J'avais une Vieille Grand-Mere (Grandmother Complains)


DESCRIPTION: "I had a very old grandmother, jig-a-don-dain', jig-a-don-de." The grandmother weeps all the time; asked why, she replies that she's weeping for her husband, who has been eaten by wolves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (BerryVin)
KEYWORDS: age grief death mourning animal husband
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BerryVin, p. 34, "J'avais une vieille grand'mere (Grandmother Complains)" (1 text + translation, 1 tune)
NOTES: BerryVin says this is a torn-away fragment of a longer ballad about "a shepherdess whom her suitor found weeping because her sheep had wandered away from her. The young swain played on his pipe and at the strains of his music the sheep came back and began to make merry, except for an old ewe who was disconsolate. When asked by a lamb why she was grieving, she replied, 'I am weeping over the death of your grandfather wo has been eaten by the wolves.'" - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BerV034

Ja, Ja, Ja!


DESCRIPTION: Shanty, aimed at sailors whose native language is not English. The chorus runs, "Ja, Ja, Ja!"; the rest may be deliberate gibberish or slurs on those who say "Ja" for "Yes" or talk of the usual sailor-ashore themes of drinking and chasing women
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: shanty foreigner
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Doerflinger, p. 86, "Ja, Ja, Ja!" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 504-505, "Yaw, Yaw, Yaw!" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 372-373]
ST Doe086 (Full)
Roud #8236
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rollin' Home by the Silvery Moon" (similar tune)
File: Doe086

Jack and Jill


DESCRIPTION: "Jack and Jill went up the hill To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1767 (Newbery)
KEYWORDS: injury
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 254, "Jack and Jill went up the hill" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #48, pp. 58-59, "(Jack and Gill)"; alsoa reproduction of a chapbook edition of c. 1820 facing p. 58
Roud #10266
NOTES: In line with her standard attempts to make mountains out of nursery rhymes, Katherine Elwes Thomas thought that this song was about Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (d. 1530). Baring0-Gould referred it back to the Scandinavian Eddas. Evidently it isn't just Republican Presidents who live in fantasy worlds. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG058

Jack and Joe


DESCRIPTION: Jack and Joe set sail to seek their fortunes. Jack is quickly successful. As he prepares to go home, Joe ask him to "Give my love to Nellie, Jack, Kiss her once for me." When Joe at last heads home, he finds that Jack has married Nellie
AUTHOR: William B. Gray
EARLIEST DATE: 1894
KEYWORDS: love work exile return infidelity marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 813, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 116-118, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 274, "Jack and Joe" (3 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 10 more)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 135, "Jack and Joe" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 67-68, "Jack and Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #782
RECORDINGS:
John A. Bivens, "Jack and Joe" (on HandMeDown1)
Blue Ridge Mountain Singers, "Give My Love to Nell" (Columbia 15580-D, 1930)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Give My Love to Nell" (Paramount 3065/Broadway 8080, rec. 1927)
Bradley Kincaid, "Give My Love to Nell" (Supertone 9350, 1929) (Brunswick 403, 1930)
[Asa] Martin & [Doc] Roberts, "Give My Love to Nellie, Jack" (Conqueror 7745 [as Asa Martin]/Banner 32246/Perfect 12744, 1931)
David Miller, "Give My Love to Nell, Jack" (Champion 15502 [as Oran Campbell]/Challenge 392 [as Don Kutter], 1928)
E. R. Nance Singers, "Jack and Joe" (ARC, unissued, 1930)
Riley Puckett, "Jack and Joe" (Columbia 15139-D, 1927)
George Reneau, "Jack and Joe" (Vocalion 15182, 1926)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Jack and Joe" (OKeh 40408, 1925)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Give My Love to Nell
NOTES: The author, William B. Gray, is also responsible for "She's More to Be Pitied Than Censured." - RBW
File: R813

Jack and Tom


DESCRIPTION: "I'm a North-countrie man, in Redesdale born... And two such lads to my house never com' As them two lads called Jack and Tom." The two decide to set out to sea. They visit various inns along the way. But both die overseas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: drink sailor death
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 126-127, "Jack and Tom" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR126 (Partial)
Roud #3157
File: StoR126

Jack Barry


DESCRIPTION: Commodore Barry in Alliance meets the British Sibyl. "We fought them till our cannon brought the British ensign down." Alliance captures Sibyl and returns with their prize to Philadelphia.
AUTHOR: William Collins (1838-?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: battle navy war
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Mar 10, 1783 - John Barry on board Alliance defeats "Sybille" in the last battle of the Revolutionary war (source: _The Father of the American Navy_ by Richard M. Reilly in "The Journal of American History," 1907, quoted on Jeffrey C Weaver's New River Notes site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ranson, p. 80, "Jack Barry" (1 text)
Roud #7348
NOTES: Ranson: "In searching for the songs of the Wexford coast I was very anxious to find something in ballad form about the Tacumshane man who was the founder of the American Navy. [This ballad is] attributed to William Collins, the Irish-American poet." - BS
John Barry (1745-1803) did not actually found the American navy, though he was its senior officer when he died. (Not admiral, we note; the American navy did not have its first admiral until the Civil War.)
Born in Tacumshane, he moved to Philadelphia in 1760, and was given his first ship, the Lexington, in 1776. He commanded the Alliance from 1780-1782, though she did not make her first voyage under his command until 1781. Peace with Britain came in January 1783, but with communications so slow, neither Barry nor the commander of the 28-gun Sybil knew of it, and so fought their battle during peacetime. The battle is usually dated March 10, but I've seen a source dating in March 11.
The Alliance (36 guns), built in 1777, was initially named Hancock but renamed when the French allied with the American revolutionaries. Her early career was not distinguished; Captain Pierre Landais seemed to have more interest in attacking his commander John Paul Jones than in fighting the British (at one point, he is thought to have deliberately rammed the Bonhomme Richard). He was eventually relieved, commandeered what had been his own ship, and was imprisoned by his crew.
Alliance itself was paid off in 1785, the last ship in the American navy at the time. When the navy was revived a few years later, Barry became the commander of its first major ship, the United States. - RBW
File: Ran080

Jack Combs


DESCRIPTION: "As I passed by where Jack Combs was murdered, As I passed by there so early one day, I spied a cold corpse wrapped up in fine linen." The victim (?) discusses his burial and says "For I have been murdered and you know they've done wrong"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967
KEYWORDS: cowboy murder burial
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Combs/Wilgus 49B, p. 180, "Jack Combs" (1 text)
Thorp/Fife XIII, pp. 148-190 (29-30), "Cow Boy's Lament" (22 texts, 7 tunes, the "M" text being in fact a version of this piece)
Roud #2
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, lyrics) and references there.
NOTES: This is almost certainly a localized form of "The Streets of Laredo" (itself an adaption of "The Unfortunate Rake") -- but the focus is different (note the last line, "and you know THEY'VE done wrong"), so it deserves a separate listing. - RBW
File: CW180

Jack Dolden


See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

Jack Donahoo


See Jack Donahue [Laws L22] (File: LL22)

Jack Donahue [Laws L22]


DESCRIPTION: Irish highwayman Jack Donahue, transported for life, soon escapes prison and returns to his trade. After a hair-raising career, he is confronted by a gang of police and shot after inflicting several casualties upon the constables
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1883 (Smith/Hatt)
KEYWORDS: transportation crime death prison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 1, 1830 - Jack Donahue, formerly of Dublin (transported 1823), is killed by police near Sydney. He was 23. None of the police were injured in the battle
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW) Canada(Mar) Australia Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws L22, "Jack Donahue"
Hudson 103, pp. 241-242, "Jack Donahoo" (1 text)
Smith/Hatt, pp. 104-106, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text)
Mackenzie 123, "Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 97-98, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zimmermann 76A, "Bold Jack O'Donohoe" (1 text)
Morton-Maguire 21, pp. 47-49,111,165, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 99, "Bold Jack Donohue" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 59, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 82-83, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 71, pp. 158-159, "Jack Donahoo" (1 text)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 48-49, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 69-72, "Bold Jack Donahoo" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 111-113, "Jack Donahue" (1 text -- the Lomax "Cowboy Songs" version)
Silber-FSWB, p. 198, "Bold Jack Donahue" (1 text)
DT 428, DONAHUE DONAHU2*
Roud #611
RECORDINGS:
John Greenway, "Bold Jack Donahue" (on JGreenway01)
A. L. Lloyd, "Bold Jack Donahue" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd8)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Bold Jack Donahue" (on NLCR05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wild Colonial Boy" [Laws L20]
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (subject)
NOTES: John Greenway believes this ballad to be the ancestor of "The Wild Colonial Boy" (see the notes on that song). He is not alone; EncyAust, p. 158, declares, "The song 'A Wild Colonial Boy,' based on his exploits, was banned." Nunn, p. 76, says that it was "Bold Jack Donahue" which was banned and then, when underground, became "The Wild Colonial Boy." On the other hand, it looks to me as if Greenway's version is a mixture of "Bold Jack Donahoe" and "The Wild Colonial Boy."
This piece mixes frequently with the other Donahue ballad, "Bold Jack Donahoe." The key element to distinguishing them appears to be that the other song describes Donahue's desertion by his companions at the time of his fatal fight. This song does not mention the companions.
(Exception: The Lomax text in "Cowboy Songs" mentions the companions, but in very debased form. It might be another of the Lomaxes' deliberately muddied versions. But Laws files it here, so I do the same.)
Hughes, p. 126, notes that Jack Donahue was not the first bushranger -- in Van Diemen's Land, in fact, they existed from the start, because the only means the colony survived was by hunting kangaroos, which meant that the convicts were armed. But the Tasmanian bushrangers, even though they all but controlled the island, left little if any ballad record.
Bushranging came much later to Australia proper, and Jack Donahue was the first truly memorable example. Hughes, p. 237, declares that "'Bold Jack' was a short, freckled, blond-haired, blue-eyed Irishman named John Donohoe (1806-1830), sentenced to life transportation in Dublin in 1823." Arriving in Australia 1825, he was assigned to work for a settler named John Pagan, acted up, spent time on a road gang, was assigned again, and took to the bush (pp. 237-238).
Donahue's crime in Australia was robbing bullock teams; at this time (December 1827), he had companions Kilroy and Smith (Hughes, p. 128). All three were taken; they were sentenced to be hung in March 1828. "Kilroy and Smith duly swung" (Hughes, p. 238, though Nunn, p. 16, gives the date as 1832), but Donahue escaped. The price on his head eventually reached a hundred pounds (Hughes, p. 239).
When the police caught him near Bringelly, Donahue cursed them and tried to fight, but was shot in the head (not the heart!) by a trooper named Muggleston or some similar name (Hughes, p. 240). His confederate Walmsley would later turn informer, and led police to some thirty settlers who had traded with him.
According to Nunn, p. 76, Donohue was only 21 at the time of his death, which would mean he was barely in his teens at the time of his transportation (but recall that Hughes, p. 237, gives his birth year as 1806, making him 23 or 24 when he died and 16 or 17 when first convicted). Nunn adds that the Underwood Gang, to which Donohue belonged, operated in the vicinity of "Campbelltown, Liverpool, Penrith, and Liberty Plains for nearly twelve years" [i.e. 1820-1832]. On p. 16, Nunn reports that Webber was also killed in 1830, and Underwood in 1832.
Prior to his death, Donohue seems to have been less noteworthy than his companions. Boxall refers to him only once, on pp. 55-56, calling him "Johnny Donahue," listing him as a member of the Underwood gang, and briefly mentioning that he was killed by "Maggleton." Nunn, p. 16, also calls him a member of the Underwood gang, though conflating his time with Underwood, Webber, and Walmsley with his earlier exploits with Kilroy and Smith.
Nunn, p. 76, reports that Donohue was known as "The Stripper" but was "less violent than most bushrangers, gallant to women and had a sense of humour enough to make him a popular hero." He does not cite the source for this data. But Hughes, p. 240, seems to agree: "If Donohoe had been a sadist, a rapist or a baby-killed like Mark Jeffries in Van Diemen's Land, the outpouring of popular emiotn that coalesced in the Donohoe ballads would not have occurred. But Australians admired flashness; most of them disliked Governor Darling and took great glee in seeing his authority ridiculed by this elusive bushranger." As a result, we are told that, in addition to songs, there were other memorabilia, including a series of clay pipes which allegedly showed Bold Jack's head, complete with bullet hole, released less than a month after his death (Hughes, p. 240).
Ironically, Donahue was the only famous bushranger of the transportation era. All the other "big names," such as Ben Hall and Edward Kelly, came later. This is somewhat surprising, given that Clark, p. 71, states that the bushrangers "were recruited in the main from absconding Irish convicts." Clark also thinks there was an element of Catholic/Protestant tension in their behavior, although I have seen little sign of this in the ballads. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: LL22

Jack Dowling


See The Wild Colonial Boy [Laws L20] (File: LL20)

Jack Gardner's Crew


DESCRIPTION: Jack Gardner is the lumber camp's "champion boy of the day." When in town, the loggers (?) find themselves in a barroom fight. Thanks to Gardner, the loggers are victorious. Gardner moves on to still greater fighting triumphs
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: logger fight
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
FSCatskills 7, "Jack Gardner's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JACKGARD*
Roud #4617
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Cumberland Crew" [Laws A18] (tune & meter)
File: FSC007

Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25]


DESCRIPTION: Jack Haggerty has reformed his behavior to be a fit husband for the blacksmith's daughter. Following his long absence at work, she jilts him. He blames her mother, but gives up on women in general
AUTHOR: Dan McGinnis
EARLIEST DATE: 1872
KEYWORDS: courting virtue separation love work
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws C25, "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)"
Doerflinger, pp. 245-246, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 260, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text)
Rickaby 1, "Jack Haggerty's Flat River Girl" (3 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 108, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text plus an excerpt and mention of 4 more, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 214-217, "Jack Haggerty or The Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 6, "The Flat River Raftsman" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #63, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 421, "Jack Haggerty" (1 text)
Sandburg, pp. 392-393, "Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 566-567, "Jack Haggerty, or the Flat River Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 50, "The Flat River Girl" (6 texts, 1 tune)
DT 607, FLATRVR*
Roud #642
RECORDINGS:
John Leahy, "Jack Haggerty" (on Lumber01)
John Norman, "Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl)" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Harry Bale (Dale, Bail, Bell)" [Laws C13] (tune)
cf. "I've Got No Use for the Women" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Platte River Girl
The Salt Creek Girl
NOTES: While this is usually a lumberjack's song, Beck reports a cowboy version from Texas. - PJS
It's actually a sort of a gag; see the report Geraldine J. Chickering (summarized by Laws, NAB pp. 58-59). Haggerty (fl. 1872) was an actual person, but he never had anything to do with the girl in the story; the author, Dan McGinnis, stuck Haggerty's name on another person's story.
Rickaby, interestingly, investigated in the Flat River area, where he reported that every singer claimed to have known Haggerty (whom he reports to have died c. 1915 -- obviously quite possible), giving additional details about the man's career. But Rickaby failed to uncover McGinnis's involvement in the song.
Linscott knew a report that the song was by Larry Gorman; this of course is just legend. - RBW
File: LC25

Jack Haggerty's Flat River Girl


See Jack Haggerty (The Flat River Girl) [Laws C25] (File: LC25)

Jack Hall


See Sam Hall (Jack Hall) [Laws L5] (File: LL05)

Jack Hinks


DESCRIPTION: Jack Hinks is described by the singer as a sailor with heroic qualities who is never short of money or fun and is successful with women. The singer finds himself and others wrecked on the rocks but Jack manages to save himself.
AUTHOR: Johnnie Quigley
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: sailor wreck rescue talltale
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 131, "Jack Hinks" (1 text)
Doyle2, p. 9, "Jack Hinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 9, "Jack Hinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 30-31, "John Hinks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4431
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "John Hinks" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
NOTES: The song has a typical formulaic introduction where the singer asks the Muses to come to the aid of the "poor bard" which shows the humble attitude of the singer found in many songs from Newfoundland. - SH
Or maybe an imitation of Homer? - RBW
File: Doy09

Jack in London City


See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor


DESCRIPTION: "Jack is every inch a sailor; He'd see a pretty girl and hail 'er. He'd vow his love will never fail 'er, Then go sailing with his heart still free." All the girls come running when Jack is in town, all hoping to win his heart, but he will not settle down
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Frank Crumit)
KEYWORDS: sailor courting sex
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 84, "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text)
Roud #4541
RECORDINGS:
Frank Crumit, "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor" (Victor 21668, 1928)
NOTES: This should not be confused with "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor," which has a similar first line and a some similarities in form and tune. The other song is a tall tale about a sailor who won a battle with a whale. - RBW
Although this song concerns Jack and the ladies, it's still clean -- but we have a hint that it was once bawdy. - PJS
File: FSWB084B

Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7]


DESCRIPTION: A rich girl loves a soldier/sailor; her father does not, and has the boy pressed to Germany. She disguises herself and enlists under the name (Jackie Monroe). When her lover is wounded, she nurses him. She reveals her identity; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1818 (Garret, _Merrie Book of Garlands_)
KEYWORDS: love cross-dressing disguise injury medicine marriage
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Laws N7, "Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany)"
Greig #45, pp. 1-2, "Jack Munro" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 171, "Jack Munro" (8 texts, 6 tunes); GreigDuncan1 172, "Jackie Went A-Sailing" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 171-177, "Jack Munro" (5 texts)
Randolph 42, "Men's Clothes I Will Put On" (Of Randolph's six texts, only two -- "C", with melody, and "F" -- belong with this piece; "A" and probably "D" are variants of "The Banks of the Nile"; "B" and "E" may be "Banks of the Nile" or "William and Nancy I")
Eddy 35, "Jack Went A-Sailing" (2 texts plus fragments, 3 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 59, "The Wealthy Merchant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 139, "Jack Munro" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 143, "Johnny's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 99, "Jack Monro" (2 texts plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt )
Chappell-FSRA 59, "Jacke Went A-Sailing" (1 text)
Hudson 34, pp. 147-148, "The Wars of Germany" (1 text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. "203-210, The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (4 texts, which despite Scarborough's title are all this song; local titles are "Jackaroe," "Jacky Freasher," "Jackie Frazier," "Jackie Frazier"; 1 tune on p. 410)
Brewster 37, "Jackie Fraisure" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 38, "Jackaro" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 65, "Jack Went A-Sailing" (20 texts, 20 tunes)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 32, "Jack Went a-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite version)
Lomax-FSNA 82, "Lily Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 98, "Jackie Fraisure" (3 texts)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 30-31, "Across the Rocky Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune -- a rewritten and expanded version by Roscoe Holcomb)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 82-83, "Jackie's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 121-123, "Jack Monroe" (1 text)
DT 331, JACKROE* JACKROE2 JACKSAIL* JCKSAIL2* ACROSRCK*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 23, #2 (1974), p, 16, "Lilly Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune, the Uncle Eck Dunford version)
Roud #268
RECORDINGS:
George Davis, "Love of Polly and Jack Monroe" (on GeorgeDavis01)
Sarah Hawkes, "Ho Lilly Ho" (on Persis1)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Across the Rocky Mountain" (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Doug Wallin, "Jackaro" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(152), "Jack Munro," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(934), Harding B 11(392), Johnson Ballads 2086, Harding B 11(1835), "Jack Munro"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jolly Plowboy (Little Plowing Boy; The Simple Plowboy)" [Laws M24]
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6]
cf. "William and Nancy (I) (Lisbon; Men's Clothing I'll Put On I)" [Laws N8]
cf. "The Banks of the Nile (Men's Clothing I'll Put On II)" [Laws N9]
cf. "High Germany"
cf. "The Girl Volunteer (The Cruel War Is Raging)" [Laws O33]
cf. "The London Heiress"
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bold Munro
Pretty Polly
NOTES: The Cohen/Seeger/Wood version, from Kentuckian Roscoe Holcomb, shares some words with "The Girl I Left Behind." - PJS
The version in Fife and Fife, "Roving Cowboy," at first glance bears no relationship with this piece, since it lacks the ending about the girl rescuing the young man. However, the earlier verses are clearly "Across the Rocky Mountains," which is evidently a version of this song. "Roving Cowboy" has simply lost the ending. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LN07

Jack Munro


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jack o' Diamonds


See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Jack of Diamonds (I)


DESCRIPTION: "Jack o' diamonds, jack o' diamonds, Jack o' diamonds is a hard card to find." "Say, whenever I gets in jail, Jack o' diamonds goes my bail." The singer vows to get even for being worked too hard. He admits to losing his money to Jack o' diamonds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: gambling cards hardtimes work chaingang
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 279-280, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text, 1 tune, with a final verse probably from a "Lula" song)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rye Whiskey" (lyrics)
NOTES: This is pretty definitely related to the "Jack of Diamonds" versions of "Rye Whiskey," but the direction is different enough that I decided to split them. But fragmentary texts might well have been filed with that song. - RBW
File: ScaNF280

Jack of Diamonds (II)


See Rye Whisky (File: R405)

Jack of Tar, The


See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Jack Reilly


See Riley's Farewell (Riley to America; John Riley) [Laws M8] (File: LM08)

