John Freeth

John Freeth (pen name ‘John Free’) (1731-1808) was an innkeeper and political ballad writer from Birmingham. He operated the Leicester Arms, from 1768 until his death in 1808, yet was active as a writer of political ballads, much of it coming from his interaction with others at Freeth’s Coffee House, as his Leicester Arms was known. He became known as ‘the Birmingham poet’, setting his songs to popular tunes and local and national events and perform them at his coffee house. He was an outspoken political radical and nonconformist, attending the Old Meeting (where Priestley had been). His songs (nearly 400) appeared in some dozen collections between 1766 and 1805, often printed by John Baskerville. The main collection was The Political Songster (1790). Johann Eckstein painted a scene from the coffee house titled ‘John Freeth and his Circle’ in 1792.