Billy buttons was described in Showells Dictionary as:
"..... awell-known but most inoffensive character, who died here May 3, 1838. His real name was never published, but he belonged to a good family, and early in life he had been an officer in the Navy (some of his biographers say "a commander"), but lost his senses when returning from a long voyage, on hearing of the sudden death of a young lady to whom he was to have been married, and he always answered to her name, Jessie. He went about singing, and the refrain of one of his favourite songs—
"Oysters, sir! Oysters, sir!
Oysters, sir, I cry;
They are the finest oysters, sir,
That ever you could buy."
was for years after "Billy Button's" death the nightly "cry" of more than one peripatetic shellfishmonger. The peculiarity that obtained for the poor fellow his soubriquet of "Billy Button" arose from the habit he had of sticking every button he could get on to his coat, which at his death, was covered so thickly (and many buttons were of rare patterns), that it is said to have weighed over 30lbs"
This is him depicted by then Town Hall by an unknown artist around 1820/30
"..... awell-known but most inoffensive character, who died here May 3, 1838. His real name was never published, but he belonged to a good family, and early in life he had been an officer in the Navy (some of his biographers say "a commander"), but lost his senses when returning from a long voyage, on hearing of the sudden death of a young lady to whom he was to have been married, and he always answered to her name, Jessie. He went about singing, and the refrain of one of his favourite songs—
"Oysters, sir! Oysters, sir!
Oysters, sir, I cry;
They are the finest oysters, sir,
That ever you could buy."
was for years after "Billy Button's" death the nightly "cry" of more than one peripatetic shellfishmonger. The peculiarity that obtained for the poor fellow his soubriquet of "Billy Button" arose from the habit he had of sticking every button he could get on to his coat, which at his death, was covered so thickly (and many buttons were of rare patterns), that it is said to have weighed over 30lbs"
This is him depicted by then Town Hall by an unknown artist around 1820/30