Jack Robinson


DESCRIPTION: Robinson lands in Portsmouth with "prize money." He recognizes the alehouse landlady to be Polly. He shows her the handkerchief she had given him. She says she married when someone told her he had died. "He was off before you could say Jack Robinson"
AUTHOR: Thomas Hudson(1791-1844)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Firth c.13(200))
KEYWORDS: return farewell sailor gold promise reunion marriage
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-NovaScotia 40, "Jack Robson" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrNS040 (Partial)
Roud #1794
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(200), "Jack Robinson," T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1847), Harding B 17(143b), Harding B 11(52), Johnson Ballads 2587, Harding B 16(117a), Harding B 11(51), Johnson Ballads fol. 132 [barely legible], Firth c.13(199), Harding B 11(53), "Jack Robinson"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Marin" (Brave Sailor) (theme)
cf. "Le Jeune Militaire" (The Young Soldier) (theme)
SAME TUNE:
The College Hornpipe (per broadsides Bodleian Firth c.13(200), Bodleian Harding B 16(117a), Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 132, Bodleian Harding B 11(53))
The Heart of a True British Oak, or The College Hornpipe (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.13(199))
NOTES: Jack Robinson shares this theme with the (older?) French ballads: the sailor/soldier returns after a long absence, stops at an inn, recognizes the hostess as his sweetheart/wife, and leaves when she explains that she has married because he had been reported dead.
The attribution is from the wordorigins site explaining "faster than you can say Jack Robinson":"there was a very popular song by Thomas Hudson in the early 19th century that told the story of a sailor of that name who returns to find his lady married to another. Given the date, it is obviously not the origin."
A description -- posted by the bookseller Olde Musick & Cokery Books, Hobart, Australia, on the Abebooks site -- of The Spider & the Fly and A Frog He Would a Wooing Go by Thomas Hudson and W Wilson: "The composer/singer Thomas Hudson (1791-1844) was one of the stars of the very early music hall/supper clubs and indeed for many years ran his own theatrical tavern near Covent Garden and is considered one of the original constituents that developed into the music hall . He published his songs yearly from 1818-31 and his most notable were Jack Robinson The Lively Flea and of course The Spider & the Fly written in the 1830s and most famously sung by Henry Russell. Here coupled with A Frog He would a Wooing Go made notable by amongst others the famous clown Grimaldi in 1837." - BS
File: CrNS040

Jack Robson


See Jack Robinson (File: CrNS040)

Jack Rogers


DESCRIPTION: "Come all you tender Christians, I hope you will lend ear... For the murder of Mr. Swanton I am condemned to die." "My name it is Jack Rogers, my name I'll never deny." Drunk, he assaults Swanton in the street, flees, is captured, and is condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: murder drink gallows-confession fight trial punishment execution
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 50-51, "Jack Rogers" (1 text)
Roud #9557
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (form & meter) and references there
File: Dean050

Jack Sheppard [Laws L6]


DESCRIPTION: Jack Sheppard, the apprentice of carpenter William Woods, is scorned by his master's daughter. After marrying two (!) women, he seeks to rob Woods, is captured, but is freed by an accomplice. Imprisoned, he escapes again, but is at last taken and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: courting robbery outlaw execution apprentice
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1724 - execution of Jack Sheppard
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws L6, "Jack Sheppard"
Mackenzie 127, "Jack Sheppard" (1 text)
DT 568, JCKSHEPP
Roud #1903
NOTES: There are a number of Jack Sheppard broadsides, including song collections, in the Bodleian catalog, but I don't find this song; see, for example, the eight songs headed "Jack Sheppard's Songs" [Bodleian, Harding B 11(1841),..., unknown, n.d.]. There is no question, though, that Mackenzie 127 is Laws L6: it is Laws's only reference. - BS
Nor does it seem to have turned up in tradition anywhere else; one wonders why Laws listed it as a current traditional song rather than relegating it to the list of doubtful songs.
Sheppard was a real person; according to Benet, p. 1023, he was born c. 1701 to a carpenter in Smithfield. He turned highwayman at a young age.
By 1724 he was captured; he twice escaped from Newgate, but was caught again and executed in that year. Daniel Defoe wrote a romance about him (titled, naturally, Jack Sheppard) in the year of his execution, and W. H. Ainsworth also wrote about him in 1839.
Even more notably, according to Brumwell/Speck, p. 149, the character Macheath in Gay's "Beggar's Opera" is a "thinly veiled portrait" of Sheppard. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: LL06

Jack Sprat


DESCRIPTION: "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean, And so between the two of them They licked the platter clean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1639 (John Clarke's _Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina_, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food husband wife
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie-Oxford2 264, "Jack Sprat could eat no fat" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #52, p. 63, "(Jack Sprat)"
NOTES: This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so I decided to play it safe and include it.
The Baring-Goulds and the Opies believe that the hero of this song was initially the dwarf "Jack Prat."
Katherine Elwes Thomas, who proves that scholars can produce tall tales as well as any entertainer, believes that this refers to Charles I of England (executed 1649) and his Catholic wife Henrietta Maria of France (died 1666). The events she attributes to some of Charles's early troubles with his parliaments. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BGMG052

Jack Tar (I) [Laws K39]


DESCRIPTION: Jack newly paid off from sea, enters an inn and calls for a party. All goes well until his money is spent, whereupon the landlady bids him to leave. Jack starts a brawl, but the watch at last persuades him to return to sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Ashton)
KEYWORDS: sailor party fight poverty
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(MA,NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws K39, "Jack Tar"
Creighton/Senior, pp. 168-169, "Jack Tar" (2 texts, 1 tune)
DT 743, JACKTAR1* JACKTAR2
Roud #919
RECORDINGS:
Harry Cox, "Jack Tar on Shore" (on LastDays)
Jim Doherty, "When the Shantyboy Comes Down" (on Lumber01 -- a version in which the sailor becomes a logger)
Walter Pardon, "Jack Tar Ashore" (on Voice02)
File: LK39

Jack Tar (II)


See The Saucy Sailor (Jack and Jolly Tar II) [Laws K38] (File: LK38)

Jack the Guinea Pig


DESCRIPTION: "When the anchor's weigh'd and the ship's unmoored, And the landmen lag behind, sir, The sailor... prays for a wind, sir!" The singer compares sailors, who brave every danger, with landsmen who get sick, go below, and despair at sea
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: sailor bragging humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 132-135, "Jack the Guinea Pig" (1 text)
NOTES: I could imagine sailors singing this, since it certainly flatters their courage, but based on the evidence, I rather doubt they did. - RBW
File: ShaSS132

Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40]


DESCRIPTION: Jack overhears a girl tell her lover that she will lower a string from her window to let him find her. Jack comes to her window early and enjoys the girl's charms until morning when she realizes the truth. Having had his romp, he returns gaily to his ship
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: sailor love trick sex bawdy humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(England)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws K40, "Jack the Jolly Tar (I)"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 50, "Tarry Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 288-290, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 texts, 3 tunes)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 38, "Jack in London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 63, "Jolly Jack Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 168-169, "Do Me Ama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 82-86, "Jack, the Jolly Tar" (2 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 54-55, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney, pp. 24-25, "Jack went up to London city" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 260-261, "The Squire's Lost Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 101-102, "Jack the Jolly Tar" (1 text)
DT 416, DUMIAMA*
Roud #511
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Jack the Jolly Tar-O" (on Maynard1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(169)[some words illegible], "The Merchant's Courtship to the Brazier's Daughter," unknown, n.d.
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Glasgerion" [Child 67] (theme)
cf. "The Butcher's Daughter" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Kiss Me in the Dark" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dumiama
The Merchant's Courtship to the Brazier's Daughter
NOTES: In several versions, including [the Penguin text and the Copper text], the story ends: Jack offers to steal away quietly; the lady tells him not to stray too far for "I never will part from my jolly Jack Tar." - PJS
The first instance of this motif in English-language folklore appears to go back to none other than Shakespeare: according to a story in the diary of John Manningham, it came during a performance of Richard III.
A lady in the audience sent a note to Richard Burbage, who played Richard, inviting him to her bed. Shakespeare got wind of it, and he, rather than Burbage, enjoyed her charms. When Burbage arrived, Shakespeare allegedly said, "William the Conqueror was before Richard III."
Hey, I didn't say I believed it.
For an account of this, see Jeremy Potter, Good King Richard? An Account of Richard III and His Reputation, 1983 (I use the 1989 Constable edition), p. 154.
The notes in Flanders connect this with "Glasgerion" (Child 67).All we can say is, the theme is somewhat similar, but they're differentsongs.- RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LK40

Jack the Plowboy


See The Crafty Farmer [Child 283; Laws L1] (File: C283)

Jack the Rabbit


See Can'cha Line 'Em (File: LxU078)

Jack the Sailor (I)


See The Sailor and the Tailor [Laws P4] (File: LP04)

Jack the Sailor (II)


See Will You Wed with a Tarry Sailor? [Laws K37] (File: LK37)

Jack the Sailor (III)


See Quare Bungo Rye (File: Log416)

Jack the Sailor Boy


See Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: LK43)

Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor


DESCRIPTION: "Jack was every inch a sailor... He was born upon the bright blue sea." Having been brought up as a whaler, one day Jack is swept overboard and swallowed by a whale. He escapes by pulling the whale inside out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: talltale sea humorous whaler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 125, "Jack was Ev'ry Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 40-41, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, p. 13, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 33, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 56, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 84, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text)
DT, EVRYINCH
Roud #4541
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ambletown" (occasional floating lyrics)
cf. "Paddy and the Whale" (theme)
cf. "The Catfish" (Banjo Sam) (fish story)
NOTES: This is almost certainly a cleaned-up bawdy song. - PJS
The versions I know all seem more in the Paul Bunyan vein -- extraordinary exaggerations. (But maybe I don't have imagination enough.) I suspect Paul is referring to "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor," which is similar only in its first line and metrical form, and which IS sexual in theme. - RBW
File: FJ040

Jack Went A-Sailing


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jack Went up to London City


See Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor) [Laws K40] (File: LK40)

Jack Williams [Laws L17]


DESCRIPTION: Jack Williams, a boatman, meets a fine young girl. He turns to robbery to support her. He is captured and sent to prison; she scorns him, saying "I hate thievish company." He is sentenced (to transportation/execution) (but escapes and vows to avoid women)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916
KEYWORDS: crime prison trial transportation courting
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws L17, "Jack Williams"
Mackenzie 114, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
Eddy 62, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 136, "Jack Williams" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 67, pp. 152-153, "Jack Williams" (1 text)
DT 572, JCKWLLM
Roud #1906
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(223), "The Boatman" ("I am a boatman by my trade, Jack Williams is my name"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also 2806 c.17(48), "The Boatman"; Harding B 11(351), Harding B 11(734), Harding B 25(229), Harding B 11(1414), "The Boatsman"; Harding B 25(949), "Jack Williams, the Boatman"; Harding B 11(3265), "Jack Williams the Boatswain," Harding B 11(978), Harding B 20(268), Harding B 28(241), Harding B 11(1850), "Jack Williams"
File: LL17

Jack Wrack


See Dixie Brown [Laws D7] (File: LD07)

Jack-a-Maria


See Aunt Maria (File: BSoF705A)

Jack-All-Alone


See The Shirt and the Apron [Laws K42] (File: LK42)

Jackaroe


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jacket So Blue, The (The Bonnet o' Blue)


DESCRIPTION: The girl sees a (soldier/sailor) marching past and falls in love. She meets him and offers to buy his discharge; he replies that he already has a girl at home. She asks for a portrait to console her; this at least is granted
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier clothes separation
FOUND IN: US(MA,So) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 212-214, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #105, pp. 1-2, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 992, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (10 texts, 7 tunes)
FSCatskills 43, "The Jacket So Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gray, pp. 112-115, "The Jacket So Blue" (1 text, from a broadside, probably the same as one of the Bodleian broadsides although the information is not enough to be sure)
Belden, p. 301, "The Wagoners" (1 text, fragmentary and localized to make the soldier a wagoner)
Logan, pp. 101-106, "Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text)
SHenry H644, p. 367, "The Bonnet sae Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 275-277, "The Bonnet of Blue" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 295-296, "The Bonnet o' Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 42, "His Jacket Was Blue" (1 text, 1 tune); 43, "His Jacket Was Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC43 (Full)
Roud #819
RECORDINGS:
Nathan Hatt, "His Jacket Was Blue" (on NovaScotia1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(393), "Bonnet So Blue" ("In Liverpool town in fair Lancashire"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(251), Harding B 28(160), Harding B 11(4088), Harding B 28(104), Firth c.14(187) , Firth c.14(188), Firth c.14(190), Harding B 11(2653), "Bonnet So Blue"; 2806 c.17(52), Harding B 11(392), "Bonnet So Blue" ("At Kingston upon Woolwich, a town near Yorkshire")
LOCSinging, as101360, "Bonnet So Blue" ("In Liverpool town, in fair Lancashire"), L. Deming (Boston), 19C; also as101360, "Jacket So Blue" ("A ship's crew of sailors as you shall now hear")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Manchester Angel" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My Bonnie Scotch Laddie
Down in Yon Green Valley
The Bonnie Scotch Laddie and His Bonnet o' Blue
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as101360 includes both a "troop of soldiers ... from Scotland" version ("Bonnet So Blue") and a "crew of sailors ... from Greenwich" version ("Jacket So Blue"). These correspond to Creighton-SNewBrunswick 42 and Creighton-SNewBrunswick 43, respectively. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FSC43

Jackets Green, The


DESCRIPTION: "When I was a maiden young and fair on the pleasant banks of the Lee," the girl loved young Donal in his jacket green. Donal serves under Sarsfield in the fight against the English and is slain. The singer urges Irish women to love only Irish patriots
AUTHOR: Michael Seanlan
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2612)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1690 - Battle of the Boyne. William III crushes the Irish army of James, at once securing his throne and the rule of Ireland
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
PGalvin, pp. 97-98, "The Jackets Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Healy-OISBv2, pp. 38-39, "The Jacket Green" (1 text, tune on pp. 20-21)
Roud #9520
RECORDINGS:
John Sheridan, "The Jackets Green" (on USBallinsloeFair)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 3214, "The Jacket Green," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.7(38)[some words illegible], "The Jacket Green"
LOCSinging, as106510[barely legible], "The Jacket Green," unknown, 19C
NOTES: Patrick Sarsfield, made Earl of Lucan by James II, was one of the Irish cavalry commanders.
After Aughrim (for which see "After Aughrim's Great Disaster"), he defended Limerick, but seeing that his cause was hopeless, he made a treaty with William III and surrendered. (This was not a betrayal of the Irish cause; Sarsfield gained significant concessions, including religious tolerance, in return for ending Irish resistance.) - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as106510 looks like the Bodleian Brereton broadsides but all are difficult to read. - BS
File: PGa097

Jackfish, The


See The Catfish (Banjo Sam) (File: Vr3182)

Jackie and Mossy


DESCRIPTION: When a mouse runs into the private parts of a farmer's wife, the farmer is forced to call upon Jackie the farmhand to use his much longer "root" to pry the rodent out.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1770, as published in Frisky Songster (London or Dublin, 1770, reprinted 1802) [according to G. Legman]
LONG DESCRIPTION: When a mouse runs into the private parts of a farmer's wife, the farmer is forced to call upon Jackie the farmhand to use his much longer "root" to pry the rodent out. In older versions, Jackie makes the farmer agree to double his wages before he will consent to have sex with the wife, and when the woman has been sexually satisfied, she lets the mouse out of her sleeve.
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous farming wife animal
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 293-295, "Jackie and Mossy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11226
File: RL293

Jackie Fraisure


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackie Frazer


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackie Jackie


DESCRIPTION: "Jackie Jackie was a smart young fellow... Yet he sat by the river of his people Underneath a great gum tree." Jackie's ancestral life is described. It is pointed out that the whites took this away, substituting liquor and gambling
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 147, "Jackie Jackie" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "Jackie" is, of course, white slang for an Australian aborigine. The song is surprisingly balanced in its outlook -- probably because it is believed to be of aboriginal origin. - RBW
File: MA147

Jackie Rover


See Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl) (File: K176)

Jackie Tar


See Jacky Tar With His Trousers On (File: Ord324)

Jackie Went A-Sailing


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackie's Gone A-Sailing


See Jack Monroe (Jackie Frazer; The Wars of Germany) [Laws N7] (File: LN07)

Jackison and Dickison


See The Three Butchers (Dixon and Johnson) [Laws L4] (File: LL04)

Jackson


See Johnny the Sailor (Green Beds) [Laws K36] (File: LK36)

Jackson and Jane


DESCRIPTION: Jane is Hugh Jackson's grey mare. She is challenged to win the steeplechase cup at Cootehill a third time. The odds were ten to four against her. Half way around the jockey tells her that her opponents "are not yet in view." Jane wins easily.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: horse gambling racing
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Morton-Ulster 43, "Jackson and Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2913
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: The singer tells Morton that "Jackson owned a linen-spinning mill in Ballybay, Co Monaghan, though he doesn't know in what period." - BS
It makes me think of "Creeping Jane," though I'm not sure why. - RBW
File: MorU043

Jacksons


DESCRIPTION: "As we started out from Nariel one early morn in spring," the group stops at "Jacksons on the road to Omeo." They have a wild spree, spend their money, and have to head home. The singer declares that he will not return to Jacksons
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987
KEYWORDS: drink money rambling
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 272-272, "Jacksons" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lazy Harry's (Five Miles from Gundagai)" (plot, lyrics, portions of tune)
NOTES: When I read this, I thought it was a version of "Lazy Harry's," but Meredith et al consider it distinct though clearly related. So it gets its own listing. Just barely. - RBW
File: MCB271

Jacky Me Lad


DESCRIPTION: Progressive rhymed chant: "Oh, Jacky me lad, he loved his dad, He put him in a peer flad [sic]; The peer flad it was so thick They put him in the bacon click; The bacon click it was so fat, They put him in old grand-dad's hat...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense humorous
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Meredith/Anderson, p. 60, "Jacky Me Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA060A

Jacky Tar


See Come Ashore Jackie Tar (File: GrD1060)

Jacky Tar With His Trousers On


DESCRIPTION: After Jack sets out for sea, his love mourns. Even after peace is proclaimed, he is slow to return. At last he returns "with his trousers on." She greets him with joy. He tells of his far voyages. He promises he will travel no more
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(130a))
KEYWORDS: sailor separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan, pp. 52-53, "Jacky Tar" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 324-325, "Jacky Tar" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 59, "Jackie Tar" (4 texts)
ST Ord324 (Partial)
Roud #5603
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.13(279), "Jack Tar with his Trowsers On" ("When Jack had pull'd the oar, and the boat was gone"), W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840; also Firth c.12(162), "Jackie Tar"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(130a), "Jackie Tar," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1855
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come Ashore Jackie Tar" (some verses)
NOTES: Ord lists the tune for this piece as the "Jack Tar Hornpipe." The NLScotland broadside has the economically interesting tune "I'd Rather Have a Guinea than a One Pound Note." Logan calls the tune by the more familiar title of "The Sailor's Hornpipe." But, since none actually prints a tune, we can't tell if this is the usual "Sailor's Hornpipe." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: Ord324

Jacky-Jacky


DESCRIPTION: "Jacky-Jacky was a smart young fellow, Full of fun and energy." Jacky hunts in the wild till the white men come and fence the land. The white give government handouts until money runs short, then try to give the land back to Jacky instead
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: Australia discrimination money
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PASB, pp. 94-95, "Jacky-Jacky" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Presumably based on some particular incident in the long sad history of Aboriginal relations in Australia, but the details are vague enough that I can't tell what it refers to in particular. - RBW
File: PASB094

Jacob's Dream (Jacob's Ladder IV)


DESCRIPTION: "Jacob dreamt he seed a ladder, Climbing up the sky, Angels going up and down it, Climb up, children, climb." "Climb up, ye little children, Climb up, ye older people, Climb up to the sky. Go up in six and sevens, Climb up, children, climb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 536, "Jacob's Ladder" (3 texts; this is the short "A" text)
Roud #2286
NOTES: In Gen. 28:12, Jacob dreams of a "ladder" (ramp/stairway) from earth with its top "reaching to heaven, and the angels of God climbing up and down it." - RBW
File: Br3536

Jacob's Ladder (I)


DESCRIPTION: "I am (we are) climbing Jacob's ladder... And I won't be troubled any more. As soon as my feet strikes Zion's walls, I won't be troubled any more." "Goin' to see my father/mother/sister/brother in the kingdom...." Alternate end: "Soldiers of the cross."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
BrownIII 536, "Jacob's Ladder" (3 texts, but only the "B" text could be this, and even it might be something else)
Combs/Wilgus 320, p. 190, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text)
Lomax-FSNA 235, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune, plus a union/liberal parody)
Fuson, p. 204, "Hide Thou Me" (1 text, probably a mix, with the form of "Rock of Ages (II -- Hide Me Over Rock of Ages" but verses from "Jacob's Ladder"); p. 213, "I Am On My Way" (1 text)
SharpAp 212, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 358, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text)
DT, JACOBLDR*
Roud #2286
RECORDINGS:
Armstrong & Highley, "Climbing Jacob's Ladder" (Paramount 3291, 1931)
Chumbler Family, "Jacob's Ladder" (Columbia 15481-D, 1929)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder" (4-Star 1473, n.d. but post-WWII)
Frank & James McCravy, "Jacob's Ladder" (Victor 21188, 1928) (OKeh 45128, 1927) (Brunswick 192, 1928)
Pete Seeger, "Jacob's Ladder" (on HootenannyCarnegie) (on PeteSeeger47) (on PeteSeeger26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jacob's Ladder (V)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES: In Gen. 28:12, Jacob dreams of a "ladder" (ramp/stairway) from earth with its top "reaching to heaven, and the angels of God climbing up and down it." - RBW
File: CW190A

