Billy Waters

Billy Waters
maybe by Sir David Wilkie
Born	c. 1778
Died	1823 St Giles Workhouse, London
Occupation	Beggar, performer

Billy Waters (c. 1778–1823) was a black man who busked in London in the nineteenth century by singing, playing the violin and entertaining theatre goers with his "peculiar antics". He became famous when he appeared as a character in William Thomas Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry, or Life in London in 1821.

Billy Waters came to notice as a beggar on the streets of London where he played the violin to entertain theatre-goers in exchange for halfpennies. It is said that he was once a slave in America who traded his servitude to be a British sailor. His striking image was established by his African ancestry, a naval uniform, his peg leg, his violin and the addition of a feathered hat. Waters had lost his leg as a sailor in the navy when he fell from the rigging, although other sources imply he lost it while fighting in the American War of Independence. He had a wife and two children to support, and in the 1780s he would busk outside the Adelphi Theatre. Waters and his "peculiar antics" became so famous that he was asked to appear on stage as himself.

Waters was one of the London characters who appeared in William Thomas Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry, or Life in London, an unauthorised stage adaptation of Pierce Egan's Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom, in 1821. Waters was one of the only 10,000 people of African heritage who were making a living at this time in England. He was very poor and it is said that he was twice saved from the punishment of the treadmill due to his peg leg.

At the end of his life, Waters was popularly elected as the "King of the Beggars" in the parish of St Giles because of his fame and the regard of his peers. His small naval pension had left him so poor that he had to sell his violin and it was said that he would have also sold his wooden leg but it was worthless with wear. Waters became ill and had to enter the St Giles' workhouse where he died in 1823 after ten days. He was buried in St Pancras Cemetery in London.