Poets of labouring class origin were published in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some were popular and important in their day but few are available today. This is a collection of some of those poems from the 18th century.

Volume 1: 1700-1740 Edward Ward: from A Journey to Hell, or, A Visit Paid to the Devil: A Poem (Part I) (1700); from A Collection of Historical and State Poems, Satyrs, and Epigrams. (1717); from The Delights of the Bottle, or the Compleat Vintner (1720); Jane Holt, from A Fairy Tale Inscib'd, to the honourable Mrs. W______With other Poems (1717); Henry Nelson: A Poem, in the Honour of the Antient and Loyal Society of the Journey-Men Taylors, who are to Dine at the King's-Inns, on Monday the 25th Inst, July; 1726 (1726); Poem on the Procession of Journeymen Taylors, July the 28th, 1729 (1729); Robert Dodsley: Servitude: A Poem (1729); from A Muse in Livery: or, the Footman's Miscellany (1732); An Epistle to Mr. Pope, Occasion'd by his Essay on Man (1734); Anonymous: A Poem descriptive of the Manners of the Clothiers, written about the year 1730 (c. 1730); Stephen Duck: from Poems on Several Subjects (1730); from Poems on Several Occasions (1736); The Vision (1737); Every Man in his Own Way (1741); John Bancks: The Weaver's Miscellany: or, Poems on Several Subjects (1730); from Poems on Several Occasions: Consisting of Tales, Epistles, Songs, Odes, Epigrams, and othe Miscellaneous Pieces, upon subjects of Humour, and Gallantry [1733]; from Miscellaneous Works in Verse and Prose (1738); John Frizzle An Irih Miler, to Mr Stephen Duck (fl.1733); Mary Masters: from Poems on Several Occasions (1733); from Familiar Letters and Poem on Several Occasions (1755); Peter Aram, Studley-Park, a Poem (1733); Robert Tatersal, from The Bricklayer's Miscellany: or, Poems on Several Subjects (1734); The Bricklayer's Miscellany. The Second Part. Containing Poems on Several Subjects (1735); Mary Collier, The Woman's Labour: An Epistle to Mr. Stephen Duck; in answer to his late Poem called The Thresher's Labour. To which are added, The Three Wise Sentences, taken from The First Book of Esdras, Ch. III and IV (1739); Poems on Several Occasions (1762) Volume 2: 1740-1780 Henry Jones, The Bricklayer's Poem. Presented to his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. On His Arrival in This Kingdom (1745); The Bricklayer's Poem, to the Countess of Chesterfield, on Her Ladyship's saving the soldiers from being shot (1745); Philosophy. A Poem. Address'd to the Ladies Who Attend Mr Booth's Lectures (1746); from Poems on Several Occasions (1749); from Merit. A Poem: Inscrib'd to the Right Honourable Philip Earl of Chesterfield (1753); from The Relief, or Day Thoughts: A Poem. Occasioned by the Complaint, or Night Thoughts. (1754); On The Invention of Letters and the Utility of the Press (1755); from Clifton, a poem, in two cantos. Including all Bristol and its Environs (1767); James Eyre Weeks, from Poems on Several Occasions (1743); The Cobler's Poem. To a Certain Noble Peer. Occasioned by the Brick-Layer's Poem. (1745); Thomas Blacklock (1722-1791); Mary Leapor, from Poems on Several Occasions, Volume I (1748); from Poems on Several Occasions... The Second and Last Volume (1751); James Maxwell, from Divine Miscellanies; or Sacred Poems (1756); Animadversions on Some Poets and Poetasters of the Present Age, Especially R__t B__s, and J__n L__k. With a contrast of Some of the Former Age (1788); On the Prolongation of the Slave Trade. A Moral Essay, Set Forth in the Following Dialogue (1790?); from A Brief Narrative; or, Some Remarks on the Life of James Maxwell, Poet, in Paisley. Written by Himself, at the Beginnings of his Entering the Seventy-Sixth Year of his Age (1795); William Vernon, from Poems on Several Occasions (1758); William Falconer, from