Jacob's Ladder (II)


See Don't You Weep After Me (File: R262)

Jacob's Ladder (III)


See Welcome Table (Streets of Glory, God's Going to Set This World on Fire) (File: San478)

Jacob's Ladder (IV)


See Jacob's Dream (Jacob's Ladder IV) (File: Br3536)

Jacob's Ladder (V)


DESCRIPTION: "I want to climb up Jacob's ladder, Jacob's ladder, O Jacob's ladder, I want to climb up Jacob's ladder, But I can't climb it till I make my peace with the Lord." "O praise ye the Lord, I'll praise him till I die... And sing Jerusalem."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 96, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2286
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacob's Ladder (I)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES: In Gen. 28:12, Jacob dreams of a "ladder" (ramp/stairway) from earth with its top "reaching to heaven, and the angels of God climbing up and down it."
Roud and others have lumped this with the common "Jacob's Ladder (I)," which is the commonly-known "Jacon's Ladder." Obviously they share a theme, But there are very few words in common except "climb" and "Jacob's Ladder," and the tune of this is not the "Jacob's Ladder" tune I know. It's perfectly possible that the same image could have inspired two songs, or that one inspired but was not the actual source of the other. Certainly they strike me as distinct songs *now*. So I split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG096

Jaeger Gik At Jage, En (A Hunter Went Out Hunting)


DESCRIPTION: Norwegian or Swedish pumping shanty. Translation: "A hunter went out a-hunting (2x) out in the woods so green. Chorus: Hali, halo, hali, halo, We sail and we pull (2x). Further verses were supposedly too obscene to print.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty hunting
FOUND IN: Sweden Norway
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 505-507, "En Jaeger Gik At Jage" (3 texts-Norwegian & English, 2 tunes)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Keeper" (general feeling)
NOTES: Hugill makes note that this shanty was originally a hunting song, though doesn't give a specific reference. - SL
File: Hugi505A

Jailer's Daughter, The


See Young Beichan [Child 53] (File: C053)

Jake and Roanie


DESCRIPTION: Jake and Roanie spot (a) steer and give chase; it lures them into a gulley and they are thrown by their horses. Forced to flee the steer, Roanie climbs a tree while Jake heads for a cave. Jake keeps popping out; there is a bear in the cave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse animal humorous
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HBT 46, "Jake and Roanie" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr046

Jal Along


DESCRIPTION: Travellers' cant. Singer tells her girl to walk along; they hope to find a good house to beg food or cash from in exchange for matches. They've drunk up all their money in champagne
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: poverty drink begging foreignlanguage children Gypsy
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacSeegTrav 128, "Jal Along" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: According to Caroline Hughes, in the old days Travellers would make matches, sell them, buy champagne and get drunk. After recovering, they'd have no money left for food. The song is macaronic, incorporating cant and English. "Jal" = walk. - PJS
File: McCST128

Jam at Garby's Rock, The


See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam at Gerry's Rock, The


See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam on Gary's Rock, The


See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam on Gerrion's Rock, The


See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jam on Gerry's Rock, The [Laws C1]


DESCRIPTION: Young Monroe and his crew do not wish to work on Sunday, but when a log jam forms, they turn out. The jam breaks and all are cast into the water, with foreman Monroe being drowned. In some accounts, his sweetheart dies for love and is buried with him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning lumbering
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,SE) Britain(Scotland) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont,Que)
REFERENCES (42 citations):
Laws C1, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock"
Greig #132, pp. 1-2, "The Lumbering Boys" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 230, "The Lumbering Boys" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Doerflinger, pp. 238-239, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock"; pp. 239-240, "The Jam on Jerry's Rock" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 111-113, "Young Monroe at Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 213, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (3 texts)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 267-268, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 102, "The Jam at Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 57, "The Jam on Gary's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 163, "Young Monroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 752-753, "The Jam at Garby's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 153, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 33-35,247, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 26-29, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 23, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #27, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gray, pp. 409, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (2 texts)
FSCatskills 4, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Warner 16, "The Jam on Gerrion's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 51, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 152-153, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks (The Foreman John Monroe or Young Monroe)" (1 text)
JHCox 51, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (2 texts plus mention of 2 more)
JHCoxIIB, #7, pp. 137-138, "The Jam at Gerry's Rock" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Rickaby 2, "Gerry's Rocks" (2 texts plus 2 fragments, 4 tunes)
Dean, pp. 25-26, "Young Munroe" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 109, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text plus 2 excerpts and mention of 3 more, 2 tunes)
Linscott, pp. 217-220, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 771-773, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 418, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 78-79, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 394-395, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 175-178, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Lomax-FSUSA 50, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 448-450, "Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 847-849, "Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 240, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text)
Arnett, pp. 122-123, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 127-128, "The Jam on Jerry's Rocks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 176-178, "The Jam on Jerry's Rock" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 101 "Jam on Jerry's Rocks" (1 text)
DT 600, JAMGERR1* JAMGERR2*
ADDITIONAL: Robert E. Gard and L. G. Sorden, _Wisconsin Lore: Antics and Anecdotes of Wisconsin People and Places_, Wisconsin House, 1962, p. 64, "The Log Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (1 text, presumably from Wisconsin although no source is listed)
Roud #256
RECORDINGS:
Tom Brandon, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (on Lumber01)
Warde Ford, "Foreman Monroe / Young Monroe" (AFS 4214 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Marie Hare, "The Jam on Gerry's Rock" (on MRMHare01)
Jim Kirkpatrick, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (AFS, 1948; on LC56)
Bill McBride, "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks" (AFS, 1938; on LC56)
Pete Seeger, "Jam on Jerry's Rocks" (on PeteSeeger02, PeteSeegerCD01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Harry Bradford" [Laws C12] (plot, tune)
cf. "'Twas on the Napanee" (plot)
cf. "The Loss of the Antelope" (tune)
cf. "The Wreck of the Asia" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Death of Young Monroe
Garbey's Rock
Foreman Young Monroe
NOTES: Although this is probably the best-known of all lumbering ballads, its origins have never been traced. Various sources have been claimed:
* Gray, pp. xv-xvi, met a Mr. Reid who claimed his brother was part of the crew involved in the accident. Gerry's Rock was on the Penobscot River in Maine, just above Mawatum. Reportedly jams were common there until the rock was blown up. A Mr. Perkins corroborated aspects of this story. They claimed the song was composed communally. Gray does not give a date for his conversations, although both men apparently lived in the area of Orono, Maine.
The attribution to Maine is accepted by Gardner and Chickering; they do not report any Michigan tradition about the origin of the song. Cox also accepts this account, and has no local lore about its origin.
A problem with the Maine attributions is that both Gray texts mention Monroe's love coming from Saginaw town. Googling, I managed to find one refernce to "Saginaw, Maine," but it is on no atlas or geographical dictionary. If there was such a place, it was no more than a flyspeck -- at most a village, never a town. Saginaw in Michigan is a town, a river, and a country.
* Linscott, p. 217, was told by Samuel Young of North Anson, Maine that Gerry's, or Gerrish, Rocks are on the Kennebec River above "The Forks." Linscott's text has "Sagmor Town," and suggests that the original may have been Saguenay, a river in Quebec. This is a reasonable conjecture but would be much better for evidence. We do find "Saguenay" in Leach-Labrador -- but the Leach text is not particularly good (it is short, has several obvious errors, and converts the girl usually known as "Clara" to "Mary"). Nor does Leach have a local story of how the song came about.
* Rickaby says that all his informants assigned it to Canada or (more commonly) Michigan -- although the name "Saginaw" could have influenced this.
* Fowke-Lumbering, while declaring it the best-known lumbering song in Ontario, has no local traditions about it.
Korson, Pennsylvania Songs and Legends, pp. 345-346, has a version in which the site is Hughey's Rock who came from "Young Woman's Town," but there is no indication of where these might be.
* Eckstorm, after extensive research, concluded that there was a Gerry's Rock on the East Branch of the Penobscot River but could not link the event to an actual event. Her research is on pp. 193-194 of Eckstorm/Smyth and is summarized by Laws on pp. 59-60 of Native American Balladry. Eckstorm also contended that the author was a Canadian. On the latter point, I think her evidence clearly inadequate, although Doerflinger seems to have accepted it.
Eckstorn and Barry would later mention a location near Loganville on the St. John in Nova Scotia.
* Beck and Holbrook (cited by Doerflinger and Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer) claim a Garry's Rock on the Tittabawasee River -- which just happens to be a tributary of Michigan's Saginaw River; the nearest town is Edensville. Holbrook also reported a Garion's Rock in Ontario.
There seems to be a general sense that the song comes from the 1860s. This does not preclude a setting near Saginaw, Michigan. According to Bruce Catton, Michigan: A History, Norton, 1976, 1984, Saginaw was a well-established town by then. There was a trading post there before 1819 (Catton, p. 69), and fort was built there in 1822 (Catton, p. 72), although quickly abandoned. By the 1830s Saginaw was established (Catton, p. 113) and becoming a "sawmill principality" (Catton, p. 103). Catton also makes the interesting note on p. 103 that so many Maine loggers came to the Michigan woods that they named a town "Bangor," after the Maine settlement of the same name.
With respect to this dating, I would note that the song is often sung to a tune related to "Peter Amberley" [Laws C27], which is based on an event reliably dates to the early 1880s.
If you put a gun to my head and forced me to guess, the fact that the song is so common argues that it is early, and that argues for Maine or eastern Canada. This still leaves a problem with place names, though. The Penobscot and Kennebec both flow into the Atlantic. The Saguenay flows into the Saint Lawrence in Quebec, flowing almost due east from Lake Saint John to reach the larger river at Tadoussac. This is far to the north of the Maine rivers, on the wrong side of the Saint Lawrence, which at this point has entered its estuary and is over a dozen miles wide. A girl from the Saguenay is not at all likely to be alone on the Penobscot or the Kennebec. Thus it is impossible to make all the data fit a Maine setting.
- RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LC01

Jam on Jerry's Rock, The


See The Jam on Gerry's Rock [Laws C1] (File: LC01)

Jamaica Girl


See The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)

Jamboree


See Whip Jamboree (Whup Jamboree) (File: Br3230)

James A. Garfield


See Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)

James and Flora (Flora and Jim, The United Lovers)


DESCRIPTION: Flora asks James to leave sailing. He won't. She breaks a ring and gives half to him. She dresses as a sailor and follows him until he is discharged. She tells the captain the story. The captain gives them gold to get married.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(254))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage ring promise cross-dressing sea ship brokentoken lover sailor money reunion disguise
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 190-191, "Flora and Jim" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1701
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(254), "James and Flora," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(3887), "James and Flora"; Firth b.26(446), "James and Flora" or "The United Lovers"; 2806 c.15(60)[some illegible words], Firth c.12(256), "James and Flora United"
Murray, Mu23-y2:048, "James and Flora" unknown (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser)" [Laws N6] (plot)
File: Pea190

James Bird [Laws A5]


DESCRIPTION: James Bird leaves his family to join Perry's fleet on Lake Erie. In the battle, he fights valiantly, continuing to serve even after being wounded. Later, however, he tells his parents that he is to be executed for desertion.
AUTHOR: James Miner
EARLIEST DATE: 1814 (newspaper, "The Gleaner")
KEYWORDS: execution war battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 10, 1813 - Battle of Lake Erie. The Americans under Perry defeat the British.
Oct 1814 - Execution of James Bird for desertion while on guard duty
FOUND IN: US(All) Canada
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws A5, "James Bird"
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 104-107, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy 118, "James Bird" (1 text plus a gragment, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 296-297, "James Bird" (1 text)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 18-21, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 9, "The Kingston Volunteers" (1 text, 1 tune, much more heavily "folk processed" than most other texts)
Warner 17, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 38-41, "James Bird" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 41, pp. 93-97, "James Bird" (1 text)
JHCox 62, "James Bird" (1 text)
BrownII 221, "James Bird" (1 text)
Rickaby 38, "James Bird" (1 tune, partial text)
Burt, pp. 183-184, "(James Bird)" (1 excerpted text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 158-159, "James Bird" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 479, "James Bird" (source notes only)
DT 361, JAMEBIRD*
ST LA05 (Full)
Roud #2204
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "James Bird" (on GreatLakes1)
John W. Green, "James Bird" (1938; on WaltonSailors; the text printed in Walton/Grimm/Murdock does not list an informant, but is similar to Green's version, except that it is fuller; the tunes are not entirely the same)
Warde Ford, "James Bird" [fragment] (AFS 4202 A1, 4202 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Fifer" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Dying Fifer (File: BrII227)
NOTES: The American victory on Lake Erie was something of a surprise due to the inexperience of the U.S. forces. To that point, the Americans had done very badly on the Canadian frontier (see the notes to "Brave General Brock [Laws A22]" and "The Battle of Queenston Heights"). If the Americans were to have any hope of reversing things, command of the waters of Lakes Erie and Ontario seemed crucial.
To make matters worse, both sides were concentrating most of their forces on Lake Ontario, which was downstream, easier to reach, and and has more people in the area. The naval force the British sent to Lake Erie, for instance, consisted of only about two dozen men headed by a 27-year-old Lieutenant by the Robert Heriot Barclay (Borneman, p. 121) -- who was, however, a veteran of Trafalgar, and he had lost an arm in later fighting. If nothing else, he was aggressive.
The commander of the American fleet was a 27-year-old Master Commandant (a rank later retitled "Commander") named Oliver Hazard Perry, who had accepted the Lakes command (considered a step down from the blue-water navy) in order to at least see some action (Mahon, p. 166). He was a friend of the James Lawrence who had recently died on the U.S.S. Chesapeake (see the notes to "The Chesapeake and the Shannon (I)" [Laws J20]). Perry would try to emulate Lawrence's spirit; fortunately he did not emulate Lawrence's inept tactics.
Perry initially suffered one major disadvantage: His base was in Presque Isle Bay, by what is now Erie, Pennsylvania -- a good place to build a ship, but there was a bar in the harbor mouth which was too shallow to get his biggest ships out. Barclay blockaded the harbor entrance; had Perry tried to take his big ships out in those circumstances, they would surely have been destroyed and would have blocked the passage as well. But Barclay at the end of July 1813 briefly sailed away, and the Americans managed to get their ships out (Borneman, pp. 123-125; Hickey, p. 131; Mahon, p. 170; Pratt, p.86, opines that the British, who had not yet completed their flagship Detroit, thought the American fleet too large to fight, but most others think it was a supply problem or the like. Mahon mentions a folktale that Barclay went to a dinner in Dover). The Americans would settle at Put-In Bay, near the western end of Lake Erie, not far from the British base at Amherstberg (Mahon, p. 170).
That may have been the decisive move of the campaign. Rather than the blockader, Barclay was now the blockaded. He had the single biggest ship on the lake, the Detroit, but it was not finished until mid-August, by which time the American blockade had made it impossible for the British to bring in big guns. The Detroit ended up armed rather haphazardly, using the few guns at hand (taken from a land fort; Mahon, p. 171); according to Hickey, p. 132, most of them had to be fired by shooting a pistol over the fire-hole (Mahon, p. 176, blames this on bad matches, but the result is the same). The next-best British ship, the Queen Charlotte, had almost no long guns. To add to Barclay's problems, he had to supply not only his own ships but the sundry army troops and Indians in the vicinity (Hickey, p. 132).
The Americans had their own problems. The main force of their fleet consisted of the two brand-new brigs, the Lawrence (named for James Lawrence) and the Niagara, both armed mostly with short-range carronades (these were the two ships that had been so hard to get out of Presque Isle Bay). He also had a medium-sized vessel, the Caledonia; the rest of his fleet was small schooners with only a few guns.
The fleets that fought at Lake Erie were probably about equal in practical strength. The American fleet had ten ships to six for the British (so most sources; Mahon, p. 169, credits the Americans with only nine and gives numbers of guns I haven't seen elsewhere), but in ships larger than gunboats, the British had four and the Americans three. Worse, none of the Americans vessels had ever served as warships before, nor even had much of the way of a shakedown (all the British ships except the Detroit had at least spend time maneuvering on Lake Erie), and the crews were inexperienced. And the American vessels were badly undermanned; it had initially been thought he would need about 740 crewmen, but apparently he decided to sail with only about 500 (Borneman, pp. 123, 125; Mahon, p. 169, says he had 490) -- and many of these were landsmen from General Harrison's army (Hickey, p. 132).
Barclay too had to put soldiers on his ships (Mahon, p. 169; p. 176 cites a British enquiry which claims there were no more than ten experienced seamen on each ship), but only Mahon seems to think this seriously handicapped him.
According to Mahon, the American vessels had a combined broadside of 896 pounds, the British 459 -- though Mahon has a tendency to magnify American competence, and no other source mentions quite such a discrepancy.
The battle was a rather disorderly affair. Perry had the advantage of the wind guage, letting him choose the time and distance of the fight (Hickey, p. 132); but Perry used that to change his fleet arrangements once he saw Barclay's fleet. In the confusion that followed, the two biggest British ships, the Detroit and the Queen Charlotte, both turned on American flagship Lawrence, while the Niagara (commanded by Jesse Duncan Elliot, formerly Perry's superior; Borneman, p. 125) stayed in its place far back in the line rather than doing something about Queen Charlotte. As a result, the Lawrence would be crippled and out of the fight (Borneman, p. 128; Hickey, p. 133, reports that her crew suffered 80% casualties).
Perry eventually decided to leave the Lawrence (which would suffer about two-thirds of the American casualties in the battle; Borneman, p. 132) and head for the Niagara. Even though his ship was being destroyed (she was still floating, but dismasted and unmaneuverable and incapable of firing a proper broadside) and his crew slaughtered, he forbid his former flagship to surrender (Ratigan, p. 172). Sure, he might cause many more men to die -- but what was that compared with his reputation?
Barclay, meanwhile, had been wounded; he ordered his men to try to sink the boat in which Perry was fleeing, but then had to be taken below. And Perry got lucky. Queen Charlotte had lost her captain and the next two officers in command (Mahon, pp. 175-176), and Barclay was disabled on the Detroit (which had itself suffered badly at the hands of Lawrence), and the two British ships ran afoul of each other. Niagara was able to cross the T of the other two ships, and Elliot (who had left the Niagara when Perry came aboard) brought up several smaller American ships to attack the other side, and the four smaller British ships were unable to stop him. Queen Charlotte struck her colors, then Detroit (Borneman, p. 132), and the other four British ships apparently preferered to give in rather than fight or flee (to be sure, Niagara, a square-rigged ship, should have been faster than the schooners and could probably have sunk most of them).
The fate of the British ships varied; that of the Detroit was particularly absurd. There was apparently in this period a habit of loading a boat with innocent animals and sending it over Niagara Falls (Ratigan, p. 179). The Detroit was one ship so used; Ratigan, p. 181 reports that her sacrifice ended the appalling practice; "that is the last record of such a fresh-water Roman holiday."
Perry's announcement of the battle result is famous; he reported to General William Henry Harrison, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
This was fortunate for Harrison (one of many lousy American generals of 1812; with the military academy still new, most of the generals were political picks -- see Mahon, p. 103, which lists the four Major Generals, including Harrison, appointed in early 1813; all were old and well-connected. It says something that, by the standards of the time, Harrison was a *good* general; the others were basically disasters).
Harrison had already suffered badly at the hands of British commander Henry Proctor, who defeated pieces of Harrison's army in detail. After Lake Erie, with his supply lines in danger, Proctor should have fallen back, but waited too long, then let his Indian allies talk him into battle at Moravian Town on the Thames River (about half way between modern Windsor and London, Ontario). And his forces were not very strong -- perhaps 800 regulars and 500 Indians, most of whom had been on short rations (Hickey, p. 137; Mahon, pp. 182-183). The Americans charged, and Proctor's thin line was broken; his surviving European troops were sent reeling back, and many of the Indians, including the brilliant Tecumseh, were killed (Borneman, pp. 158-161).
Harrison, though he couldn't advance much farther, had secured Detroit, and that, combined with his treacherous slaughter at Tippicanoe, would later make him President. Richard Mentor Johnson, who had trained up an elite cavalry unit (nearly every Kentucky regiment was mounted, but only Johnson's were allowed to take their horses into Canada; Mahon, pp. 181-182) and led the charge that won the battle and took part in the slaughter of the Indians, would eventually end up in a presidential race against Harrison in 1836; he was Martin Van Buren's vice presidential candidate, with the absurd campaign slogan "Rumpsey dumpsey, Rumpsey dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh" (Morison, p. 454. Johnson almost certainly did not personally kill Tecumseh, but no one knew who had -- his body was reportedly never found, though Hickey, p. 139, talks of soldiers bringing home Tecumseh relics). As a result, Johnson was able to make at least an informal claim to have killed the Indian leader.
So strange was the 1836 election -- which featured three Whig candidates plus Democrat Martin Van Buren -- that, though Van Buren was elected directly, the electoral college did not settle on a Vice President and the matter was settled in the Senate, where the Democratic majority naturally picked Johnson over the leading Whig candidate).
There is a broadside ballad about the Battle of Lake Erie, called "Perry's Victory" or something similar. Ratigan, p. 175, reports, "Considering the ratio of population, the ballad of Perry's victory outold any popular recording of today. It was still a prime favorite at county fairs and other festivals half a century later." But it seems to have left no hold on tradition.
There are few other monuments to the campaign, either. Lake Erie was the first and only true naval battle of the War of 1812 (as opposed to single-ship combats), and because it was a complete victory, there was no real need for further fighting. And, because a ship on the Upper Lakes could not be sent over Niagara Falls, there was no other practical use for the ships, Lawrence, badly battered, was not preserved; Niagara, after Americans and British reached an agreement to disarm the lakes, was scuttled in Misery Bay (Varhols, p. 44). The cold fresh water preserved her, and she was eventually raised -- but the Niagara sailing now is a replica reassembled based on the raised ship (Varhola, pp. 45-46).
James Bird seems to have been a fairly typical American soldier of the period: Brave, but completely impervious to discipline. After joining the army, he transferred to the marines to escape the regimentation of army life. He showed great courage at the Battle of Lake Erie, but hated the tedium of garrison work, neglected his duties, and was court-martialed and executed at Erie, Pennsylvania. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: LA05

