Johnny Wetbread

DESCRIPTION: "In the dirty end of Dirty Lane There lived a cobbler, Dick McClane, He wore a coat of the old king's reign (or "His wife was in the old king's reign"), And so did Johnny Wetbread." The cobbler serves in the yeomen; his wife is an orangewoman
AUTHOR: Michael J. Moran (Zozimus) (source: Brady-AllInAllIn)
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: game clothes royalty wife | cobbler dirt
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 7-8, "Johhny Wetbread"; p. 8, "At the dirty end of Dirty Lane" (1 text)
Roud #38113
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Finding of Moses" (another piece by Zozimus, plus background on Zozimus)
cf. "The Imperial Throne When Theodorus Held" (another piece by Zozimus)
NOTES [148 words]: Brady attributes this to "Zozimus" (Michael J. Moran), for whom see the notes to "The Finding of Moses." Brady has a story that "Johnny Wetbread" was a real person who actually wetted crusts in a fountain before eating them, but I wonder if Moran didn't hear some reference to "Johnny Whitbread" or "Johnny White Bread" and riff on that. Or perhaps he heard a fragment and turned it into a fuller song.
If Zozimus did originate this, then the "old king" must have been either George III (reigned 1760-1820), George IV (1820-1830), or William IV (1830-1837), probably one of the latter two, since Victoria was queen from 1837 until Moran's death. If it was George III, then the reference might ultimately be to Samuel Whitbread (1720-1896), a brewer and MP known to George III, or Samuel Whitbread Jr. (1764-1815), a later politician, but that's a lot of speculation based on very little. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI007A

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