Billy Waters

Billy Waters ( 1778–1823) was a black man who busked in London in the nineteenth century by singing, playing the violin and entertaining theatre goers with his "peculiar antics". He became famous when he appeared as a character in William Thomas Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry, or Life in London in 1821.

Biography Billy Waters became notable as a beggar on the streets of London where he played the violin to entertain theatre-goers in exchange for halfpennies. It is said that he was formerly enslaved in America but that he traded his servitude to be a British sailor. He had a wife and two children to support, he would busk outside the Adelphi Theatre. Waters and his "peculiar antics" became so famous that he was asked to appear on stage as himself. He was very poor and it is said that he was twice saved from the punishment of the treadmill due to his peg leg.

At the end of his life, Waters was popularly elected as the "King of the Beggars" in the parish of St Giles because of his fame and the regard of his peers. His small naval pension had left him so poor that he had to sell his violin and it was said that he would have also sold his wooden leg but it was worthless with wear. Waters became ill and had to enter the St Giles' workhouse where he died in 1823 after ten days.

Billy Waters' will was in verse and one section read: The figure shown is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum and this re-issue has been dated to 1862. These figures were made in Derby nearly forty years after Waters' death at the Derby factory of Stevenson & Hancock. The modelling by Edward Keys was an attempt to win away trade from cheaper Staffordshire ceramic figures. There is a sketch of Waters by Thomas Lord Busby which comes from his book Costume of the Lower Orders of London. The Cruishank engraving shows Billy Waters with a missing right leg, as shown in the Sir David Wilkie portrait. It has been argued that the printing process may reverse the image, but Billy Waters is clearly holding the body of his violin in his left arm, which would be correct for a right-handed person. Waters is shown holding his violin with his left arm in the Cruikshank engraving.