James Campbell


See Bonnie George Campbell [Child 210] (File: C210)

James Connolly


DESCRIPTION: "Where O where is our James Connolly? Where O where is that galland man? He's gone to organize the Union." Conolly's Union and a citizen army fight for freedom, but he is wounded, imprisoned, and killed; Ireland buries and mourns him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (Galvin)
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion death labor-movement prison execution IRA
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1916 - Execution of James Connolly, Irish patriot, union leader, and socialist
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
PGalvin, pp. 99-100, "James Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JMCONNLY (JIMCON -- probably a sequel to the remainder, but not part of the original poem)
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 82-83, "James Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12495
NOTES: James Connolly (1868-1916) was one of the first labor organizers in Ireland. Brought up in Scotland, and a veteran of the British army, he was interested in Marxism and believed that Ireland's political freedom was linked to the strength of her labor movement.
In 1913, Connolly and James Larkin (1876-1947, for whom see "Jim Larkin, R.I.P.") organized a great strike against the United Tramway Company. It eventually spread to most of Ireland, but some political blundering cost them support in Britain, and the strike fizzled in 1914. Larkin fled to America, not to return until 1923, leaving Connolly as Ireland's leading labor figure.
Incidentally, the reference to a "citizen army" is probably not a reference to the 1916 rebels. according to Robert Kee, The Bold Fenian Men, being Volume II of The Green Flag, p. 199, "A so-called 'Irish Citien Army' was officiallly formed on 23 November 1913 (in reaction to an army crackdown on August 21).
By 1916, Connolly was leading rebels in Dublin; he commanded the assault on that city's GPO which ended with Padraic Pearse proclaiming the Irish Republic. Connolly was one of the signers of the proclamation. But less than a week later (April 29), Connolly was directing his forces to surrender to the overwhelming British forces.
(It should be noted that the failure of the rebellion was expected, at least by Pearse and some of his associates. In a way, they didn't even want to succeed. They thought Irish independence could only be achieved by a sort of mystic sacrifice -- and set out to make it. Their timing was bad, as well; with millions of British troops fighting in France, Britain had to end the rebellion with all possible speed -- i.e. with great brutality.)
In the process of the fighting, Connolly received an ankle wound which turned gangrenous. He was executed on May 12, 1916, already so ill that he had to be strapped into a chair to be shot. He had had to be taken to the site of the execution in an ambulance (see Robert Kee, Ourselves Alone, being volume III of The Green Flag, p. 6).
Kee also notes (p. 57) that Connolly's influence lasted after his death. The Dail -- the Sinn Fein congress elected in 1918 had as one of its early acts "the unanimous adoption of a so-called Democratic Programme containing vague socialistic phrases which claimed to emanate from 'our first President, Padraic Pearse,' but were more truly an acknowldegement to the memory of Connolly." - RBW
File: PGa099

James Ervin [Laws J15]


DESCRIPTION: The singer enlists in the British Army, but deserts because he is worked too hard. Helped by his sweetheart, he escapes, fights off his pursuers, and takes up shoemaking. Discovered and taken, he again escapes, proud of his ability to outfight the English
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(24))
KEYWORDS: soldier desertion prison escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 26, 1798 - Beginning of the Wexford rebellion
May 27, 1798 - The Wexford rebels under Father John Murphy defeat the North Cork militia
June 5, 1798 - The Wexford rebels attack the small garrison (about 1400 men, many militia) at New Ross, but are repelled
June 21, 1798 - The rebel stronghold a Vinegar Hill is taken, and the Wexford rebellion effectively ended
FOUND IN: US(MW) Canada(Mar) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws J15, "James Ervin"
GreigDuncan1 82, "The Belfast Shoemaker" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OLochlainn 25, "The Bold Belfast Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 79, "The Bold Belfast Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 92, "James Ervin" (1 text)
Eddy 116, "On the Eighth Day of November' (1 text, 1 tune) (The first stanza of this version goes with "Saint Clair's Defeat," but the last two verses come from "James Ervin")
Creighton-NovaScotia 83, "Rambling Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 93, "Bold Irvine" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 766, BLFSTSHO* JAMERVIN
Roud #982
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(24), "Belfast Shoe-maker," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also 2806 c.15(252), "The Belfast Shoe-maker!"; Harding B 25(167), "Belfast Shoemaker!"; Firth c.14(130), "Bold James Irvine"
LOCSinging, sb10038a, "The Bold Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860; also as101350, "The Bold Shoemaker"
SAME TUNE:
What You Will (per broadside Bodleian Firth c.14(130))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Deserter
NOTES: Daithi Sproule has a version of this ballad in which James Erwin is one of Father Murphy's Irish rebels; so also the Digital Tradition text BLFSTSHO. The latter is said to be the OLochlain version; it's similar but not identical to Sproule's. For information about this phase of Irish history, see the notes to "Boulavogie," "Father Murphy (I)," and the references cited there. - RBW
Re the Father Murphy connection: the following is from OLochlainn 25/Moylan 79. O Lochlainn has it from a broadside.
I next joined Father Murphy as you will quickly hear
And many a battle did I fight with his brave Shelmaliers.
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Bold Belfast Shoemaker" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "1798 the First Year of Liberty," Hummingbird Records HBCD0014 (1998)) - BS
The whole piece is rather peculiar in its incompleteness; one can understand an Irishman boasting of some of it, but how could someone at New Ross not admit it was a defeat, and how did the singer escape from Vinegar Hill?
Some parts make sense: There were, for instance, many Irish youths serving in the British army in 1798; with land scarce, it was hard for them to make a living otherwise. And quite a few deserted in 1798, and some did indeed serve with Father Murphy.
Lord Mountjoy was a British militia commander who had actually been popular with his Irish soldiers. But he was killed at New Ross, perrhaps while trying to reason with the Irish.
New Ross itself was not a victory for the Irish, though it should have been. The rebels fought their way into town, and seemed to have the militia defeated -- but, having fought like regular soldiers to that point, their command arrangements broke down and they ended up fleeing the town. From that point, the tide of the Wexford rebellion began to ebb.
There is also the interesting problem of what "Orangemen" were doing in Wexford. The Orangemen were a well-known Belfast group who fought against the Catholic defenders, so a man from Belfast would doubtless know them -- but there were no Orangemen in the south; the handful of Protestants were Anglican landowners.
Chapelizod was the site where the English forces in Dublin kept their artillery. There were, naturally, soldiers there, many of them Irish. The United Irishmen, after their leadership was captured, hoped to grab it. The mention of the site may be a confused recollection of this -- but it definitely seems confused. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb10038a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LJ15

James Grant [Child 197]


DESCRIPTION: James Grant is besieged; he tells his attackers, the folk of Ballindalloch, that he has no quarrel with them. Despite this, he is forced to the hills
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878
KEYWORDS: feud fight escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1628 - John Grant of Carron killed by John Grant of Ballindalloch
1630 - James Grant of Carron, the uncle of John Grant, takes revenge on Ballindalloch and turns outlaw. The authorities authorize Clan Chattan to bring him to justice, and later others, but none could catch him. In 1639 Grant made peace with the king
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 197, "James Grant" (1 text)
Roud #3918
NOTES: This ballad exists only in a fragment -- so brief that it is hard to be certain that it pertains to the events described, let alone which phase of the chase is mentioned. Child's notes say just about all there is to say about the piece. - RBW
File: C197

James Harris


See The Daemon Lover (The House Carpenter) [Child 243] (File: C243)

James Hatley [Child 244]


DESCRIPTION: (Hatley) is accused of stealing the king's jewels, though (Fenwick) is in fact the thief. One of the king's children convinces the king to let Hatley fight for his honor; (Hatley/the prince) kills Fenwick. Hatley is made a high official
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1859 (Chambers)
KEYWORDS: nobility royalty thief lie fight accusation help
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 244, "James Hatley" (3 texts)
Leach, pp. 606-608, "James Hatley" (1 text)
DT, JHATLEY
Roud #4022
NOTES: This more-than-usually-romantic ballad seems to have no basis in fact. The negotiations surrounding Hatley's release remind me strongly of "Hughie Grame" [Child 191], though there seems to be no actual relationship, and of course the context and outcome are different. - RBW
File: C244

James Kennedy


DESCRIPTION: James Kennedy goes to visit his sweetheart; he comes to the Moyola and, unable to swim, is swept away. None is brave enough to rescue him. His parents wonder why he was visiting Moyola on the Sabbath. His fiancee is told they will meet at his grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love river drowning death
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H633, p. 147, "James Kennedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #189
NOTES: Roud treats this as a variant of Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn (Willie Leonard)." But this song is explicit: Kennedy could not swim. "Cool Finn" lacks any such theme. - RBW
File: H633

James MacDonald [Laws P38]


DESCRIPTION: James promises his pregnant sweetheart Annie that he will marry her, and bids her meet him secretly. When he has her alone he attacks her and flees. She is found the next day and lives just long enough to tell what happened. James is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan2); c.1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 19(109))
KEYWORDS: murder execution pregnancy betrayal
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws P38, "James MacDonald"
Greig #137, p. 2, "The Longford Murderer" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 204, "The Longford Murderer" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 622-623, "The Murder of Ann O'Brien" (2 texts, 1 tune)
SHenry H37, pp. 485-486, "[Pat O'Brien]" (1 fragment in the notes, tune referenced)
Creighton-NovaScotia 21, "James McDonald" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner 6, "The St. Albans Murder" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 477-479, "The Longford Murder" (1 text)
DT 515, JIMMACD*
Roud #1412
RECORDINGS:
Theresa White, "The Murder of Ann O'Brien" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(109), "James M'Donald, Who Was Executed in Longford for the Murder of Anne O'Brien," W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.15(230), "James M'Donald, Who Was Executed in Longford for the Murder of Anne O'Brien"; 2806 c.15(309)[some lines illegible], "James M'Donnell"
Murray, Mu23-y1:079 "James M'Donnell," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John T. Williams"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Logford Murder
The Murderer Repaid
NOTES: Yet another John T Williams gallows-confession type: Peacock includes a fragment "My name is James MacDonald, from life I must now part, For murdering of young Ann O'Brien I'm sorry to the heart; I hope the Lord will pardon me all on the Judgement Day, And when I'm on the gallows, good Christians for me pray."
The Peacock fragment is the last verse of the Murray broadside. It is also the fragment quoted in SHenry from the Houston collection [see SHenry, p. 485], the only significant difference being that the murderer's name is [mis]stated as Pat O'Brien; the note to "Henry, the Sailor Boy," referring to the tune printed for that song, is that "almost all the [Irish] murder ballads [including 'Pat O'Brien'] were composed to it." [In so far as they can be read, the Bodleian broadsides have the last verse but omit the last line.]
Leach (notes to NFMLeach) believes "that the murder took place in Longford Co. Ireland, and that, as was customary, a broadside was published at the time." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LP38

James Magee (McKee)


DESCRIPTION: The singer, sentenced to New South Wales, gives his name as James Magee. An orphan brought up by his grandmother, his aunt brings charges against him to gain his inheritance. He laments for his wife and children, and curses the aunt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: crime accusation trial punishment transportation separation family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
SHenry H136, p. 125, "James Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Ulster 40, "James Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 51, pp. 146-147,175, "James Magee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2492
NOTES: [The] Morton-Ulster text makes this a religious conflict. The aunt "married an Orangeman"; the last verse is
Once I had a well furnished house no room could it afford,
To enter in an Orangeman, when he'd be on record,
But if a Ribbonman would call that way, well treated he would be,
Ah but now there does not dwell a man where dwelt young James Magee.
Morton-Ulster: "No doubt, especially since the famine, land and the possession of it has been to the Irish what cocaine must be to the drug-addict. The more he got the more he wanted. No doubt avarice got the better of many and they used the politico-religious situation for their own gain."
Zimmermann p. 19: "In some parts of Ulster, Protestant and Catholic tenants were mingled and contended for the land; the peasantry was thus divided into two camps, each having its oath-bound association. This led to a sort of religious war. At the end of the eighteenth century the Catholic "Defenders" were opposed to the Protestant "Peep o'Day Boys" or "Orangemen." The "Defenders" were succeeded by the "Ribbonmen," (song [Zimmermann] 39). - BS
Sean O'Boyle lists this as the same tune as "Henry Joy (McCracken)." The two are indeed nearly identical in meter, but I would not call them the same, though they are close. - RBW
File: HHH136

James McKee


See James Magee (McKee) (File: HHH136)

James Munks's Confession


DESCRIPTION: Munks tells the story of how he turned from his parents' good ways. He killed Reuben Guile, took his horse and money, hid his body, and fled. Captured and taken, he has been sentenced to die. He now reveals details of the murder
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Eddy)
KEYWORDS: murder execution robbery
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eddy 113, "James Munks's Confession" (1 text)
ST E113 (Full)
Roud #4100
NOTES: This song is item dE40 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: E113

James Phalen


See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

James Reilly


See John (George) Riley (II) [Laws N37] (File: LN37)

James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy


DESCRIPTION: James Stephens is born in Marble City, wounded at 16 fighting in Killenaule, wounded at Ballingarry, subject of a mock funeral as he sails, in disguise, to Paris, imprisoned on testimony of "Nagle the informer," escapes and is not caught again, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: battle rebellion betrayal prison escape disguise trick death France Ireland memorial patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 2, 1901 - James Stephens (1825-1901) dies in Dublin
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 3, "James Stephens, the Gallant Fenian Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Escape of James Stephens" (subject)
NOTES: The Fenians were an organization devoted to freeing Ireland. The organization was founded in 1858 by James Stephens, who in that year began to coordinate with O'Donovan Rossa's Phoenix Society (for whom and for which see "Rossa's Farewell to Erin").
Stephens himself was quite the character: He was involved in the attempted revolution of 1848 (OxfordCompanion, p. 525), which of course was a complete fiasco. He was reported dead at the time (Golway, p. 122), and he did leave the country, but finally -- like many other Irishmen -- deciding that he couldn't stay away, returning to Ireland in 1856 (Kee, p. 7).
He seems to have been quite moody, and his return home depressed him; there seemed little hope of reviving Irish nationalism (Golway, p. 125). He set out on a walking tour to verify this for himself, and estimated that he walked three thousand miles in 1856 (Kee, p. 8).
Based on his accounts of the trip, one suspects that the real reason for his change of heart was simply the improved attitude that comes with exercise; he found little encouragement (Golway, p. 126). Despite the seemingly-poor prospects, he decided to found an independence organization. One of the groups he founded would become the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Golway, p. 128), of which much would be heard in the next half century.
Technically, the term "Fenian" should refer to the American society founded by Stephens. Stephens went to the United States in late 1858 on a fundraising tour, returning in 1859 with very little money -- but having set up an organization led by John O'Mahoney and known as the Fenians (a name given by O'Mahoney, who was more attracted to Gaelic than Stephens). Although it's O'Mahoney's term for O'Mahoney's organization, it came to be used of both the American and Irish societies (Golway, p. 129)..
The Fenian Society quickly spread; and by 1865 was getting close to the point of rebellion. Unfortunately, it suffered the usual batch of informers. The British government felt the need to suppress the Irish version in 1865. Their newspaper The Irish People closed down, and many leaders arrested. Stephens managed to remain free for two months, but he too was taken eventually (OxfordCompanion, p. 526).
What followed was arguably the high point of the Fenian movement: Stephens was rescued from prison. Kee, p. 26, observes that "[s]ometimes it seems that all the bungling during these years was on the Fenian side. But the escape was a masterly achievement."
Indeed, it upset the British, who went after the leaders of the rescue with vigor. Their capture of Captain Thomas Kelly, a leader of the rescuers and later declared shadow head of the Irish Republic, led to the affair of the Manchester Martyrs, for which see "The Smashing of the Van (I)."
Unfortunately, his time in prison had changed Stephens; he no longer had the nerve to take aggressive action. Plus the American version of the movement, which provided much of its money and energy had split into two halves, led by John O'Mahony and Thomas Sweeney. Stephens had closer ties to O'Mahony (they had lived together in poverty in Paris while studying politics; Golway, p. 124), but both groups disagreed with him on methods (Kee, pp. 26-28), and both would be involved in madcap invasions of Canada (see "A Fenian Song(I)"). The group had promised to rebel by the end of 1865, but Stephens managed to postpone that. In response, he was forced out of the leadership (Kee, p. 31).
His followers carried on, but that pretty well killed the group as an active set of rebels; their attempt at an Irish rebellion failed in 1867. They spent many more years trying various stunts in America; some were very showy, and others somewhat deadly; none helped the cause of Irish independence.
Stephens himself spent more than twenty years in exile before returning to Dublin in 1891, where he spent the last decade of his life generally ignoring politics (OxfordCompanion, p. 526).
Kee says of Stephens (pp. 8-9) that "he lacked almost all the qualities of a great revolutionary leader, being jealous and boastful, capable of small-mindedness and untruthful at least to the point of self-deception," but credits him with "an extraordinary capacity for organization and work." (Among his organizational methods was a cell system in which hardly anyone knew anyone else, so that informers couldn't betray much; Golway, p. 129. He also avoided recruiting the upper classes, meaning he had fewer members capable of detailed planning but also fewer capable of being paralyzed by doubts.) It is probably his strength at an organizer that allowed the Fenians to survive a series of failures that would have caused any normal organization to curl up and die of embarrassment at its utter ineptitude. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM003

James Wayland


See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

James Whaland


See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

James Whalen [Laws C7]


DESCRIPTION: Jim Whalen is told by his foreman to help clear a logjam. When the jam breaks, he is thrown into the rapids and drowned.
AUTHOR: John Smith (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Rickaby)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning lumbering
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Ont)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws C7, "James Whalen"
Doerflinger, pp. 243-244, "Whalen's Fate (George Whalen)"
Rickaby 3, "Jim Whalen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 110, "James Wayland" (1 text)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 82-83, "Jim Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke-Lumbering #31, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 25, "Jimmy Whelan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 39-41, "James Whalen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 389, "James Whaland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 53, "James Whalen" (1 text)
DT 601, JMMYWHEL*
ADDITIONAL: Walter Havinghurst, _Upper Mississippi: A Wilderness Saga_, Farrar & Rinehart, 1937, 1944, p. 228, "(Swan Swanson)" (1 fragment, clearly this, with the source unidentified but with a character name seemingly not found elsewhere)
Roud #638
RECORDINGS:
Emerson Woodcock, "Jimmie Whelan" (on Lumber01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lost Jimmie Whalen" [Laws C8] (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
James Phalen
NOTES: Rickaby reports this to be based on an actual incident, in which James Phalen (so spelled; pronounced Whalen) died at "King's Chute" on the Mississippi River. (That's the Canadian Mississippi, a tributary of the Ottawa). Rickaby's informant, Cristopher Forbes, is the source of the claim that John Smith of Lanark wrote the song.
The date of the event is uncertain; Rickaby states it was in 1878, but Fowke quotes Phalen's grand-niece to the effect that the date was 1876.
There is one other sidelight to this, the significance of which I do not know. The song "Mickey Free," about logging in northwestern Wisconsin, claims that the singer "held me own with Whalen." This song is believed to have been written 1878. Is it the same Whalen? There were, of course, loggers from Canada in the Wisconsin woods in that period, and "James Whalen" eventually was known in the adea, but would they have been treating such a recent event as legendary? I don't know. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LC07

Jamestown Flood, The


See The Johnstown Flood [Laws G14] (File: LG14)

