#billy waters

[artschoolglasses]

Billy Waters, David Wilkie, 1815

[culturalappreciator]

William "Billy" Waters

Not much is known about Billy Waters. He could be considered mythological to some, but to others he was just a talented guy from around the way. Waters was born c. 1778 in America as a slave, but became a life-long resident of the UK after trading his servitude to be a British sailor. Although he lost his leg while serving in the Navy, it never discouraged him from living a full life. Waters would later become a busker to support his wife & 2 children. He would entertain theater-goers by standing outside of the Adelphi Theatre located in London's west end. It was stated he would do the most "peculiar" things to attract attention, but his main talent was playing the violin. He became so good at it that he was asked to perform in a couple of stage plays. Waters was only one of 10,000 Black people in the UK at the time who was able to make a living. In the latter years of his life he lived off of his navy pension, which didn't provide much. Due to failing health he was eventually admitted to a workhouse which provided hospice care. Billy Waters was one of the 1st notable Black musicians/entertainers of the U.K. who is well deserving of his flowers!

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[medievalpoc]

1800s Week!

vulture-toast submitted:

Billy Waters, Mariner And Street Performer/ Beggar

Billy Waters, Mariner And Street Performer/ Beggar

David Wilkie

1815

Romanticism

This painting is of Billy Waters, an actor and musician who lived in London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is believed to have been painted by the artist Sir David Wilkie in 1815. Billy Waters was one of at least 10,000 people of African origin who lived in London in the early 19th century. Like many former slaves he had fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War. It was during this period that he lost his leg. Waters was a popular and well-known figure, playing his fiddle and entertaining children outside London’s West End theatres. He was elected ‘King of the Beggars’ just before his death in 1823. He was one of several African personalities featured in the publication Life in London (1821). In this painting, Waters is portrayed as dignified and proud. Although in public he often acted the clown, this painting suggests a more serious and powerful side to him.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/david-wilkie/billy-waters-mariner-and-street-performer-beggar-1815

More about Billy Waters Here

Disability History

[medievalpoc]

Billy Waters - Soldier, Actor and Musician

As well as highly acclaimed professional musicians like Joseph Emidy and George Bridgetower, there were Black street buskers who entertained London's public. Billy Waters, a fiddler, was one such character and a common sight outside the Adelphi Theatre, in the Strand, in the 1780s. Identifiable by his wooden leg and military-style outfit, he was famously caricatured by the cartoonist George Cruickshank. 

Billy Waters may have ended up on the streets of London as one of the Black poor who had fought in the American War of Independence. From workhouse records, it seems that Billy became ill and spent his final days at St Giles's Workhouse where he was elected 'the king of beggars'. A verse from his will reads:

                   Thus poor Black Billy's made his Will,                    His Property was small good lack,                    For till the day death did him kill                    His house he carried on his back.                    The Adelphi now may say alas!                    And to his memory raise a stone:                    Their gold will be exchanged for brass,                    Since poor Black Billy's dead and gone.

[image source]

Obituary transcript after the cut

The eccentric Billy Waters,  whose conspicuous character in Life in London, gained him so much notoriety; bade adieu to this life yesterday morning,          after being ten days in St. Gile's workhouse, in a lingering condition. Poor Billy endeavoured up to the period of his illness to obtain for a wife and two children; what he termed "an  honest living by the scraping of cat-gut," by which he          originally amassed a considerable portion of browns (half-pence) at the West end of the town, where his hat and feathers, with his peculiar antics, excited much mirth and attention.

Billy latterly became unfortunate, which he attributed to the production of Tom and Jerry, with whom he was made to take his Madeary (Madeira), and treat "bags of victuals" with contempt; but, however, he died very poor, and was obliged, prior to his death, to part with his old friend, the fiddle, for a trifling sum at the pawnbrokers;  and the wooden pin (leg) which had so often supported    Billy, would have shared the same fate, but its extensive service had rendered it worthless though it had twice saved poor Billy from the penalties of the Tread Mill. He was formerly a sailor, and he received a trifling pension since he left the  service. A short time prior to his death he was elected King of a party of Beggars in St. Giles's, in consequence of his notoriety. He resided with his family in the house of Mrs. Fitzgerald, Church street, St. Giles's. His remains were yesterday removed from the Workhouse, to the New Burial Ground, St. Pancras, where  he was interred. He was followed to the grave by his wife and children, with a few old friends - some professional ones. He was forty-five years of age.

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