Doctor Fletcher (Dr. Pritchard)

DESCRIPTION: Dr. Pritchard poisons his wife and mother-in-law (Mrs. Taylor). The jury finds him guilty and he is sentenced to be hanged in Glasgow. His children come to the jail and blame him for murdering their mother. He warns against bad company.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (MidwestFolklore)
KEYWORDS: warning crime execution homicide prison punishment trial death children wife
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jul 28, 1867 - "Dr. Edward William Pritchard ... was hanged ... in Glasgow, Scotland, for poisoning his wife with antimony and then his mother-in-law, Mrs. Taylor of Edinburgh, with opium. Pritchard was the last man to be publicly executed in Scotland." (source: Guigné).
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Canada(Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 111-113, "Doctor Fletcher (Dr. Pritchard)" (1 text, 1 tune)
MidwestFolklore, Edith Fowke, "British Ballads in Ontario," Volume 13, Number 3 (Fall 1963/1964) p. 156, "Dr. Pritchard" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter A. Hall, "Scottish Tinker Songs" in Folk Music Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1 Music of the Travelling People (1975 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 58-59 "Doctor Pritchard" ("Oh, come a' you people great and small, o' high and low degree") (1 text, 1 tune)
Maggie Stewart, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1954.091,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/68907?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Lucy Stewart, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1960.139,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/59340?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Ethel Findlater, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1967.115,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/61012?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023 (fragment of the verse in which Pritchard's children see him in jail)
Elizabeth Stewart, "Doctor Pritchard". School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1987.016,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches, https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/85673?l=en accessed July 17, 2023; commentary at https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/85673?l=en, accessed 7/15/2023
Roud #4805
RECORDINGS:
Nicolas Keough, "Doctor Fletcher" (on NFAGuigné01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tramps and Hawkers" (tune) and references there
NOTES [68 words]: Hall writes that Robin Hutchinson's tune is one usually used for "Tramps and Hawkers." The Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches versions use the same tune. Nicolas Keough's tune is one I don't recognize. - BS
There is at least one modern book about Pritchard: W. M. Rhodes, The Poisoning Adulterer, 2nd Edition, ‎Lah-Di-Dah Publishing, 2017. The description makes it sound as if it might be fictionalized. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Guig111

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