Jamestown Homeward Bound, The


DESCRIPTION: Forecastle song. Verses describe voyages to the Mediterranean and wishes for home. Chorus ends "So fill out sails with the favoring gales and with shipmates all around. We'll give three cheers for our Starry flag and the Jamestown homeward bound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Colcord)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le sailor home travel
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Colcord, pp. 133-134, "The Jamestown Homeward Bound" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JAMETOWN*
Roud #4700
NOTES: [According to Colcord, the] vessel referred to here is *not* the Confederate gunboat Jamestown, but a sloop of war built in 1844. She was lent by the US government to a relief organization and sailed from Boston to Cork in March, 1847 loaded with food and supplies to help the victims of the famine in Ireland. - SL
That voyage to Ireland, which Colcord claims is the shipÕs only claim to fame, is not mentioned in her (seemingly unique) version. I must admit that I am not convinced that the song is about the Jamestown; it could merely be about a ship with its homeport there. - RBW
File: Colc133

Jamie and Jeanie


DESCRIPTION: Jeanie asks why Jamie looks so sad. He replies that she danced with three other men at the ball. She asserts it means nothing; when he remains doubtful, she gives back his ring. He offers it again, and they reconcile
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection dancing ring
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #50, p. 2, "Jeannie and Jamie" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 848, "Jeannie and Jamie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 108-109, "Jamie and Jeanie -- A Duet" (1 text)
Roud #3952
NOTES: This has all the hallmarks of a composed piece: Ornateness, stupidity, and non-folk idiom. But Ord and Grieg both collected it, so here it is.
I'm not betting anything on the success of that marriage, though. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord108a

Jamie and Mary


See The Faithful Rambler (Jamie and Mary, Love's Parting) (File: HHH825)

Jamie and Nancy


DESCRIPTION: Jamie and Nancy meet; she reports that her parents "had proved severe." He tells her that she is always welcome to him. She dreams Jamie is slain, and sets out to find him. When she does, they agree to marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love father mother separation dream reunion
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H738, p. 478, "Jamie and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9056
NOTES: I have to think there is something missing in this song -- presumably something which parts the two lovers. But until another version turns up, we can hardly reconstruct it. - RBW
File: HHH738

Jamie and Nancy of Yarmouth


See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jamie Broon


DESCRIPTION: Jeems Broon goes to the hiring fair at Turra Toon to work at the Hilton farm. Six were hired but "five o' them did leave Jeems Broon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 390, "Jamie Broon" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5923
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "James Brown and his son, of the same name, farmed at Hilton of Culsh in the parish of New Deer (see map) from the 1850s to the 1890s."
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Hilton of Culsh (390) is at coordinate (h4,v9) on that map [near New Deer, roughly 28 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GdR390

Jamie Douglas [Child 204]


DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that her happy marriage to Lord James Douglas has been ruined by accusations made by (Blackwood). She tries to convince her husband that she is true. He will not be convinced, and sends her away
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: marriage separation lie infidelity
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 204, "Jamie Douglas" (17 texts)
Bronson 204, "Jamie Douglas" (8 versions including "Waly, Waly")
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 469-474, "Jamie Douglas" (notes and scattered stanzas, plus a text of "Waly Waly" and a part of Child A)
Leach, pp. 546-551, "Jamie Douglas (3 texts, but the third is "Waly Waly")
Friedman, p. 101, "Jamie Douglas" (2 texts, but the second is "Waly Waly")
OBB 87, "Jamie Douglas" (1 text)
Roud #87
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (lyrics)
cf. "Arthur's Seat" (lyrics: one verse)
NOTES: Although based on actual events, the stress of this song seems rather different from the history outlined by Child. That this song is akin to "Waly, Waly" is beyond doubt; too many of the lyrics of the former show up in the latter. "Waly, Waly" has, however, achieved a life of its own (despite the near-compete loss of plot), and so is listed separately.
Most scholars think this the older song, but there are those who hold out for the influence passing the other way -- i.e. that verses from "Waly Waly" have entered "Jamie Douglas." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C204

Jamie Foyers


DESCRIPTION: During the Peninsular War, volunteers from Wellington's army led by militiaman Foyers storm Blucher's castle in Spain. Foyers is wounded. He asks a comrade to tell his father of his death, recalls his home life, then dies. All mourn him as he is buried.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: grief request battle violence war farewell death dying funeral mourning Spain lament father soldier Napoleon
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812 - siege of Burgos during the Peninsular War
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 18-20, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #139, pp. 1-2, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 106, "Jamie Foyers" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord, pp. 294-295, "Young Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 84, "Jamie Foyers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 71, "Jamie Foyer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 32-34, "Young Jimmy Foulger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 103, "Jimmy Folier" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JAMFOYE2 JAMEFOYR*
Roud #1941
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Stewart, "Young Jimmy Foyers" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(7), "Jamie Foyers" ("Far distant, far distant, lies Scotia the brave"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.14(195) View 4 of 5, "Young Jamie Foyers"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(080), "Jamie Foyers," unknown, c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of the Nile" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie Fires
NOTES: To quote MacColl & Seeger, "The Duke of Wellington's investment of Marshal Marmont's French forces and the retreat which followed were not particularly bloody by modern standards -- a mere 10,000 or so died. Wellington gained an earldom and a Perthshire militiaman gained an epitaph which is still sung round the campfires of travelling people." Note that Blucher, an enemy of Napoleon, is here described as his ally. - PJS
That seems to be a peculiarity of the John MacDonald's version, though; neither Ford nor Ord have such a reference. Ford, who reports collecting the song c. 1870, reports a newspaper item listing John MacNeill as author.
Burgos, almost due north of Madrid and about two-thirds of the way from there to the ocean, is not one of the great cities of Spain, but it lies in a gap in the mountains and thus guards the most direct path between France and Madrid. As long as Napoleon's enemies held Burgos, most of Spain (except the Ebro valley and cities such as Zaragosa and Barcelona) were safe, and as long as France held it, she could operate armies in Spain freely.
Early in the Peninsular War, Napoleon directed several campaigns toward Burgos, and later on, it became one of the chief Coalition objectives. Capture Burgos, and the French garrisons in Spain would be cut off from reinforcements.
Wellington besieged Burgos in September and October of 1812, but -- despite the indirect implication of the song -- did *not* capture it; he abandoned the siege as a relief army approached. - RBW
Greig: "A man of the name of John M'Neill has been mentioned as the author of 'Young Jamie Foyers.'"
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03: "Some authorities cite one James MacNeil as a possible author for the song." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: McCST084

Jamie Judge (or, Bonshee River)


See Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4] (File: LC04)

Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia)


DESCRIPTION: "My name is (Jamie Raeburn), in Glasgow I was born." Convicted (of a crime he did not commit), he has been sentenced to transportation. He bids farewell to family, sweetheart, and his beloved home in Caledonia. He hopes to return when free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(19))
KEYWORDS: transportation separation farewell Scotland
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 243-244, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan8 1535, "Jamie Raeburn" (17 texts, 12 tunes)
Greig #36, pp. 1-2, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 85-86, "Caledonia"; 245-246, "Caledonio" (2 texts, 2 tunea)
SHenry H151, p. 124, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 43, "Jimmy Leeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 357-358, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 94, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 90-91,"Farewell to Caledonia" (1 text)
DT, JIMRAEBN
ADDITIONAL: Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," article in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 160-161, "(Jamie Raeburn)" (1 text)
Roud #600
RECORDINGS:
Tom Scott, "Jimmy Raeburn" (on Borders1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(19), "James Raeburn," unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:106, "Jamie Raeburn" James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(75a), "Jamie Raeburn," unknown, c.1875; also RB.m.143(121) "Jamie Raeburn," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per GreigDuncan8)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell Ye Hills and Glens o' Caledonia
Mary Hepburn
The Convict's Farewell
NOTES: Ford claims that this is based on an actual incident c. 1840, though the details he offers are scant. - RBW
Charters says this has been traced to "a penny broadsheet published in the 1840s," but offers no further details. - PJS
It [may be] possible to date broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(19) from its note to the ballad shared on the broadside with "James Raeburn." Specifically, for "The Lament of Andrew Brown," there is a note that Brown "is at present lying under Sentence of Death in Forfar Jail for the Murder of Captain Greig [Creig?], on board the Nymph [illegible; perhaps "while"?] on her passage from Montrose to London"; the broadside itself dates the crime as September 6 and the execution January 31.
[Therefore we can conclude that the date of the broadside] is January 1866 based on the note for "The Lament of Andrew Brown." Specifically, Brown was tried January 8, 1866 in Edinburgh, and sentenced January 10 to be executed January 31. ["Murder at Sea," The Times of London, Tuesday, Jan 11, 1866; pg. 12; Issue 25392; Start column: D. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)] - BS
On the other hand, Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," published in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), says on p. 160, "We know that an early nineteenth-century (approximately 1820) broadsheet ballad, 'Jamie Raeburn,' sold a hundred thousand copies!" (Buchan also adds the snide comment that "Incidentally the normal sign of a bad song is that it calls Scotland 'Caledonia.' 'Jame Raeburn' is the exception that proves the rule!") - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MA085

Jamie Raeburn's Farewell


See Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia) (File: MA085)

Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead [Child 190]


DESCRIPTION: The Captain of Bewcastle raids the Fair Dodhead. Jamie Telfer, the victim, races about the countryside in search of assistance. Some refuse, but he gathers enough friends to fight the raiders. The avengers suffer casualties, but Bewcastle is defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: violence robbery revenge help
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 190, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
OBB 141, "Jamie Telfer in the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
PBB 67, "Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead" (1 text)
Roud #3364
NOTES: Child lists several speculations about this song (derived mostly from Scott, who is the only source for this piece). These tie it, very tentatively, to an event of 1582, at which time Bewcastle was a well-known haunt of robbers and sundry criminals. All of this, however, must be treated as little more than speculation. Nor is there any real evidence that the piece is traditional. - RBW
File: C190

Jamie, Lovely Jamie


See The Plains of Baltimore (File: Wa005)

Jamie's Aye Kin'


DESCRIPTION: Jamie's always kind. Willie's sour and sullen. Liking Jamie and mocking Willie "brings muckle sorrow to oor toon for noo and ever mair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad Jacobite
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1856, "Jamie's Aye Kin'" (1 short text)
Roud #13592
NOTES: GreigDuncan8 quoting Bell Robertson, who was -- apparently -- not the source: "This was one of mother's but ... everyone sung it." - BS
I have, very tentatively, added the keyword Jacobite because, while there is absolutely nothing explicitly Jacobite in the song, consider what it says: The town likes Jamie (James) and mocks Willie (William) and suffers for it. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81856

Jamie's Braw Claes


DESCRIPTION: The singer's son Jamie volunteered; "it wasna for fechtin' but jist for the claes." He struts in his uniform. Grannie thinks his obsession "it's a' far past jokin'" If the French blades would cut his buttocks he would not be so proud of his clothes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: vanity clothes humorous nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 651, "Jamie's Braw Claes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6080
File: GrD3651

Jamie's on the Stormy Sea


DESCRIPTION: "Ere the twilight bat was flitting, in the sunset at her knitting, Sang a lonely maiden... Fitful rose the tender chorus, 'Jamie's on the stormy sea.'" The singer listens to the girl praying -- and at last steps out and reveals himself as Jamie
AUTHOR: Bernard Covert
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal from the _Euphrasia_)
KEYWORDS: sailor love separation reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1851, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H78, p. 484, "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 34-36, "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2067
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(311), "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" ("E'eer the twilight bat was fletting"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
LOCSheet, sm1850 482040, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1850 (tune)
LOCSinging, as201800, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" ("E'eer the twilight bat was fletting"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860; also as201810, "Jamie's On the Stormy Sea" [still De Marsan; same first line misspelling]
NOTES: At least he didn't dress up to trick her into thinking he was someone else. - RBW
The text of the surviving fragment at GreigDuncan8 may be instructive; in its two verse entirety: "Fitful cam her tender chorus Jamie's on the stormy sea." "Weep nae mair sweet I am Jamie."
There is a similar, but not quite so "literary," song at LOCSinging, as101390, "Bonnie Jamie" ("The twilight hour is stealing, The day is dying fast ... But my bonnie, bonnie Jamie Has crossed the stormy sea."), J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as200410, sb10028b, "Bonnie Jamie." However, Jamie has not yet returned from the war by the end of this song. These broadsides, all issued by John Andrews or its successor, Henry De Marsan, include statements to the following effect: "By James Robinson. Respectfully dedicated to my friend, Sergeant Wheeler, U.S.A. This beautiful Song was composed by Mr. James Robinson, the Author of several of our most popular ballads. It is intended for a companion to Annie Laurie, and the same Air."
Broadsides Bodleian Harding B 18(311), LOCSinging as201800 and LOCSinging as201800: J. Andrews and H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging as201800 and Bodleian Harding B 18(311) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: HHH078

Jane Jenkins


See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jane Shore


DESCRIPTION: Jane Shore, "that was beloved of a king," laments her fate. She had come to the attention of Edward IV, who loved her long but died young. Now she is at the mercy of his successor Richard III, who harries her relentlessly
AUTHOR: Thomas Deloney?
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy); reference in the Stationer's Register in 1603, but no copy recovered
KEYWORDS: love royalty death prison adultery
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1461-1470 AND 1471-1483 - Reign of Edward IV
1483-1485 - Reign of Richard III
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Percy/Wheatley II, pp. 263-273, "Jane Shore" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1391, "If Rosamund that was so fair"
cf. BBI, ZN2929, "Why should we boast of Lais and his Knights"
NOTES: Jane Shore, the wife of a London merchant, seems to have been the last great love of Edward IV's life (though Edward IV was truly prodigal with his energies). She is said to have been charming as well as beautiful, but this simply meant that she was feared as having too much influence over the king.
Seward-Roses makes Jane Shore one of his main "viewpoint characters." According to Seward, Jane was born around 1450 (though in another of his books, Seward-Richard, p. 203, he says she "must have been in her early forties in 1483"; this, it appears to me, places her birth impossibly early). She was born "Elizabeth Lambert" (this based on recent research linking Mistress Shore with Mistress Lambert; I don't know if it is universally accepted).
Williamson, p. 42, suggests that she was called "Jane" rather than "Elizabeth" or a diminutive either to avoid confusion with the Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, or as a sort of "bed name," as actresses take stage names to protect their privacy. If the latter, it clearly didn't work too well.
Elizabeth Lambert's father John Lambert was a London alderman. This is about all we can derive from ordinary records. Most of the rest of what we know about Elizabeth "Jane" Lambert Shore comes from Thomas More's The History of Richard III. This is an extremely controversial source, and one containing many errors of fact, but since Shore was still alive when it was written, it may perhaps have some value here. I'm referring to the text of More printed in NortonAnth, which supplies More's description of Jane and no other part of the history (perhaps because the editors didn't want to have to deal with all the arguments about this history).
Jane's surname, it is generally accepted, came from her husband William Shore, a successful mercer who was probably at least ten years older than his wife (Seward-Roses, p. 88). They were divorced in 1476 (Seward-Roses, pp. 225-231; More, in the first of the three long paragraphs of the account in NorthonAnth, says merely that "her husband dwelled not with her," adding in his second paragraph that she was "very well married, saving somewhat too soon").
Then she took up with Edward IV. Edward was an incredibly lusty liege (I know of no complete count of his bastards, but there must have been a lot of them); at one point he boasted of three mistresses at once, "one the merriest, one the wiliest, and one the holiest harlot in his realm" (paragraph 2 of More in NortonAnth). Jane Shore, according to More, was the first of these; in her "the King therefore took special pleasure. For many he had, but her he loved" (More, paragraph 2; cf. Cheetham, p. 205, which punctuates the passage rather differently).
When Edward IV died, his friend Lord Hastings seems to have become involved with Mistress Shore, but Richard III soon had Hastings executed. From that time on, Shore had no protector. (It can't have helped that Hastings apparently used Shore as a go-between to Elizabeth Woodville, the Queen of Edward IV, who was Richard's strongest enemy; see Jenkins, pp. 162-163.) The Marquess of Dorset, Elizabeth Woodville's son by her first marriage and hence Edward IV's stepson, apparently wanted her (Seward-Roses, p. 269), but as an obvious enemy of Richard III, he had no influence.
Richard's persecution of Jane was severe and probably unfair ("he spoiled her of all that she ever had, above the value of two or three thousand marks, and sent her body to prison.... [H]e caused the Bishop of London to put her to open penance, going before the cross in procession upon a Sunday with a taper in her hand" -- so More, paragraph 1; the carrying of a taper was the standard punishment of a harlot). Rather puritanical himself, and (despite Shakespeare) seemingly devoted to Edward IV, Richard seems to have blamed Shore for much of Edward's dissipation, which resulted in Edward's death at about 40. Nonetheless, as Williamson, p. 72, points out, this was a light penalty if, as some have argued, he thought her guilty of treason by being a go-between between Hastings and the dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville.
Jenkins, p. 166, reports that "on a Sunday, wearing nothing but her kirtle, she was led barefoot through the streets, a taper in her hand. More... says that first she was very pale but the gaze of the crowds made her blush, and 'she went so fair and lovely, her great shame won her much praise among those that were more amorous of her body than concerned for her soul." (The cynical part of me can't help but note that More's presumed source, Bishop Morton of Ely, was a celibate Catholics. Just who was doing the lusting here?)
After the fall of Richard III, she took one Thomas Lynom (listed by Seward-Roses, p. 16, as Richard's solicitor) as her second husband. According to Williamson, p. 73, Richard actually wrote a letter approving this match, although the message expressed surprise and tried to talk Lynom out of it.
Jane Shore apparently did become a byword for beauty, although probably more for reasons of chronology than because she was in fact exceptionally good-looking; see the notes to "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" [Child 150].
It is not likely that this or any other Jane Shore ballad went into tradition, but there seem to have been enough of them that they deserve an entry here. The main reference is to the "If Rosamund that was so fair" text; the cross-references are to other Jane Shore pieces. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Percy2263

Jane, Jane


DESCRIPTION: "Hey, hey, Jane, Jane, My Lordy, Lord, Jane, Jane, I'm gonna buy, Jane, Jane, Three mocking birds, Jane, Jane, One a-for to whistle...." "I'm gonna buy... Three hunting dogs... Three muley cows... Three little blue birds...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: bird playparty nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 392, "Jane, Jane" (1 text)
File: FSWB392A

Janet


See Lady Maisry [Child 65] (File: C065)

Janet Jamieson


DESCRIPTION: Listeners are warned of the sad fate of Janet Jamieson. A rich hunter sees the beautiful girl and begs her to come with him. At last he convinces her -- but a week later casts her out. She wanders alone, then dies. He is killed in Hindustan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan6)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction betrayal abandonment death soldier exile warning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #116, p. 1, "Janet Jamieson" (1 text)
GreigDuncan6 1152, "Janet Jamieson" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 470-471, "Janet Jamieson" (1 text)
Roud #5623
NOTES: This song has the curious characteristic of being a warning song that doesn't really warn against any particular action. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord470

Janet She Cam' Doon the Gait


DESCRIPTION: "Janet she cam' doon the gait To borrow elaeven eggs fae Pate Her muckle tappit hen to set The cock was but a gawpie [GreigDuncan8: fool]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: chickens
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1881, "Janet She Cam' Doon the Gait" (1 fragment)
Roud #13574
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment.
Considering the fragment we have I would have thought the cock more likely to be a capon, either literally or figuratively. - BS
Several versions of "The Baffled Knight" [Child 112], mostly Scottish in my experience, have verses about unproductive chickens. The Digital Tradition version, for instance, has one which reads
There is a cock in our father's barn, he never trod a hen
He flies about and flaps his wings, I think you're one of them.
Another one talked about a "likely hen... That clucked and clucked and clucked again But neer an egg would lay." This probably isn't related, but it would seem this was a rather common concern in Scotland. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81881

Janey Ferguson


See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Janey on the Moor


See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Janie of the Moor [Laws N34]


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets Janie and proposes marriage. She says that she has promised to remain true to her love Dennis Ryan/Riley. He pulls out Dennis's ring and says he has died in battle. She faints; she revives when he reveals that he is Dennis
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3134))
KEYWORDS: courting brokentoken
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sept 20, 1854 - Battle of Alma (Crimean War). The Anglo/French/Turkish forces win an expensive victory over the Russians
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws N34, "Janie of the Moor"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 89, "Jennie on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 125, "Janie on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan5 1050, "Jeannie on the Moor" (1 text)
SHenry H107, p. 320, "Jennie of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Smith/Hatt, pp. 70-71, "Sweet Jinny on the Moor" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 61, "Janey on the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 66, "Janie on the Moor" (2 texts)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 96, "Dennis Ryan" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 58, "Sweet Jenny of the Moor" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 461, JANEMOOR
Roud #581
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3134), "Sweet Jenny of the Moor," E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth b.25(286), "Sweet Jenny of the Moor"; Harding B 16(336a), Firth c.12(287), Harding B 11(1864), Harding B 11(1865), "Jenny of the Moor"
LOCSinging, as203560, "Sweet Jenny of the Moor," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb40502a, Firth b.25(177), "Sweet Jenny of the Moor"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there, especially N29
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Jenny of the Moor
NOTES: The texts seem rather uncertain as to the battle in which Dennis didn't get himself killed. The Sam Henry text mentions Alma, a battle of the Crimean War. Mackenzie's Nova Scotia text mentions "Vendons Town"; I cannot find this in either the history or the atlas, unless it is an error for something such as Vendome. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield has Dennis "fighting with the allied boys" while Leach-Labrador has it "in a battle of Nor Amerikay." Some of the Bodleian broadsides simply mention "while in the war while fighting" but others -- as well as the America Singing copies -- do refer to "fighting at the Alma." Since I can't definitely date a "while in the war" broadside before the Crimean War I can't say which is the older version.
Broadside LOCSinging as203560: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LN34

