_Darby and Joan_ (Vol. iii., p. 38.).--I never heard of the tradition
mentioned by H. I can only suppose that the poet referred to was the first
person who introduced the ballad at the manor-house. Helaugh Nichols, an
excellent authority in such matters, whose trade traditions, through the
Boyers, father and son, went back a century and a half, tells us that the
ballad was supposed to have been written by Henry Woodfall, while an
apprentice to Darby. The Darbys were printers time out of mind--one Robert
Darby was probably an assistant to Wynkyn de Worde, who certainly left a
legacy to a person of that name. The Woodfalls, too, can be traced up as
printers for nearly two centuries. _The_ Darby, and Joan, his wife, were
probably John Darby, printer, in Bartholomew Close, who was {70} prosecuted
in 1684 for printing "Lord Russell's Speech," and died in 1704. _The_
Woodfall, the printer, is understood to have been Henry Woodfall,
afterwards "Woodfall without Temple Bar," grandfather of Henry Sampson, the
printer of _Junius' Letters_, and great-great-grandfather of the present
excellent printer of the same name.