Lines Composed on the Death of Parker, Who Was Hung at the Yard Arm, for Mutiny, in England.

[Boston: between 1810 and, 1814]. A tribute to the "Floating Republic" A handbill of verses purportedly by the widow of Richard Parker, the English sailor executed for his role in the "Floating Republic" mutiny. Demanding improved pay and better treatment, the crews of 16 British Royal Navy ships staged a mutiny at Spithead in April 1797. It was conducted in a peaceful manner, their demands were met, and a royal pardon given. A month later, another group of mutineers made further demands and attempted to block the Thames. The government responded forcefully, and the mutiny fell apart. Their leader Richard Parker was executed and became a folk hero. The mutiny was remembered as creating a "Floating Republic" inspired by revolutionary fervour. Ballads purporting to be by Parker's widow bemoaning his death were widely printed in Britain and America. The text was reprinted well into the 19th century. The verses stress the widow's lover for Parker, how she could not get on board the ship where he was hanged, and how she took his body to bury in London, before their reunion in heaven. The woodcut illustration is re-used from a ballad illustrating the execution on land of Samuel Tully, so does not correspond with the poem detailing his execution at sea - such points were often treated indifferently by ballad printers. WorldCat locates copies in only the Peabody Essex Museum and the American Antiquarian Society. Single leaf (242 x 202 mm), 7 stanzas of verse set in double column. Woodcut headpiece of a hanged man on the gibbet. Contemporary ownership signature "Sarah Allen, Billerica" (Billerica is a town near Boston) and another "Wm. H. Littlefield 1952" on verso. Browned, worn and wrinkled, with old paper repair (using printed waste) on verso. A good copy. Ford, Broadsides, Ballads, &c. Printed in Massachusetts, 3230; not in Shaw & Shoemaker.