Janie on the Moore


See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Janie Sharp Ballet, The


DESCRIPTION: After leaving "sin's way" at 16, Janie Sharp made friends with all she met, but at 18 "by criminal beast her journey ceased." The singer theorizes about her last hours, thinking she warned the murderer, was killed, and taken to heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1936 (Hudson)
KEYWORDS: murder rape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hudson 68, pp. 194-195, "The Janie Sharp Ballet" (1 text)
Roud #4115
NOTES: Hudson reports, "Some thenty-five or thirty years ago [i.e. c. 1910] a young girl named Janie Sharp was brutally murdered in the Rural Hill neighbourhood near French Camp. Her former lover, Swinton Permenter, was charged with the murder and was prosecuted on circumstantial evidence, but was not convicted."
Hudson also comments that is was "A poor composition, perhaps, at the outset," and hardly improved by some years of garbling. I'd have to agree; the result is at once poor in style, weak in detail, and monotonous in its description of Janie's hypothesized transport to heaven.
This is item dF43 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: Hud068

Jawbone Song, The


DESCRIPTION: ""Dance all night with a bottle in my hand/Just 'fore day give the fiddler a dram." "Jawbone walk and jawbone talk/Jawbone eat with a knife and fork" "My old Miss is mad at me, Cause I wouldn't live in Tennessee" 'I laid that jawbone on the fence...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: music marriage nonballad nonsense floatingverses dancetune
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 259, "The Jawbone Song" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 222-223, "The Jawbone Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 259)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 103, (no title) (1 fragment, without the chorus); also p. 103, "Dweley" (1 text, a collection of floating verses including one from this song, one from "Crawdad," and others); also p. 104, "Lula Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, at least partly this song though the chorus appears to be something else)
SharpAp 246, "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7728 and 3657
RECORDINGS:
Carter Bros. & Son, "Old Joe Bone," "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (both on OKeh 45289, 1929)
Willie Chapman, "Jaw Bone" [instrumental] (on MMOK, MMOKCD)
Crazy Hillbillies Band, "Danced All Night with a Bottle in My Hand" (OKeh 45575, 1934)
Clayton McMichen & his Georgia Wildcats, "Give the Fiddler a Dram" (Joe Davis 3510, n.d.)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Old Joe Bone" (on NLCR13, NLCRCD2)
Pope's Arkansas Mountaineers, "Jaw Bone" (Victor 21577, 1928)
Stripling Brothers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle In My Hand" (Vocalion 5395, 1930)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Alabama Gal Give the Fiddler a Dram" (Columbia 119-D, 1924)
Gid Tanner & his Skillet Lickers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle in your Hand" (Columbia 15108-D, 1926)
Tennessee Ramblers, "Give the Fiddlers a Dram" (Vocalion 5363, 1929)
Tweedy Brothers, "Dance All Night with a Bottle in your Hand" (Supertone 9174, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Yellow's Dead" (chorus format)
NOTES: I'm including versions of "Give the Fiddler a Dram/Dance All Night With a Bottle In Your Hand" here, because many of them share the same tune and several verses. A case could be made for splitting as well, but in practice the two branches of the family are hard to distinguish. - PJS
This is an instance where, unusually, Roud does not lump; "Jawbone" is Roud #7728 and "Give the Fiddler a Dram" is #3657. But Paul has heard far more of the 78 recordings than I have. My initial description of "Jawbone" was as follows:
"My old Miss is mad at me, Cause I wouldn't live in Tennessee, Wah-jaw-bone to my jangle lang, An' a wah-jaw-bone to my jangle lang." "I laid that jawbone on the fence, An' I ain't seen that jawbone since. Wah-jaw-bone to my jangle lang...." - RBW
File: R259

Jay Gould's Daughter


See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough


DESCRIPTION: "Jaybird died with the whoopingcough, Sparrow died with the colic, On came a frog with a fiddle on his back, Inquiring the way to the frolic." Other verses tell other stories about the lives of other birds, or perhaps predators or other animals
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: bird death disease nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 153, "The Jaybird" (4 short texts, of which "B" and "C" are this piece; "D" is "The Jaybird"; "A" mixes the two)
Roud #748
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Buckeye Jim" (lyrics)
File: Br3153A

Jaybird Up a Simmon Tree


See Bile Them Cabbage Down (File: LoF269)

Jaybird, The


DESCRIPTION: Songs about the exploits about the jaybird and how it cheekily survives, e.g. "The jaybird a-setting of a swinging limb, He winked at me and I winked at him, He laugh at me when my gun 'crack.' It kick me on the flat o' my back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Talley)
KEYWORDS: bird humorous nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 153, "The Jaybird" (4 short texts, of which ""D" is this piece; "B" and "C" are "Jaybird Died With the Whooping Cough; "A" mixes the two)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 190-191, (no title) (2 fragments, the first having the verse of "The Jaybird" and the chorus of "The Blue-Tail Fly" [Laws I19])
File: Br3153B

Jaybird's Altar, The (I've Been to the East)


DESCRIPTION: "I've been to the east, I've been to the west, I've been to the jaybird's altar, But the prettiest girl I ever seen Was Temmie Slinkard's daughter."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL 24)
KEYWORDS: courting travel
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 574, "The Jaybird's Altar" (1 text)
Roud #7664
File: R574

Jealous Brother, The (The Jealous Lover)


DESCRIPTION: When Mary "dressed herself in men's attire" to meet Jimmie, he mistakes her for his brother whom, he assumed, had been "to enjoy my dear." He shoots Mary. When he realizes Mary is dying he shoots himself, saying "be ye ware of jealousy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: jealousy courting murder suicide cross-dressing
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-Maritime, p. 103, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2706
File: CrMa103

Jealous Brothers


See The Bramble Briar (The Merchant's Daughter; In Bruton Town) [Laws M32] (File: LM32)

Jealous Husband Outwitted, The


DESCRIPTION: A (hosier) from Leicester has "a handsome witty wife," but he does not trust her, and threatens to set her aside. She disguises herself as the devil, and with the help of two boys, frightens him so much that he never dares mistreat her again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1869
KEYWORDS: husband wife trick disguise Devil
FOUND IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Logan, pp. 385-387, "The Jealous Husband Outwitted" (1 text)
DT 452, KATEHRN3*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kate and Her Horns" [Laws N22] (plot)
cf. "The Lawyer and Nell" (plot)
NOTES: The Digital Tradition editors consider this to be a version of Laws N22, "Kate and Her Horns." There is the obvious similarity that both involve the woman disguising herself as the Devil. However, the motivation (in "Kate," the woman is betrayed BEFORE marriage), method, and ending all differ. This song may have been inspired by Laws N22 (or vice versa), but they are not the same. - RBW
File: Log385

Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]


DESCRIPTION: The jealous lover lures (Florella/Pearl Bryan) into the woods with the promise that they will discuss wedding plans. Once there, he stabs her. When captured, he is imprisoned for life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: murder prison jealousy death lover
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (31 citations):
Laws F1, "The Jealous Lover (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)"
Belden, pp. 324-330, "Florella (The Jealous Love)" (2 full texts plus 7 fragments which may be this piece and references to 9 others, 2 tunes)
Randolph 138, "The Jealous Lover" (7 texts plus 3 excerpts, 4 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 158-161, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 138A)
Eddy 104, "The Murdered Girl" (8 texts, 2 tunes; the D and E texts apparently belong here)
Gardner/Chickering 21, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text plus an excerpts and mention of 2 more, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 146, "Sweet Fair Ella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 67, "Fair Florella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger, pp. 287-288, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 250, "Florella (The Jealous Lover)" (5 texts plus 7 excerpts, 2 framents, and mention of 9 more; Laws places the "A", "B", "C" (apparently), "H," and "L" texts with F1A and "U" with F1B)
Chappell-FSRA 64, "Nell Cropsey, IV" (1 text plus 2 fradments, 2 tunes, apparently a local adaption to the Nell Cropsey story, for which see Nell Cropsey (I); Chappell's seem to be the only known versions of this adaption)
Fuson, pp. 65-66, "Edward" (1 text, probably this although it has at least hints of the "Willow Garden" versions of "Rose Connolly")
Cambiaire, p. 109, "Pearl Bryant" (1 short text, probably this though it is not long enough to be certain)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 251, "Fair Ellen" (1 fragment, probably of this family though it's too short to tell)
Brewster 46, "Florella" (3 texts plus mention of 3 more, all of the F1A type though Laws does not list them); 61, "Pearl Bryan" (3 texts plus an excerpt and mention of 3 more; 1 tune; the "C" text is this piece (of the F1B group) while "A" and "B" are Laws F2)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 59-60, "The Fair Flo-ella" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 180, "Florella" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 632-633, "Sweet Florella" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, p. 31, "(Pearl Bryan)" (1 stanza)
Leach, pp. 787-789, "Fair Florella or The Jealous Lover" (2 texts)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 85-87, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 203, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus 63D, pp. 174-175, "Pearl Bryan" (1 text)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 137-138, "[Fair Ellen]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 29-31, "Fair Florella/Pearl Bryan" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 43, pp. 101-102, "The Jealous Lover"; pp. 102-103, "The Weeping Willow" (2 texts, of which the first is "The Jealous Lover (II)" but the second could well be this)
JHCox 38, "The Jealous Lover" (5 texts plus mentions of three more; of these, Laws identifies D and E as this song, belonging to the Pearl Bryan group)
JHCoxIIB, #5A-B, pp. 130-132, "The Jealous Lover," "Blue-Eyed Ellen" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" fragment might be this or "The Jealous Lover (II)"; the "B" text is probably the latter)
Darling-NAS, pp. 197-198, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text)
DT, JLSLOVR2*
ADDITIONAL: Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 204, "(The Jealous Lover)" (1 text)
Roud #500
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & Leonard Rutherford, "Pearl Bryan" (Columbia 15113-D, 1927; rec. 1926; on BurnRuth01, KMM)
Isabel Etheridge, "Nellie Cropsey" (on OBanks1)
Eugene Jemison, "Fair Florilla" (on Jem01)
David Miller, "Sweet Floetta" [Floella?] (Champion 15413, 1928/ Conqueror 7839, 1931)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lily of the West"
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
cf. "Pearl Bryan IV"
cf. "Nell Cropsey (I)" (subject of some versions) and references there
cf. "The Jealous Lover (II)"
SAME TUNE:
The Philadelphia Lawyer (by Woody Guthrie) (File: Grnw283)
[The Drew Murder] (Hudson, no number or title, pp. 233-234)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lone, Lone Valley
Down in a Lone Valley
The Love Valley
NOTES: The antecedents and relationships of this ballad are immensely complex, and cannot be described here. There are many related pieces.
There is some debate over whether the ballad is in fact a "native American" piece. Although most of its present forms are uniquely American, Barry points to a connection with the British piece, "The Murder of Betty Smith." For this song, see e.g. the broadside NLScotland, L.C.Fol.73(126), "Murder of Betty Smith," Robert McIntosh (Glasgow), c.1850.
(Belden also mentions a possible connection to T. H. Bayley's "She Never Blamed Him." This seems a stretch even in the versions where the girl forgives the murderer.)
Given the number of similar songs, the reader is advised to check references under Laws F2, Laws F3, "The Jealous Lover II," etc.
Fuller details on the story of Pearl Bryan may be found in the entry on Pearl Bryan (I) [Laws F2].
Laws breaks this ballad up into three subgroups. F1A is "The Jealous Lover" (Florella, Floella, Blue-Eyed Ella, etc.); F1B is the Pearl Bryan group; F1C is the Nell Cropsey song. I decided to "lump" the songs, however, as they differ in very little except names.
The "Pearl Bryan" versions of this song (Laws F1B) are told from other Pearl Bryan songs by a first verse similar to this:
Way down in yonder valley
There the violets fade and bloom,
There lies our own Pearl Bryan
In a cold and lonesome tomb. - RBW
Peacock is another who believes "this is an American ballad freely based on an English broadside and a sentimental English song by T.H. Bayly called She Never Blamed Him [sic], written in the 1820's and widely popular during the American Civil War." You can read the lyrics of "She Never Blam'd Him, Never," by Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1829), on the Library of Congress American Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets site, digital id as203280. Judge the likelihood for yourself.
Here's a description of "She Never Blam'd Him, Never": He visits and she receives him, vainly trying "to look the same." Though she was dying, only losing him made "her sweet voice ... faulter." She never blamed him for luring her "from the isle where she was born" into "the cold world's cruel scorn." He leaves and "she heard the bugle's sound... and strangers found her Cold and lifeless on the ground."
In any case, T.H. Bayly's name has appeared in this index in connection with other songs [sometimes as Bayley]. What kind of poet writes songs that do pass into tradition? You can find out more about him and his songs in Andrew Lang's Essays in Little - BS
File: LF01

Jealous Lover (II), The


DESCRIPTION: The jealous lover takes his girlfriend down to the woods. (She grows weary, and asks to return home.) He (tells her she will never return home, and) stabs her. With her dying breath she forgives him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: murder jealousy
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Eddy 104, "The Jealous Lover" (8 texts, 2 tunes, but only the F, G, and H texts belong with this ballad; the others all go with the other ballads listed in the cross-references)
Hudson 62, pp. 185-187, "The Jealous Love" (2 texts plus mention of 8 more)
Lomax-ABFS 47, "The Lone Green Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 43, pp. 101-102, "The Jealous Lover"; pp. 102-103, "The Weeping Willow" (2 texts, of which the first is this but the second is short and could well be Laws F1)
JHCox 38, "The Jealous Lover" (5 texts plus mentions of three more; of these, Laws identifies D and E as "The Jealous Lover (I)"; since he does not catalog the other three, it appears they belong here)
JHCoxIIB, #5A-B, pp. 130-132, "The Jealous Lover," "Blue-Eyed Ellen" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune; the "A" fragment might be this or "The Jealous Lover (I)"; the "B" text is probably this song)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 51-52, "Shady Valley (The Jealous Lover)" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 121-122, "Blue-Eyed Ellen, or The Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley" (1 text, 1 tune); p. 122, "Come, Emily" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 104, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 198-199, "The Jealous Lover" (1 text, filed with "The Jealous Lover (I) but belonging here by the criteria outlined below)
DT 626, JLSLOVER*
Roud #500
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "The Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley" (Brunswick 143, 1927; Supertone S-2012, 1930)
Kelly Harrell, "Blue Eyed Ella" (OKeh 7010, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Posey Rorrer and the North Carolina Ramblers, "Blue Eyed Eller" (Edison, unissued, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)" [Laws F1A, B, C]
cf. "The Banks of the Ohio" [LawsF5]
cf. "The Wexford Girl" [Laws P35]
NOTES: Given the number of similar songs, the reader is advised to check references under Laws F1, Laws F2, Laws F3, etc.
The element that most clearly distinguishes this from "The Jealous Lover (I)" is that the girl forgives the murderer. At least, that's my guess, based on the "Jealous Lover" texts Laws does not catalog.
I agree, it's a mess; Laws accuses students of persistently confusing his F1 and F2, but gives no method for distinguishing them, and does not treat this close relative at all! If it were me, I'd lump the Jealous Lover songs; even if they originated separately, they trade verses at an incredible rate. - RBW
File: E104

Jealous Lover (III), The


See Oxford City [Laws P30] (File: LP30)

Jealous Lover (IV), The


See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jealous Lover (V), The


See The Jealous Brother (The Jealous Lover) (File: CrMa103)

Jealous Lover (VI), The


See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, The


See The Jealous Lover (II) (File: E104)

Jealous Woman, The


See An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman) (File: K003)

Jean and Caledonia


See Caledonia (III -- Jean and Caledonia) (File: FVS237)

Jean and Her Sailor Lad


DESCRIPTION: Jean loves a sailor but he leaves for sea without marrying. When he returns she shuns him, saying she's being courted by a tailor, a ploughman, and a farmer. The sailor ridicules those professions and said he'd go to sea again. She calls him back.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love reunion separation sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 58, "Jean and Her Sailor Lad" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5811
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sailor Lad
There Was a Lass
NOTES: GreigDuncan1: "Learnt in Culsalmond fifty years ago. Noted December 1906." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1058

Jean Chivas


DESCRIPTION: Jean Chivas lives at Blackton, "And a' the ill deen here aboot Jean Chivas gets the blame" "She's into a coach wi' her ain true love, And awa' to Porter Fair"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 729, "Jean Chivas" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6162
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bell Hendry (I)" (tune?, per GreigDuncan4, and text)
cf. "Bell Hendry (II)" (tune?, per GreigDuncan4, and text)
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 and Roud split "Jean Chivas" from "Bell Hendry" though its first verse is close to GreigDuncan4 728D and its fragmentary verse is close to two lines of GreigDuncan4 728C. The name, obviously, is changed from Bell Hendry to Jean Chivas. Locations are changed respectively from Fraserburgh and Marnin Fair to Blackton and Porter Fair. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4729

Jean Dalgarno


DESCRIPTION: "Miss Jean Dalgarno she was there A maid sae primp an' slim And fa think ye gaed hame wi' her But Arnot's shoudin sin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: dancing
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 624, "Jean Dalgarno" (1 fragment)
Roud #6064
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan3 fragment.
The following songs are all one or two verses or fragments with a verse beginning "[so-and-so he/she] was there": "Mary Glennie," "Jean Dalgarno," "The Singing Class" and "The Auchnairy Ball." Should two or more be considered the same song? - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3624

Jean Findlater's Loon


DESCRIPTION: Jean's husband died leaving her with a son Jock who was always in trouble. At 17 he grew responsible but was thrown in jail ten days for mischief making. He joins the Life Guards, fights bravely at Waterloo, is promoted, and supports Jean handsomely.
AUTHOR: William Anderson (1802-1867) (source: Greig)
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (_The Aberdeenshire Lintie_)
KEYWORDS: battle death farming husband children soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig 173, p. 1, "Jean Findlater's Loun" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 662, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Jean Findlater's Loon" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: The Aberdeenshire Lintie (Aberdeen, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 82-84, "Jean Findlater's Loun"
Roud #6089
File: Gr3662

Jean o' Bannermill


DESCRIPTION: "But if ever I return again, As I do hope I will, I'll marry thee my dearest dear, Dear Jean o' Bannermill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: love parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1324, "Jean o' Bannermill" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7214
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71324

Jean o' Lona


DESCRIPTION: Jockie: Let me go; I'll be back before long to you and Lona. Jeannie: You may meet some other maid who will make you stop loving me. Jockie: "O but Jeannie wha will then Lead me doon the flowery glen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: love parting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1325, "Jean o' Lona" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #7215
File: GrD71325

Jean of Ballinagarvey


DESCRIPTION: "The first place that I saw my love was Ballymoney town... " He describes "lovely Jean's" beauty, and says that all the young men love her. He wishes he had riches to share with her. He says he will do his best to win her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H822, p. 239, "Jean of Ballinagarvery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9475
File: HHH822

Jean Pirie


DESCRIPTION: The singer says it's not many days that he asked his mother "if she saw I was growin' a man." His legs and arms are too long for his breeches and coat. He stands "over sixty nine inches in hicht, And my wecht was a creelfu' o' stanes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (_People's Journal_, according to GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad youth
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 653, "Jean Pirie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6082
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 may be a fragment. The editors do not explain the title. - BS
"Pirie" is sometimes used as an alternate spelling of "peerie," "small." So the title may mean "little Jean." Or Òpeerie" might mean "cunning, sly," in which case it is something like "Tricky Jean," and he's after something (like a girl?). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3653

Jeanette and Jeannot


DESCRIPTION: "You are going far away from your poor Jeanette. There is no one left to love me now and you too may soon forget." The singer laments her lover's departure to be a soldier. She wishes she had the power to end war
AUTHOR: Charles Glover and Charles Jeffreys
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Journal from the Minerva Smythe)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 245-246, "Genette and Genoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan1 102, "Jeannette and Jeaunot" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST SWMS245 (Partial)
Roud #391
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1850 481050, "Jeanette and Jeannot" or "The Conscript's Departure," A. Fiot (Philadelphia), 1850 (text and tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(284))
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Conscript's Departure
NOTES: My sources do not agree on whether the (co-)author's last name was "Jeffreys," "Jeffreys," or "Jeffries." His poetry was not a great success; I have located only two other poems by him. One is a response to this, "Jeannot's Answer" (for which see Hazel Felleman The Best Loved Poems of the American People, which also contains a full text of "Jeannette and Jannot") and "We Have Lived and Loved Together" (also in Felleman). - RBW
Broadside Bodleian, Firth b.26(472), "Answer to Jeannette and Jeannot" ("Cheer up, cheer up my own Jeannette"), J. Wilson (Bideford), n.d. is [another version of the] sequel. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SWMS245

