Broadside regarding the life of Jean Murphy

Commentary

Broadside regarding the life of Jean Murphy. This account begins: 'The HISTORY and Comical LIFE of Jean Murphy. Shewing the enterprising scenes she came through when commanding a party of Rebels in Ireland : how she travelled Scotland in man's apparel'.   

This broadside describes an individual who, assigned female at birth, lived first as a woman who did not conform to gender norms and then as a man. Although the text uses the pronoun 'she' throughout to refer to them, they are also consistently named as 'Patrick Murphy' once living as a man. This broadside begins with what seems like factual reporting of Patrick Murphy's life in Ireland and Scotland. But the ending, where Murphy's marriage to an older woman for her money and elopement with a man, and the disintegration of the wedding into violence, turns into the mode of knockabout farce. This confusion of genres leaves it unclear as to what historical accuracy lies behind the broadside.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.        

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