William Colcombe, known by the nickname of Stumpy Bill, of Weobley in Herefordshire, was a typical example of the singers sought by song collectors in the first years of the 20th century.
He was born about 1834 and was baptised in October of that year in Hope Under Dinmore, about 7 miles from Weobley. However, in the census records, he always gave his birthplace as King’s Pyon, so he was probably born there.
According to the 1841 census, he lived in Hope Under Dinmore with his mother Susanna and five siblings. His father, James, a stone mason, had died in 1840, aged 38. His mother died in 1841.
Unsurprisingly, in the census of 1851, William is to be found in the workhouse at Weobley, aged 13, with his two brothers Alfred and Luke. He was described as a “scholar in house".
In 1860 he served a term of one month's hard labour for assaulting Samuel Matthews in the workhouse. It was his second offence.
In 1861 William was either back, or was still, in the workhouse, and was a farm labourer. In 1871 William, now a road labourer, was lodging with James Probert and his family on Union Road, a few yards from the union workhouse. By 1881 he was back within the workhouse walls. In 1891 he was living independently in Chamber Walk, Weobley, employed as a general labourer. In 1901 he was living in a lodging house in Meadow St, Weobley.
He died, in the workhouse infirmary, in 1909 of “senectus cardiac failure”. His grave is not marked.