William Mitford, singer-songwriter

William Mitford (1788–1851) was a Tyneside songwriter of the 19th century. His best known works are those about “Cappy, The Pitman’s Dog” and “The Pitman’s Courtship”.

William Mitford, was born at Preston (which was a village close to North Shields) on 10 April 1788.
His parents died when he was very young, and at the age of only 3 or 4 his uncle brought him to Newcastle upon Tyne.
He became a shoemaker’s apprentice, possibly to the father of Willie Armstrong, and worked in Dean Street.
The earliest record of William Mitford appears in the budget chapbook “Newcastle Songster” series in 1816.
Mitford went on to write some of the region's most well-known songs.
It is known that Mitford played the part of the bishop in the “Coronation” by The Cordwainers Company of Newcastle upon Tyne at The Freeman Hospital in Westgate, on the Festival of St. Crispin (the patron saints of cobblers, tanners, and leather workers) on 29 June 1823.

Shortly after, he left the shoemaking trade and moved on to the licensed trade.
He opened a public house, “The North Pole”, on the edge of Castle Leazes, near to the Spital Tongues area of the city, and while there he wrote the song, named after the pub, and called “The North Pole”. He would perform often in his own public house. He moved on from here to the “Tailor's Arms”, which was more central at the head of “The Side”. Mention of his being there was made in 1834 by William Watson.

Eventually Mitford retired, and lived in Oyster Shell Lane (close to Bath lane). He died there on 3 March 1851 at the age of 63. He was buried in Westgate Hill General Cemetery, Arthur's Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The main character he seemed to write about was Bob Cranky, a habitual braggart, and written in his 20’s.

This material includes :-

In the early 19th century, as today, there were cheap books and magazines.
Many of these “chapbooks” were on poor quality paper to a poor standard and with poor quality print. The works were copied with no thoughts of copyright, and the work required very little proof-reading, and what was done was not required to a high standard. Consequently the dialect words of songs varied between editions.
The books were produced in bulk, at very little cost, and provided a good income for the producers. They reflected popular taste, and were sold, usually for a penny (or less).
Newcastle was during this period the second largest producer of chapbooks in the country.
One such chapbook was the Newcastle Songster, Which containing in total 11 songs, and was published by J Marshall of the Old Flesh Market, with a cover which read :-

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