The Shipwreck (1762); William Brimble, from Poems Attempted on Various Occasions (1756); James Woodhouse, Poems on Several Occasions (1766); from Poems on Several Occasions (1788); from The Life and Lucubrations of Crispinus Scriblerus. A Novel, in Verse. Written in the Last Century: With Annotations and Commentaries, by a Friend. (1814); Cuthbert Shaw, from The Race (1766); Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady who Died in Child-bed (1768); N. Eliott, The Vestry, a Poem (1767); The Atheist. A Ppoem (1770); An Ode to Charity (1770); Michael Bruce (1746-1767); Samuel Law, from A Domestic Winter-Piece: Or, a Poem, Exhibiting a Full View of the Author's Dwelling Place in the Winter-Season (1772); John Bennet, from Poems on Several Occasions (1774); Thomas Olivers, A Hymn to the God of Abraham. In Three Parts (1770); Christopher Jones, Sowton. A Village Conference: Occasioned by a Late Law Decision (1775); from The Miscellaneous Poetic Attempts of C. Jones, an Uneducated Journeyman Wool-Comber (1782); John Lucas, from Miscellanies in Verse and Prose (1776); from The Fall of Pharoah and Philo's Apology. Two Poems (1781); Thomas Chatterton, from Poems Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century (1777); Ann Wilson, from Teisa: A Descriptive Poem of the River Teese, its Towns and Antiquities (1778); Susannah Harrison, from Songs in the Night (1780) Volume 3: 1780-1800 John Freeth, from The Political Songster (1790); Anon. ["An unletter'd bard"], from Poems on Various Subjects (1781); Edward Rushton, from The Dismember'd Empire (1782); Neglected Genius: Or, Tributary Stanzas to the Memory of the Unfortunate Chatterton (1787); from West-Indian Eclogues (1787); from Poems (1806); from Poems and Other Writings (1824); David Love (1750-1827); 'W.W' ('A Weaver') (fl. 1770-02); William Job, from Poems On Various Subjects (1785); William Newton (fl. 1785-90); Ann Yearsley, from Poems, on Several Occasions (1785); from Poems on Several Occasion (fourth edition 1786); from Poems on Various Subjects (1787); A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade (1788); from The Rural Lyre (1796); Robert Burns, from Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect (1786); John Frederick Bryant, from Verses by John Frederick Byrant (1787); Gavin Campbell (c. 1761-1817); Gavin Wilson (fl. 1788); Anonymous ('a friend to all mankind') from The wrongs of Almoona, or the African's Revenge (1788); John Walker, from A Descriptive Poem On The Town And Trade Of Liverpool (1789); Elizabeth Hands, from The Death of Amnon... and Other Poetical Pieces (1789); David Sillar, from Poems (1789); James Wheeler (c. 1718-88); Alexander Wilson, from Poems (1790); Elizabeth Bentley, from Genuine Poetical Compositions, on Various Subjects (1791); from Poems (1821); John Learmont, from oems: Pastoral, Satirical, Tragic, and Comic (1791); William Lane, from Cliffden (1791-2); from Poems on Various Subjects (1795); from Poems (1806); from A Few Clusters Of The Seventy-Fifth Vintage (1819); Janet Little (1759-1813), from The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scotch Milkmaid (1792); Ellen Taylor, from Poems by Ellen Taylor, the Irish Cottager (1792); Samuel Thompson, from Poems on Different Subjects, Partly in the Scottish Dialect (1793); Thomas Spence (1750-1814); Edward Williams [Iolo Morganwg], Poems, Lyric and Pastoral (1794); [Anon.] ('a country journeyman Taylor') (fl. 1794); John Forster, from Poems, Chiefly on Religious Subjects (1797); Robert Anderson, from Poems on Various Subjects (1798); from Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect (1805); from The Poetical Works of Robert Anderson (1820); William Gifford, Epistle to Peter Pindar (1800); Prologue to The Satires of Perseus (1817)

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