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                  Broadsides and Chapbooks

                  Broadsides and chapbooks were early forms of printed books, and Scottish examples survive from the 16th century until the 19th century. A broadside (or broadsheet) was, to some extent, a precursor of the tabloid newspaper, consisting of a single printed sheet of paper. Sometimes these were in the form of a single page, which could be used as a poster for public display. Others were divided into sections, with pages printed on each side, so that the buyer could fold, stitch and cut them to form booklets. A chapbook was a booklet of this sort prepared in advance by the seller. They were sold primarily by pedlars, especially at fairs and public executions. The content of chapbooks and broadsides frequently concerned executions, murders, other major crimes and strange occurrences. Many included illustrations in the form of small, crude woodcuts, and the proliferation of broadsides and chapbooks provided work for woodcutters and engravers in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were cheap to produce and to buy. By adopting a moralistic tone, they achieved a more respectable reputation than they deserved, and many were bought ostensibly to provide cautionary reading for the young. They were replaced as popular reading matter by the 19th century ‘penny dreadfuls’ (books providing cheap thrills for those whose tastes run to murder and other gruesome tales), but the content of many chapbooks were collated in various editions of the Newgate Calendar and other similar publications from the late 18th century onwards. Chapbooks and broadsides are particularly useful for the study of the history of crime and punishment, and of popular culture from the 17th century to the 19th century. Examples of broadsides and chapbooks survive in many Scottish archives, mostly among collections of private correspondence. The most important collections are held by Glasgow University Library Special Collections, Library and Archives Canada, the National Library of Scotland, and the University of Guelph.

                  Bibliography

                  Cowan, Edward J. and Mike Paterson Folk in print: Scotland’s chapbook heritage, 1750-1850 (John Donald, 2007)

                  Links

                  Glasgow University Special Collections: <https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/archivespecialcollections/discover/specialcollectionsa-z/chapbooks/> [accessed 26 April 2024]

                  Library and Archives Canada <https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/rare-book/Pages/rare-book-collection.aspx#d> [accessed 26 April 2024]

                  National Library of Scotland <https://www.nls.uk/> [accessed 26 April 2024]

                  University of Guelph, Ontario <https://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/archives/our-collections/scottish-studies/scottish-chapbook-collection> [accessed 26 April 2024]

                  University of South Carolina Scottish Literature Digital Project (includes many chapbooks and broadsides) <https://digital.library.sc.edu/exhibits/scottishliterature/> [accessed 26 April 2024]

                   

                  What is the Newgate Calendar?

                  The Newgate Calendar first appeared in the 1770s, taking its name from the prison of Newgate in London, the scene of many public executions. It consisted of a collection of accounts of murders, executions and other crimes previously sold individually in chapbooks and broadsheets. Some of these were based on real cases, others (such as the story of Sawney Bean, were almost certainly fictional). There were several precursors of the Calendar:

                  • The Tyburn Calendar, or Malefactors Bloody Register, published by G. Swindell (c. 1705)
                  • A Compleat History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Foot-Pads, Shop-Lifts and Cheats of both sexes, in and about London and Westminster, and all parts of Great Britain, for above an hundred years past, continued to the present time by Captain Alexander Smith (1719)
                  • The Chronicle of Tyburn, or Villainy Display’d in all its Branches (1720)
                  • A General and True History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers etc. To which is added a genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the Most Noted Pirates, Interspersed with several remarkable Tryals of the most Notorious Malefactors, at the Sessions-House in the Old Bailey, London by Captain Charles Johnson (1734)
                  • The Tyburn Chronicle (1768)

                  The first work entitled The Newgate Calendar was published in 3 volumes between 1774 and 1778. Many editions and reprints of nineteenth century editions thereafter have included:

                  • The Malefactor’s Register or New Newgate and Tyburn Calendar . . . Offered not only as an Object of Curiosity and Entertainment, but as a Work of real and substantial Use (1780)
                  • The Criminal Recorder (1804)
                  • The New and Complete Newgate Calendar or Malefactor’s Universal Register, Comprising interesting Memoirs of the Most Notorious Characters who have been convicted of outrages on the Laws of England, with Speeches, Confessions, and Last Exclamations of Sufferers by William Jackson (1818)
                  • The Newgate Calendar Improved . . . Containing a number of interesting cases never before published: with Occasional remarks on Crimes and Punishments, Original Anecdotes, Moral reflections and Observations on particular Cases; Explanations of the Criminal Laws, the Speeches, Confessions and Last Exclamations of Sufferers. To which is added a Correct Account of the Various Modes of Punishment of criminals in Different Parts of the World by George Theodore Wilkinson, esq. (1822)
                  • Celebrated Trials, and remarkable cases of Criminal Jurisprudence from the earliest Records to the Year 1825 by George Borrow (1825)
                  • The Newgate Calendar by Andrew Knapp and William Baldwin (1826)
                  • The Chronicles of Crime or the New Newgate Calendar by Camden Pelham. (1841)
                  • The Complete Newgate Calendar, edited by J.L. Rayner and G.T Crook (London, 5 vols., 1926).
                  • The Newgate Calendar, edited by Edwin Valentine Mitchell (London, 1928).
                  • The Newgate Calendar, or Malefactors’ Bloody Register, edited by B. Laurie (London, 1933)
                  • The Newgate Calendar and The New Newgate Calendar, edited for the Folio Society by Sir Norman Birkett (London, 1951 & 1960 respectively; republished as a two-volume set in 1992).
                  • The Newgate Calendar (London, 3 vols, 1962-1963).