c.1780s Manuscript Ballad Broadside “The Major’s Only Son” Forbidden Love For Sale

Offered here is an early handwritten manuscript version of the well-known Anglo-American broadside ballad commonly titled “The Major’s Only Son” (also issued historically as “The Major’s Only Son and His True Love’s Overthrow”), a tragic moral ballad warning against parental cruelty, pride, and class prejudice.

This is not a later copybook poem, but a full-length manuscript transmission of a popular 18th-century ballad, copied on a single large sheet of laid paper, folded into quarters in the traditional broadside manner.

“The Major’s Only Son” is a documented traditional ballad circulating in England and colonial America from the late 17th century onward, printed widely as cheap broadsides and sung orally. It is indexed in folk-song scholarship (Roud 563) and survives in numerous printed and sung variants.

This manuscript preserves a complete narrative version of the ballad, including all key diagnostic elements:

• Opening moral address: “Come all young people far and near…”

• A young man of rank forofferden to marry a woman of “low degree”

• Biblical reference to Dives and Lazarus

• Rejection of wealth in favor of love

• Forced separation and the woman’s illness

• Doctors failing to cure her

• A deathbed reunion and forgiveness of parents

• Exchange of rings with the line “Remember that I died for thee”

• Funeral scene and final moral warnings to parents and youth

The text runs to 34 numbered stanzas, making this a long and complete variant, longer than many surviving printed broadsides.

• Format: Single large folio sheet, folded twice (manuscript broadside format)

• Paper: Laid paper with visible chain and laid lines

• Ink: Period iron gall ink with natural oxidation

• Handwriting: Clear late-18th/early-19th-century hand, consistent throughout

• Condition: Aged with expected toning, fold wear, and minor losses at folds; text remains legible throughout

• Size: Approx. full folio (8\" x 15\")

There is no title written at the top, which is typical for manuscript copies of orally transmitted ballads.

Based on paper, ink, handwriting, language, and ballad tradition, this manuscript dates circa 1780–1815, most likely New England or northeastern United States.

Anonymous.
Like virtually all traditional broadside ballads, this work has no known individual author. It was composed within the English popular ballad tradition and transmitted orally, in print, and by hand over generations. The manuscript offered here is a copy, not an author’s draft.

• Scarcer manuscript survival of a known broadside ballad

• Complete long-form narrative

• Clear alignment with documented printed versions

• Strong appeal to collectors of:

  • Early Americana

  • Folk music and ballad history

  • Manuscript ephemera

  • Love-and-death moral literature

Comparable printed broadsides survive, but handwritten copies of this length and coherence are uncommon.

• The original manuscript sheet, exactly as shown

• Careful packaging for safe shipment

Ships fully insured with tracking.
International buyers welcome.
Please review photos carefully and feel free to ask questions before offerding or purchasing.