Jeanie Shaw


See Bonnie Jeanie Shaw (File: Ord344)

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair


DESCRIPTION: "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair, Borne, like a vapor, on a summer's air." The singer praises her voice, her "day-dawn smile," etc., but sadly concludes, that he is "never more to find her where the bright waters flow."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 249, "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 311-312, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"
DT, JEANBRWN
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Dream of Jeanie
NOTES: Jeanie was Foster's wife, Jane McDowell Foster. Had she known the uses to which her image would be put (from hair advertisements in the 1860s to idiotic television shows a century later), I can only think she would have filed for preemptive divorce.
Legman regards "Jeanie" as an adaption (he calls it plagiarism) of "To Daunton Me," found in the Scots Musical Museum (#182). But Legman often saw kinship that others do not see; Fuld says there is "no similarity between the two songs," and I have to agree that I see no points of contact between either the text or the tune.
Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America, p. 116) says of this song, "Jeanie is the song that America discovered during those incredibly dull months when radio decided that it could get along without copyyrighted music. Before that it had been considered a choice bit of rather obscure Fosteriana." - RBW
File: FSWB249

Jeannie and Davie


DESCRIPTION: Dialog between Davie and Jeannie. Davie: what were you thinking when you moved to my bed: "was ye tired lyin' yer lane?" Jeannie: "'Twas a' for love o' you, But I see my folly noo, It's caused me sair to rue"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: love sex dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1308, "Jeannie and Davie" (1 text)
Roud #7204
File: GrD71308

Jeannie and Jamie


See Jamie and Jeanie (File: Ord108a)

Jeannie Johnston


DESCRIPTION: "There's a nice little girl lives down yonder lane." The singer would have Jane/Jeannie Johnston go with him.
AUTHOR: words by Harry Hunter, music by Walter Redmond (source: GreigDuncan8)
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: nonballad courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1625, "Jeannie Johnston" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13005
File: GrD81625

Jeannie o' Planteenie


DESCRIPTION: Dialog. Jean, dressed as a man, asks Jamie, the shepherd, about his plans to marry. He has promised to marry someone. She encourages him to play the field. He is shocked. She reveals herself. They kiss, marry, and have "peace and plenty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1881 (Christie)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Dialog. Stranger asks directions to Traquair. Shepherd asks what he's been about. Stranger: I've had my fill of kisses. Shepherd: I'm afraid you've left someone mourning. Stranger, changing the subject: are you married? Shepherd: No but there's one "to whom I did promise To wed her as soon as my stock I'd get free." Stranger: "Ye're foolish to bind to a woman." Shepherd: "I likit her aye since we were at ta school." Stranger: I'm in no mind to marry. I visited one girl at night when her mother was away and took her to bed. Shepherd: Curse you for that. Stranger: Why? She'd pass as a maiden with any other. Shepherd: You both deserve beating with a hazel stick. Stranger, satisfied, reveals herself as Jean. Shepherd Jamie: "Grant me a' the kisses ye have got to spare" Both: "Now we are wedded and married together"
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage cross-dressing dialog shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan1 167, "Jeannie o' Planteenie" (5 texts, 3 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 142-143, "Jeannie o' Planteenie" (1 tune)
Roud #5829
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie and Jeannie
The Shepherd
The Hills o' Traquair
NOTES: Is it just me, or does this *really* sound like a stage dialog? - RBW
Christie: "As far as the Editor has discovered through old people, "Jeannie o' Planteenie" was sung in Buchan, and, doubtless, in other parts of Scotland, during the last half of the last century [18C]." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD167

Jeannie on the Moor


See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jeannie's Bawbee (Your Plack and My Plack)


DESCRIPTION: "Your plack and my plack (x3), And Je(a)nnie's bawbee." "We'll put them in the pint stoup, Pint stoup, pint stoup, We'll put them in the pint stoup, And join all three." "And that was all my Jenny had... was a bawbee."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: money nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1873, "Jeannie's Bawbee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 67, "(Your plack and my plack)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 204, "Jenny's Bawbie"
Roud #13579
NOTES: Here's at least one case where the song surviving to be recorded in GreigDuncan8 reaches beyond a Boswell rewrite. This is not at all [Alexander Boswell], Songs Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1803 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 8-10, "Jenny's Bawbee" ("I met four chaps yon birks amang") - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR067

Jed Hobson


See The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)

Jeff Davis


See The Southern Wagon (Union) (File: JHCox070)

Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse (Jeff Davis is a Gentleman)


DESCRIPTION: "Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse, Lincoln rode a mule, Jeff Davis was a gentleman, Lincoln was a fool." May be attached to floating sorts of lyrics about courting, traveling, food, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: political Civilwar
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 387, "Jeff Davis Rode a White Horse" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, p. 74, (no titles) (1 short text)
Roud #8813
File: Br3387

Jeff in Petticoats


DESCRIPTION: Jefferson Davis realizes he is in danger of capture by Union troops, and decides to dress in women's clothes to escape. The Union troops scorn him, saying, "Oh! Jeffy D. You 'flow'r of chivalree... Your empire's but a tinclad skirt...."
AUTHOR: George Cooper and Henry Tucker
EARLIEST DATE: 1865 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: cross-dressing disguise escape Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
April 2, 1865 - Robert E. Lee evacuates Richmond. The Confederate government flees
April 8, 1865 - Lee's surrender
May 10, 1865 - Capture of Jefferson Davis
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gilbert, pp. 11-12, "Jeff in Petticoats" (1 partial text)
DT, JEFFPETT*
NOTES: According to Jefferson Davis's account, he was wearing a shawl his wife had given him for warmth when he was captured. Union troops claimed he was trying to disguise himself as a woman. Although Davis's account is likely true, sarcastic Unionist songwriters could hardly leave it at that. - RBW
File: Gil011

Jefferson and Liberty


DESCRIPTION: Campaign song for Thomas Jefferson, to the tune of a reel: "The gloomy night before us flies, The reign of terror now is o'er; Its gags, inquisitors and spies, Its hordes of harpies are no more. Rejoice, Columbia's sons... For Jefferson and liberty"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1801-1809 - Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Scott-BoA, pp. 100-101, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 340, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text)
Arnett, pp. 42-43, "Jefferson and Liberty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 292, "Jefferson And Liberty" (1 text)
DT, JEFFLIB*
Roud #4668
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Jefferson and Liberty" (on PeteSeeger05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Adams and Liberty" (concept)
cf. "Lincoln and Liberty" (concept)
NOTES: The Jeffersonian ideal was a nation of small, independent farmers; this is alluded to in one of the verses. The "reign of terror" refers to the Alien and Sedition Acts, two pieces of Federalist policy designed to control dissent. Both passed in 1798; the former gave the President the power to arbitrarily expel foreigners while the latter made it illegal to speak against the federal government (!). Jefferson made good on his promises after the election; all victims of the Acts were freed.
Having finally sat down to read all dozen verses of this wordy piece, I must admit that listeners would probably have wanted liberty in the form of forcing the singer to just shut *up.* - RBW
File: SBoA100

Jehovah, Hallelujah


DESCRIPTION: "Jehovah, Hallelujah, the Lord will provide (x2)." "The foxes have a hole, and the birdies have a nest, The Son of Man he dunno where to lay the weary head."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus home nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 2, "Jehovah, Hallelujah" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11861
NOTES: The phrase "The Lord will provide" is proverbial, but with an interesting twist. In Genesis 22, Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice his only (legitimate) son Isaac. Abraham takes the boy to the land of Moriah, where Isaac asks, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answers, "God will provide." (Note the use of the word God, not Yahweh=The Lord). But as Abraham is about to murder his son, God intervenes and tells Abraham to sacrifice a ram he finds trapped instead. Abraham therefore names that place "Yahweh-Yireh," "Yahweh will provide," which in modern English versions is rendered "The Lord will provide."
The King James version, however, does not render the verse this way, reading instead, "And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh, as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." Thus the first verse of this song seems to be based on a mixture of the King James rendering and an accurate rendering.
The second verse, about foxes having holes, derives from Matthew 8:20=Luke 9:58. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: AWG002A

Jekkel Walls


DESCRIPTION: "When Jekkel walls fell down, It's no difference whar I stand... Dere's someone always ready To point de finger of scorn at me." The singer says he will "soon end at home." The singer wants others to celebrate as he celebrates in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 601, "Jekkel Walls" (1 text)
Roud #11911
NOTES: The name "Jekkel" for "Jericho" (cf. Joshua 6) is new to me -- but we find "Shorty" Love, the informant in this case, using the same pronunciation in "Christ Was a Weary Traveler." - RBW
File: Br3601

Jellon Graeme


See Jellon Grame [Child 90] (File: C090)

Jellon Grame [Child 90]


DESCRIPTION: (Jellon Grame) murders the woman he claims to love (because she carries his child and he fears discovery/because she loves another whose child she carries). (He/her sister) raises the boy. He later reveals the murder to the boy, who kills him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802 (Scott)
KEYWORDS: love pregnancy murder revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 90, "Jellon Grame" (4 texts)
Bronson 90, "Jellon Grame" (1 version)
GreigDuncan2 198, "Jellon Graeme" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Davis-More 27, pp. 207-213, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 284-286, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
OBB 49, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
PBB 55, "Jellon Grame" (1 text)
DT 90, JELGRAEM
Roud #58
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fause Foodrage" [Child 89] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jellon Graeme
NOTES: Davis seems to have no doubts about the authenticity of his text, the lone representative outside Scotland of a ballad with only the weakest roots in tradition even there -- this even though, as he himself admits, it has a surprising similarity to Child A. Well, if he won't question it, I will. I'm not saying it's a fake -- but I wouldn't be surprised if it were influenced by print. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: C090

Jem of Aberdeen


DESCRIPTION: The singer loves to rove in summer with "bonnie Jem o' Aberdeen." "Wi' joy I leave my father's cot Wi' ilka sport of glen or green ... to share the jumble lot" with Jem
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 21(55))
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 758, "Jem of Aberdeen" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6132
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 21(55), "Jem of Aberdeen" ("The tuneful lav'rocks cheer the grove"), J. Evans (London), 1791; also Johnson Ballads fol. 8 View 1 of 2, Johnson Ballads fol. 28, "Jem of Aberdeen"
NOTES: The second verse of the GreigDuncan4 texts is not in the Bodleian broadsides. It is the only verse with final line different from "Wi'/Of bonnie Jem o' Aberdeen"; specifically, "Oh James is always wooing me." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4758

Jemmy Joneson's Whurry


DESCRIPTION: "Whei cowers biv the chimley reek, Begox! it's all a horney, For thro' the world aw wisht to keek... Aw thowt aw'd myek a voyage to Shiels Iv Jemmy Joneson's whurry." The singer tells of the various sights along the trip
AUTHOR: Thomas Thompson
EARLIEST DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay); Thompson died 1816
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 46-47, "Jemmy Johnson's Wherry" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR046 (Partial)
Roud #3061
NOTES: Stokoe/Reay calls this song by two different names: The first page labels the vessel a "wherry"; all other references are to a "whurry." - RBW
File: StoR046

Jemmy O'Brien


DESCRIPTION: Jemmy O'Brien destroyed patriots. "With his dagger ... would he slaughter The husband, the wife, and the daughter." "The braggart he is now pulled down And all the great lawyers of the Crown Could not save poor Jemmy O'Brien!"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1893 (McCall's _In the Shadow of St Patrick's_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: execution political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 166, "Jemmy O'Brien" (1 fragment)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (subject)
cf. "The Major" (characters)
NOTES: Given its date, this sounds rather like a warning to those who opposed Irish independence. For the background, see the notes to "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" and "The Major." - RBW
File: Moyl166

Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet


DESCRIPTION: "De night before Jemmy was stretch'd" "de corps of informers and spies" commiserates with him and wonder that the Major can't save such a loyalist. The hangman finds him imagining the ghosts of his victims and their wives and orphans. He is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Paddy's Resource or the Harp of Erin_(Dublin), according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: execution humorous nonballad political recitation ghost
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 166, "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jemmy O'Brien" (subject)
cf. "The Major" (characters)
cf. "The Night before Larry was Stretched" (tune)
NOTES: Moylan has his text from Dublin Paddy's Resource: a spoken narrative interspersed with verses sung to "De night before Larry was stretched" and "Welcome, welcome brother debtor." The complete heading is "Jemmy O'Brien's Minuet as performed At de Sheriff's Ridotto, No. 1, Green street."
For more on the relationship between Jemmy O'Brien and Town Major Sirr see the notes to "The Major." Jemmy O'Brien appears as an informer in "The Croppy Boy" [Laws J14] and as an incidental character in "Hevey's Mare." - BS
File: Moyl166A

Jennie Ferguson


See The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)

Jennie Jenkins


See Jenny Jenkins (File: R453)

Jennie of the Moore


See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jennie on the Moore


See Janie of the Moor [Laws N34] (File: LN34)

Jennie P. King, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer "shipped in Tonawanda Some timber for to bring, From Toledo at a dollar a day On the barque the Jennie P. King." The singer describes the very mixed crew, Americans and Italians and Canadians and others. The voyage ends in Buffalo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (collected from Norman MacIvor by Walton)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship travel foreigner horse
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 137-139, "The Jennie P. King" (1 composite text)
File: WGM137

Jennie Put the Kettle On


See Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On) (File: DarNS256)

Jennie, the Flower of Kildare


DESCRIPTION: "I am dreaming of Erin tonight and the little white cot by the sea, Where Jennie, my darling, now dwells...." The singer misses her, and is sure she is waiting for him; he hopes soon to return to Ireland to see her
AUTHOR: Words: Frank Dumont / Music: James E. Stewart
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: separation reunion love Ireland
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, p. 81, "Jennie, the Flower of Kildare" (1 text)
Roud #5767
NOTES: Although not common in tradition, this song seems to have been popular in the 1870s; the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress has three different sheet music settings from 1873-1875, and the third one is a "transcrption" -- which generally means "a stolen version rearranged a little so we can get a cut of someone else's royalties."
Frank Dumont, according to Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 91, reports, "Frank Dumont, originally a member of the Carncross [minstrel] company, eventually took charge of Philadelphia's Eleventh Street Opera House, which holds the record for continuous production of minstrel shows in America. Practically every star of black-face appeared there at some time in his career. Dumont himself was a versatile singer, author and compose, contributing much material to the shows of his day."
Douglas Gilbert, Lost Chords, p. 130, says of Dumont that he was "a sprightly writer of skits and lyrics. He wrote The Book Agent, a filthy vaudeville afterpiece that slopped around the dumps and slabs like stale beer. From it Charles Hoyt derived the immensely successful family farce, The Parlor Match.... Dumont wrote, too, the amazing song called 'The Aesthetic Girl; or Too Utterly Utter" -- amazing not only because it is one of the extremely few satirical songs of the '80s but also because it is clever...." - RBW
File: Dean071

Jennifer Gentle


See Riddles Wisely Expounded [Child 1] (File: C001)

Jenny Dang the Weaver


DESCRIPTION: "At Willie's wedding on the green ... At ilka country dance or reel," Jock the weaver insists on dancing with Jenny. Between dances he "cackled like a clockin hen," so she hits him. He proposes. She tells the fool not to annoy her and hits him (again?)
AUTHOR: Alexander Boswell (1775-1822) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Boswell)
KEYWORDS: courting wedding rejection weaving dancing humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan4 911, "Jenny Dang the Weaver" (1 text)
DT, JENNYDNG*
ADDITIONAL: [Alexander Boswell], Songs Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Edinburgh, 1803 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 11-12, "Jenny Dang the Weaver" ("At Willie's wedding o' the green") [see note]
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 219, "Jenny Dang the Weaver"
Roud #2595
NOTES: Boswell prints each song with the title "Song" and, under that -- as if the title -- the name of the tune. This song is printed with the apparent title "Jenny Dang the Weaver." Apparently, Boswell was adapting an old song with that tune to new words.
Herd has a song with this name but a text that in no way fits the title. Is there an error? If so is it in the title or the text? (See David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, pp. 58-59, "Jenny Dang the Weaver"). The tune far predates Boswell's text; is Herd's text just some song set to the tune? - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4911

Jenny Dear


See Nancy (I) [Laws P11] (File: LP11)

Jenny Go Gentle


See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Jenny Jenkins


DESCRIPTION: The young man/men try to invite Jenny to the dance by asking her what color she will wear: "Will you wear the (red), O ne'er, o ne'er, o, Will you wear the red, Jenny Jenkins?" She objects to most colors, but at last may agree to one of them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823
KEYWORDS: dancing questions courting rejection clothes colors
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 453, "I'll Never Wear the Red Any More" (1 fragment, related to if not part of this song)
BrownIII 69, "Jennie Jenkins" (2 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 1 more)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 164-167, "Jennie Jenkins," "Jane Jenkins" (2 texts plus some odds and ends, 1 tune; one of the texts is from the Green Mountain Songster)
Linscott, pp. 299-300, "Will You Wear the Red? or Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 260, "Will You Wear Red?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 15, "Jennie Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 65, "Will You Wear Red?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 48-49, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 11, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 346, "Jenny Jenkins" (1 text)
DT, JJENKINS JJENKIN2
Roud #731
RECORDINGS:
E. C. & Orna Ball, "Jennie Jenkins" (AFS 8, 1941; on LC02 [the latter listed as by Mr & Mrs. Estil C. Ball])
Warde Ford, "Jinnie Jenkins" (AFS 4198 B4, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Jinnie Jenkins" (on BLLunsford02)
Margaret MacArthur, "Jenny Jenkins" (on MMacArthur01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Jennie Jenkins" (on NLCR10)
Frank Proffitt, "Julie Jenkins" (on Proffitt03)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hey Bonnie May, wi' Yer True Lovers Gay" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jillie Jenkins
NOTES: Often used as a courting game. The boy will ask the girl if she will wear a particular color. She is required to answer in rhyme (e.g. "Will you wear the blue... No, I won't wear the blue, for the color isn't true"). If she fails, she must kiss the boy or, perhaps, go to the dance with him.
This has been known to produce some rather strange rhymes -- "I won't wear purple; it's the color of a turtle"; "Orange I won't wear -- and it rhymes, so there!" "Oh, what do you care If I just go bare?" - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R453

Jenny Jo


See Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo) (File: Lins026)

Jenny Jones (Jennie Jo)


DESCRIPTION: "We've come to see (Miss) (Jenny/Ginnie/Jennia) (Jones/Jan), Miss Jenny Jones, Miss Jenny Jones, We've come to see... And how is she today?" Mother answers she is busy/sick/dead. The discuss what color she shall wear
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty disease courting children colors
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(NE) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1597, "Georgina" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 26-30, "Jennia Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden 20, "Jenny Jo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1047
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jinny Jan
Miss Jennie Jones
Ginny Jones
Jenny Ann Jones
We've Come to See Miss Jennie Jones
NOTES: Newell and Linscott both trace the name of this song to "Jennie Jo," a title which survives in Scotland. Linscott, whose version describes Jennia's death and is a discussion of the clothes in which she shall be buried, ends with Jennia coming to life and trying to snatch one of the audience, who then becomes her mother for the next round of the game.
Paul Stamler asks if, given the catalog of colors mentioned in the song, it might not be somehow connected with "Jenny Jenkins." I see his point, but this song feels very different somehow -- in this song, our heroine is never even seen. Sort of Jenny Jenkins meets the mother in "The Lass of Roch Royal." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Lins026

Jenny Nettles


DESCRIPTION: Have you seen Jenny Nettles coming from the market, baggage on her back, wages in her lap, and baby under her arm? The singer meets her singing to her baby, Robin Rattle's bastard. To flee the grief and mocking, she seeks Robin to put it under his arm.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: grief sex nonballad bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1725, "Jeanie Nettle" (2 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: David Herd, editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. (Edinburgh, 1870 (reprint of 1776)), Vol II, p. 60, "Jenny Nettles"
Allan Ramsay, The Poems of Allan Ramsay (Paisley, 1877 (reprint of 1800 edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol II, #85 pp. 218-219, "Jenny Nettles"
Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), p. 194, "Jenny Nettles"
Roud #2581
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(115), "Robin Rattle's Bastard" ("Saw ye Jenny Nettles"), William Anderson (Paisley), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(001), "Robin Rattle's Bastard," William Anderson (Paisley), c.1852
NOTES: The description follows Herd's version. Ramsay adds a verse shaming Robin Rattle and saying "without mair debate o't," take home your baby and make Jenny happy. The broadside form is Ramsay's.
Broadsides NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(001) and Bodleian 2806 c.14(115) are duplicates.
.".. in the middle of a moor near Kilgour, is the grave of Jenny Nettles, who has given name to a lively Scotch air and an old song, beginning, 'Saw ye Jennie Nettles coming through the market.' The unfortunate heroine was a native of Falkland, and famed for her great beauty. When Rob Roy took possession of Falkland after the battle of Sheriffmuir [1715], one of his soldiers courted Jenny and then deserted her, and she, in a fit of despair, hanged herself on a tree at the side of the road, about half-way between Falkland and Strathmigle." (source: The History and Scenery of Fife and Kinross (Edinburgh, 1875 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 108-109) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81725

