Henry Robson (songwriter)


Henry Robson was a Tyneside concert hall poet, songwriter and performer in the late 18th and early 19th century. His best known works were perhaps the narrative poem "The Collier's Pay Week", and a poem "The Northern Minstrel's Budget", describing the repertoire of a travelling fiddler and piper.

Early life

Henry Robson was born c. 1770 at Benwell, near Newcastle, Northumberland, and was
still residing in Newcastle in 1812 according to John Bell in his notes in "Rhymes of Northern Bards"). He worked as a printer for Mackenzie and Dent and also had his own small business, working at home, where he had a small press.

Later life

Most of Robson's known works had been published by 1824.
He died on 21 December 1850 at his home in Grenville Terrace just behind City Road, Newcastle at the age of 75.
His Obituary read - "he had worked 60 years as a printer, was the oldest member of the profession in the town, and was much respected by a numerous circle of friends."

Works

These include :-
The introductory set of "Verses on Northumberland Minstrelsy" in Bell's Rhymes of Northern Bards, are signed H.R., presumably Robson:
'The Northern Minstrel's Budget', consisting mostly of a verse list of more than 200 tunes played by a single piper and fiddler in Northumberland at the beginning of the 19th century, is very useful as a picture of a working musician's repertoire, and also for the detailed forms of many of the titles, much fuller than in other sources.