The broadside ballad titled The Strange News from Westmoreland is about a gruesome murder and an avenging angel. The source depicts a drunken Gabriel Harding killing his wife than denying his crime when questioned by his neighbours. Following this an angel with a ‘sweet complexion’ whose ‘eyes like to the Stars did shine’ appeared to bring Harding to justice. The angel summoned the Devil, who killed Harding and took him to Hell.

The broadside was first produced in 1663, and reprinted in 1690. This was a period when pamphlet culture was booming. Broadsides and pamphlets were cheap and easy to reprint so ideas and stories spread very quickly. Accounts of strange or supernatural events became a popular genre.

This is an interesting broadside as it touches on the many roles that angels were thought to play in early modern Britain. The main role that the angel plays is being ‘Judge and Jury’. Angels were the messengers of God’s judgement, which in this case means punishing Harding for the sinful crime of killing his wife.

This idea of angels as vengeful and sinister spirits is very different to modern understandings of the kind, gentle, protective nature of angels. Early modern Catholics and Protestants also conceptualised angels as protectors, evidenced in the source as the angel protects the innocent neighbours when he summons the Devil. The angel orders Satan to ‘Do no more then thou hast command’, and Satan vanishes without harming anyone except Harding. However, angels were still a very sinister and powerful supernatural entity that early modern Christians might be wary of.

Angels were also meant to provide humans with some sort of moral guidance. This can also be clearly seen in The Strange News from Westmoreland; when the angel is leaving he remarks, ‘Be sure to love each other well, […], It is the way to go to Heaven / When you shall rise at Judgement Day’.

The modern notion of angels dressed all in white and surrounded by light was a motif that was present in hefty theological and religious texts in the 17th century. However, when the angel appears to Harding he is not in the traditional white garments, but instead ‘clothed all in green’. In folkloric belief green was a magical colour, worn by fairies. The anonymous author may have made a conscious effort to dress his angel in green to be more relevant to popular culture.

The author also specified that the ballad should be sung ‘To the Tune of, In Summer time’. Ballads were commonly sung in taverns or alehouses, which would have made Harding’s story accessible to the large illiterate population. Broadsides and pamphlets also often included pictures, and this one is no exception. The images indicate some key details about the story: the marvellous angel, the loving wife, the dancing Devil and the sinful Harding.

As shown, this source highlights some of the roles of angels – heralding the vengeful judgement of god and being a protector of humans. The author likely intended this pamphlet to be for a wide audience, including elements of folklore that would have been well known in popular culture. Against the backdrop of the rise in pamphlet culture, broadsides like this circulated widely and could be understood by the illiterate community.

 
By Hana Noor-Khan

Further Reading

Martha McGill, ‘Angels in Early Modern Scotland’, in Julian Goodare and Martha McGill (eds), The Supernatural in Early Modern Scotland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020)

Darren Oldridge, The Supernatural in Tudor and Stuart England (London: Routledge, 2016)

Laura Sangha, Angels and Belief in England, 1480-1799 (London, Pickering & Chatto, 2012)

Alexandra Walsham, Providence in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)

Alexandra Walsham, ‘Invisible Helpers: Angelic Intervention in Post-Reformation England’, Past & Present 208 (2010), 77-130

Strange News from Westmoreland (London, 1663)