford Collection has over 4,200 ballads (in English) dating from the 16th, to the early 20th century. The Library's 2,300 English ballads, mostly from 19th-century England and can be browsed by theme.
• The Pepys Broadside Ballads Collection at Magdalene College Library consists of some 1,800 items.
• The William Euing Collection at Glasgow University has a collection of 408 Black-Letter ballads.
• The Madden Broadsides and Slip-Songs at Cambridge University Library presents over 16,000 18th–19th century broadside ballads, they were collected by Sir Frederic Madden. 
• The John Rylands Library's Street Literature Collection holds ballads, broadsides proclamations and other printed single sheets, “sold in the open air”.

The Directory of Rare Books and Special Collections provides information on locations, subjects and types of material (including ballads) represented in rare book collections in libraries throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. 

Further information

• The British broadside ballad and its music. [With musical illustrations], by Claude Mitchell Simspon. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, [1966]. Shelved in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at MUS 782.43 the starting point for matching printed texts and lyrics of ballads to tunes
• An analytical index to the ballad-entries, 1557-1709, in the registers of the Company of Stationers of London compiled by Hyder E. Rollins. Stationers' Company (London, England) New York; London: Johnson Reprint Co., 1967. Shelved in the Humanities 1 Reading Room at HLR 338.632 
• British broadside ballads of the sixteenth century: a catalogue of the extant sheets and an essay  by Carole Rose Livingston. New York; London: Garland Pub, 1991. Shelved in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at RAR 821.044 
• Ballads and broadsides in Britain, 1500–1800 edited by Patricia Fumerton and Anita Guerrini with the assistance of Kris McAbee. London: Routledge, 2017 General Reference Collection YC.2010.a.11533 
• The Roxburghe Ballads. With short notes by W. Chappell, ... and copies of the original woodcuts, etc. [9 volumes edited by J. W. Ebsworth.] Ballad Society, London: [1869–1899]. General Reference Collection Ac.9928/2
• The Roxburghe Ballads. Edited by Charles Hindley. London: Reeves & Turner, 1873.
• The Bagford Ballads ... Edited, with introduction and notes, by Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth ... 3 volumes with copies of the original woodcuts. Ballad Society, Hertford: 1878, 80 [1876–80] General Reference Collection Ac.9928/5
• 'Reflections on Narcissus Luttrell.' by J.M. Osborne, in The Book Collector, 6 (1957), pp. 15-27. Shelved in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at RAR 002.075 (small-sized sequence)
• Popular literature in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain. Pt. 2, The Sabine Baring-Gould and Thomas Crampton collections from the British Library, London: a listing and guide to the Research Publications collection. Shelved in the Rare Books and Music Reading Room at RAM 821.044