Jenny Saviour, The


DESCRIPTION: Francis Kenny ships on Jenny Saviour "to fish the banks of Newfoundland." Near Sable Island he is swept overboard in a gale. The crew see him drown: "it was too rough to lower a boat for his young life to save"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drowning fishing sea ship storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 115, "The Jenny Saviour" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB115 (Partial)
Roud #2783
NOTES: Sable Island, Nova Scotia, about 23 miles long, is about 110 miles, at its nearest point, from the Nova Scotia coast. - BS
File: CrSNB115

Jenny's Bawbee


See Jeannie's Bawbee (Your Plack and My Plack) (File: MSNR067)

Jeremiah of Bartibogue


DESCRIPTION: Jeremiah from Bartibogue gets a job at Billy Muirhead's saw-mill in Chatham. He dresses "to the tip of fashion" He takes up politics, unsuccessfully. He is "forced to leave Chatham" and falls "to this low station, Cooking for Casey on Sprigman's Hill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: vanity clothes work humorous political cook
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manny/Wilson 24, "Jeremiah of Bartibogue" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST MaWi024 (Partial)
Roud #9190
NOTES: Manny/Wilson: "The official spelling of this river and settlement is Bartibog, but the old inhabitants spell it Bartibogue, and it is so pronounced." - BS
Manny/Wilson also note that, while the author of this is unknown, it "resembled Martin Sullivan's productions." Sullivan also wrote "The Bluebird."
The song lists Jeremiah as supporting Peter Mitchell. Mitchell was a New Brunswick legislator who became a Father of Confederation, so presumably the song was written in the second half of the nineteenth century. Manny/Wilson, p. 35, claims that the following jingle comes from the period 1880-1890:
Michael Adams tall and thin,
He's the man you can't put in.
Peter Mitchell short and stout,
He's the man you can't put out. - RBW
File: MaWi024

Jerry Ryan


DESCRIPTION: "Now all you young men who go chopping, ... I was working With that foreman, well known Jerry Ryan." Work is scarce, so the boys go logging in Bishop's Falls. The price is low for scrub spruce; the charge exorbitant for saw, board, and doctor fees.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: lumbering ordeal hardtimes logger
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Peacock, pp. 748-749, "Gerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 68, "The Foreman, Well Known Jerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 58, "Jerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 118, "The Foreman, Well-Known Jerry Ryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4414
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twin Lakes" (theme)
File: Doyl3068

Jerry the Mule


See Timber (Jerry the Mule) (File: FSWB130B)

Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30]


DESCRIPTION: Larry Sullivan has spent forty years maintaining the railroads; he is proud of the state of the tracks and of never having had a wreck. As he lies dying, he asks to be buried by the tracks. His last words are, "Jerry, go and ile that car."
AUTHOR: (credited by Loomis to "Riley the Bum")
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (article by Charles F. Loomis with Arthur G. Wells)
KEYWORDS: train death work
FOUND IN: US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws H30, "Jerry, Go and Ile that Car"
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 543-546, "Jerry, Go Ile That Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 26-27, "Jerry, Go Oil the Car" (1 text)
Belden, pp. 445-446, "The Old Section Boss" (1 text, very defective)
Sandburg, pp. 360-361, "Jerry, Go an' Ile That Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 216, "Jerry, Go and Ile that Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-RailFolklr, p. 441, "Jerry, Go and Ile That Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 691, JERRYILE
Roud #2192
RECORDINGS:
Warde H. Ford, "Jerry, will you ile that car" [fragment] (AFS 4215 B2, 1939; on LC61, in AMMEM/Cowell)
Harry "Mac" McClintock, "Jerry, Go Ile That Car" (Victor 21521, 1928; on RRinFS) (on GrowOn3) [the may be a pirate reissue of the Victor recording for all I know, but since McClintock was recording around the time this LP was issued, I class it separately. - PJS]
Art Thieme, "Jerry, Go & Oil That Car" (on Thieme06)
NOTES: Cohen's detailed examination of this song notes the earliest publication, by Loomis in 1904, which has been repeatedly reprinted, often without acknowledgment (e.g. by Lomax in Cowboy Songs). Loomis concluded, after much research, that the song was written in 1881 by "Riley the Bum," who could not otherwise be identified.
Despite the fact that very many of the texts now in circulation derive from Loomis, the handful of independent texts are just that -- independent, often with very different "feel." The description above is basically of the Loomis version.
Interestingly, the name Larry (O')Sullivan seems to be nearly constant, even as the song shifts around him. - RBW
File: LH30

Jerry, Go Ile That Car


See Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30] (File: LH30)

Jerry, Go Oil the Car


See Jerry, Go and Ile that Car [Laws H30] (File: LH30)

Jersey City


See The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)

Jersey-Blue Handkerchief


DESCRIPTION: Isabella, the "Maid of Cooper's Creek ... was courted by a Jerseyman -- she longed to be his bride." He leaves her for one "far prettier" She is left broken hearted at Billy Cooper's "vith a Jersey-blue handkerchief tied under her chin"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1879 (broadside, LOCSinging sb20228b)
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity love abandonement clothes parody
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(659), "Jersey-Blue Handkerchief" ("Come all you vifes and maidens, and attention give to me"), H. De Marsan (New York) , 1864-1878
LOCSinging, sb20228b, "Jersey-Blue Handkerchief," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Blue Handkerchief" (basis for parody)
NOTES: This is a parody of "The Bonny Blue Handkerchief," complete with "foreign" accent (for example, "vifes and maidens," "vith a Jersey-blue handkerchief," "'Tis ob the Maid," and so on).
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20228b and Bodleian Harding B 18(659): H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20228b and Bodleian Harding B 18(659) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdJeBlHa

Jerusalem Moan


See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)

Jerusalem Mourn


See Don't You Hear Jerusalem Mourn? (File: RcDYHJM)

Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home)


DESCRIPTION: "Jerusalem, my happy home, When shall I come to thee?" (Or "Oh how I long for thee.") The glories of the heavenly city are described, and the people to be found there listed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Ault); version from c. 1601 in "The Song of Mary"
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Norman Ault, _Elizabethan Lyrics From the Original Texts_, pp. 325-328, "Jerusalem, My Happy Home" (1 text)
Roud #5053
NOTES: This is one of those pieces with a very difficult history. The printing in A Song of Mary dates probably from 1601, and is anonymous; there is a different version in British Museum Add. MS. 15225. This latter is signed "F. B. P.," which probably refers to a presbyter with the initials F. B.
It has been claimed that the text is loosely based on St. Augustine. Since no one cites an actual *passage* in Augustine, this is hard to prove. (We should note that Augustine is one of the people listed as being found in heaven, so he probably isn't responsible for that part of the poem!)
The images of Jerusalem itself are largely from the Apocalypse -- e.g. the buildings of precious stones (Rev. 21:19f.), the gates of pearl (Rev. 21:21), the streets of gold (also 21:21).
Most of the characters in the song (David; "Our Lady"; [Mary] Magdalen; Simeon, for whom see Luke 2:25 and following; Zachary=Zacharias, for whom see esp. Luke 1:67 and following) are Biblical, but Ambrose is Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who lived in the time of the emperor Theodosius the Great (died 395), and Augustine (who is not really someone you'd want to meet, the stuck-up predestinarian pig) slightly later.
The original poem, of eighteen or so stanzas, is really rather pedestrian, and few anthologies print it in full. But the first few verses are popular.
Popular enough, in fact, to have been heavily adapted, and from there the waters get muddy. The song appears in the Sacred Harp hymnals, in very short and adapted form, as "Long Sought Home." The Original Sacred Harp, in fact, attributes it to "Francis Baker Priest, about 1750," (note the initials F.B.P.) which tells you how much its attributions are worth! Similarly, the Primitive Baptist Hymnal credits it to Cowper. The music is credited, both in the Sacred Harp and the Christian Harmony, to William Bobo (1865). - RBW
File: NrecJMHH

Jesous Ahatonhia


See The Huron Carol (Jesous Ahatonia) (File: FJ130)

Jesse Cole


DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "To one and all both great and small, the story I'll unfold/It makes me sad to think about the doom of Jesse Cole"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: grief death
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SharpAp 195, "Jesse Cole" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3615
NOTES: The text reprinted in the "Description" field is all that Sharp printed. - PJS
It's probably just coincidence, but it occurs to me that the maiden name of Jesse James's mother was Zerelda Cole. Could this somehow be tied in with the Jesse James legend? It's a low probability, to be sure.... - RBW
File: ShAp2195

Jesse James (I) [Laws E1]


DESCRIPTION: Jesse James's career is briefly described, with praise given to his (alleged) acts of charity. The story of James's murder is then told, focusing on the treachery of Robert Ford, "the dirty little coward that shot 'Mister Howard.'"
AUTHOR: unknown (many versions claim to be written by Billy Gashade)
EARLIEST DATE: 1887 (Comic and Sentimental Songs)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,So,SE)
REFERENCES (27 citations):
Laws E1, Jesse James (I)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 97-116, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus sundry excerpts from various Jesse James songs and copies of two sheet music covers)
Belden, pp. 401-404, "Jesse James" (3 texts, of which only the first is this song)
Randolph 132, "Jesse James" (6 texts plus an excerpt, 6 tunes, but Laws refers the B version to Laws E2; the excerpt "C" may also go there)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 146-148, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 132F)
BrownII 243, "Jesse James" (4 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 3 more; of these, the "A" and "B" texts are certainly this, and probably "G" also though it has wandered far; "I" is "Jesse James (II)")
Chappell-FSRA 112, "Jesse James" (1 fragment, placed here by Laws although it's not typical of the type)
Hudson 99, pp. 235-237, "Jesse James" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 3 more; the "B" text and "C" fragment are Laws E1; the "A" text is Laws E2)
Cambiaire, pp. 17-18, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 139, "Jesse James" (1 short text without a chorus plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 154-157, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 753-755, "Jesse James" (3 texts)
Friedman, p. 377, "Jesse James" (2 texts, but only the first is this ballad; Laws lists the second as Jesse James III, dE44)
Sandburg, pp. 374-375, "I Went Down to the Depot" (1 text, 1 tune, heavily folk processed); 420-421, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 80, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 183, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune, which Laws places here but which is noticeably different from most other texts of this type)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 128-131, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 1 tune, but only the first is this ballad; the second is Jesse James II, Laws E2)
Burt, pp. 191-192, "(Jesse James)" (1 excerpt)
Fife-Cowboy/West 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes, of which the "A" and "B" texts are Laws E1 and the others are distinct)
LPound-ABS, 64, pp. 145-146, "Jesse James"; p. 146, "Jesse James" (2 texts)
JHCox 44, "Jesse James" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 36, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 190-191, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 273, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 202, "Jesse James" (1 text)
Saffel-CowboyP, p. 188-189, "Jesse James" (1 text)
DT 619, JESSJAME*
Roud #2240
RECORDINGS:
Bentley Ball, "Jesse James" (Columbia A3085, 1920)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "Jesse James" (OKeh 45139, 1927)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Jesse James" (OKeh 40155, 1924)
Ken Maynard, "Jesse James" (1930, unissued; on RoughWays1)
Harry McClintock, "Jesse James" (Victor 21420, 1928; on WhenIWas2)
Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, "Jesse James" (Decca 5710, 1939)
Riley Puckett, "Jesse James" (Columbia 15033-D, 1925)
George Reneau, "Jesse James" (Vocalion 14897, 1924)
Almeda Riddle, "Jesse James" [fragment] (on LomaxCD1705)
Pete Seeger, "Jesse James" (on PeteSeeger16)
Ernest Thompson, "Jesse James" (Columbia 145-D, 1924)
Marc Williams, "Jesse James" (Brunswick 269, 1928)
Fields Ward, Glen Smith & Wade Ward, "Jesse James" (on HalfCen1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (II)" [Laws E2]
cf. "Jesse James (III)"
cf. "The Death of Jesse James"
cf. "Jesse James (IV)"
cf. "Jesse James (VI -- 'I Wonder Where My Poor Old Jesse's Gone')"
cf. "J. B. Marcum (A Kentucky Feud Song)" [Laws E19] (tune & meter)
cf. "Cooper Milton" (lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
Jesus Christ (by Woody Guthrie) (Greenway-AFP, pp. 301-302; DT, JESUSCHR)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oh, People Ain't You Sorry
NOTES: It should probably be noted that Jesse James (1847-1882) wasn't as nice a person as this song depicts. He began his career with Quantrill's raiders (today we would say "terrorists"), and his behavior never improved much except that he eventually began to seek a more permanent residence.
"Thomas Howard" was the name used by James when he settled down in Saint Joseph, Missouri. It was not a "retirement name"; he was still committing robberies when he died.
The "Billy Gashade" mentioned in some texts as the author is unknown (the name "Billy Lashade" occurs in the 1887 songster text, for which see Cohen-LSRail).
This version is the "standard" Jesse James song, usually beginning "Jesse James was a lad who killed many a man, He robbed the Glendale train." The usual chorus runs, "(Poor) Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life, Three children, they were brave. But the dirty little coward who shot Mister Howard Has laid Jesse James in his grave."
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: LE01

Jesse James (II) [Laws E2]


DESCRIPTION: The song starts with an account of James's robbery of the Pittsfield bank. The account of the murder is circumstantial and unflattering. James is planning a robbery; he knocks down his wife's picture; Robert Ford shoots him in the back
AUTHOR: Words: Roger Lewis? Music: F. Henri Klickmann?
EARLIEST DATE: 1911
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery death marriage
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So,SE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws E2, "Jesse James II"
Randolph 132, "Jesse James" (of Randolph's 6 texts plus 1 excerpt, Laws considers only Randolph's "B" text and tune to belong to E2, though the excerpt "C" is apparently also part of it)
BrownII 243, "Jesse James" (4 texts plus 3 excerpts and mention of 3 more; of these, only "I" is this song; "A," "B," and probably "G" are "Jesse James (I)")
Hudson 99, pp. 235-237, "Jesse James" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 3 more; the "A" text is Laws E2; the "B" text and "C" fragment are Laws E1)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 128-131, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 1 tune, but only the second text, to the tune of Casey Jones, is this ballad; the first text and tune is Jesse James I, Laws E1)
Burt, pp. 192-193, "(Jessey James)" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "D" text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 130-131, "Jesse James" (1 text, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 60-65, "Jesse James" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Fife-Cowboy/West 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes, of which the "C" text is Laws E2 and the others are distinct)
DT 620, JESSJAM3*
Roud #2241
RECORDINGS:
Frank Luther, "The Death of Jesse James" (Conqueror 7377, 1929)
George Reneau [actually sung by Gene Austin], (Vocalion 14897, 1924; on RoughWays2)
The Vagabonds, "The Death of Jesse James" (Montgomery Ward M-4443, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES: Much more even-handed than the commonly-found Jesse James ballad, this song shows James as he really was: A robber whose deeds caused people in their homes to "shake with fright" when they heard of them.
Cohen and McNeil both report that this piece was copyrighted on April 3, 1911 by Klickmann and Lewis, then on May 15 by Will Rossiter. McNeil believes the Klickman/Lewis claim of authorship to be legitimate; Norm Cohen (more probably in my opinion) thinks they cashed in on an existing piece. The Klickman/Lewis words can be sung to the tune of "Casey Jones," and the text been collected with that melody, although that is not the tune indicated in the original sheet music. McNeil gives a third melody as well.
Laws lists the characteristic opening verse/chorus of this song as:
Now people may forget a lot of famous names
But every nook and corner knows of Jesse James.
They used to read about him in their homes at night;
When the wind blew down the chimney they would shake with fright.
However, it appears that the most characteristic first line is "Way down in Missouri lived a bold bad man."
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: LE02

Jesse James (III)


DESCRIPTION: Jesse's home life is described: "His mother she was elderly; his father was a preacher." Bob Ford, described as an inept train robber, is shown in consultation with the governor. Ford kills James, but is shot by a drunken cowboy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death betrayal family
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
1892 - Robert Ford is killed in a barroom brawl in Creede, Colorado
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Belden, pp. 401-404, "Jesse James" (3 texts, of which only the third is this song)
Friedman, p. 377, "Jesse James" (2 texts, but only the second is this ballad; the first is "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1])
ADDITIONAL: William A. Settle, Jr., _Jesse James Was His Name_ (Bison Books edition, 1977), [used as a key to the Table of Contents and quoted at the head of each chapter]
ST FR379 (Partial)
Roud #7819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES: This ballad includes several accurate details of James's life not found in most of the other Jesse James songs: The fact that his mother had her arm blown off (by Pinkertons in 1875); "Governor C"=Governor Crittenden; and the fact that Robert Ford also died by gunfire.
The amount of literature on the James Gang astonishes me; it appears that at least four books were published just in the period 1980-2000, with many more before that. Many of these, however, appear to be pretty bad. A few -- Settle and Yeatman -- strike me as far more reliable than the vast mass; they have been my main sources for what follows.
The James Boys certainly were not born to be criminals; Yeatman, pp. 25-27, gives a rather impressive family history. Their father, Robert Salee James (c. 1818-1850) was the son of a Virginia Baptist minister, John W. James (Brant, p. 4). John James died when Robert was nine, and he and his siblings moved in with their older sister, the newly-married Mary James Mimms (Brant, p. 5). Mary Mimms was the mother of the future wife of Jesse James.
Robert Sallee James, despite being an orphan, managed an impressive education. He earned a B.A. in classics in 1843, and picked up a Masters in 1848. His library was not overly large, but in addition to theology, Latin, and Greek, it included volumes on mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and philosophy (Settle, p. 7). In 1841, he married 16-year-old Zerelda Cole, who was blessed with a fairly substantial inheritance. (In case you're wondering -- no, the name Zerelda is *not* Biblical. It appears to be a family name in the Cole family, though I've seen no explanation of how it arose.) The young couple moved to Clay County, Missouri, in 1842.
Their residence in Clay County is significant. It's just east of Kansas City (the county seat is Liberty), and the settlers were mostly from border slave states like Tennessee. At the time of Lincoln's election in 1860, over a quarter of the residents of the county were slaves; clearly it was an area happy with slavery (Yeatman, p. 29). Indeed, one of the James stepfathers was a slaveowner (Yeatman, pp. 27-28), as was Robert James himself (Settle, p. 7).
After arriving in Missouri, Robert James became pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church, which during his time there grew to have several hundred members. He also farmed 275 acres. But, for some reason, he decided to follow the gold rush to California, leaving his family behind. He died of "fever" on August 18, 1850 at Hangtown, California.
From that time on, things were traumatic for the James boys, Alexander Franklin ("Frank"), born 1843, and Jesse Woodson, born 1847. (They had a sister Susan, born just before Robert went west.) Jesse had apparently been truly bothered when his father went away, and his mother's second and third marriages can't have helped; in 1852, she took the elderly Benjamin Simms as a second husband, but they separated and he died soon after (Brant, pp. 14-15; Settle, p. 8); her third, Dr. Reuben Samuel, whom she married in 1855, was the second slave owner among her husbands. Samuel and Zerelda would eventually have four children: Archie (of whom more below), John, Sallie, and Fannie (Brant, p. 8; Settle, p. 9).
When the Civil War came, Frank promptly joined the Confederate side, being part of the force (one hesitates, at that stage of the war, to call it an army) of General Sterling Price (1809-1867), for whom see, e.g. "Sterling Price." He was one of Price's rabble-in-arms (or, often, rabble-wishing-for-the-arms-they-didn't-have) at Wilson's Creek (for which see e.g. "The War in Missouri in '61" and "Jolly Union Boys"). Later that year, he came down with measles, was captured by Union troops, and paroled (Yeatman, p. 32; Settle, p. 20).
It's at this point that the James story starts to get genuinely ugly. Frank apparently took an oath to the Union in 1862. But Clay County was part of the area raided by both sides. Frank, even though he had sworn to support the union, joined Quantrill's Raiders (for whom see the notes to "Charlie Quantrell" as well as "The Call of Quantrell," "Quantrell," etc.), probably in 1863 (Yeatman, p. 35; Settle, p. 21-23, is not sure of the date though he notes that Cole Younger was in the band by the spring of 1862 and Jim Younger was acting as a guerrilla by 1864).
In May 1863, Frank managed to upgrade himself from oathbreaker to terrorist; in an ambush near Richfield, Missouri, he was part of an ambush in which a Lt. Graffenstein was killed after surrendering (Yeatman, p. 36). On August 7, Frank committed his first true robbery (Yeatman, p. 41). Meanwhile, the Federals were looking for Frank -- and they visited the James/Samuel home, with results hardly likely to endear them to the family. They beat up Jesse (who may already have been serving as a Confederate spy, and who some time during this period managed to shoot the end off one of his fingers; Settle, p. 31, suggests a date of June 1864, though accounts vary of how he lost it. According to Brant, the injury earned Jesse the nickname "Dingus," because he referred to the weapon that injured him as the "dodd-dingus pistol" he had ever used). Even more extremely, they half-hanged Dr. Samuel, perhaps as many as four times (Settle, p. 26); his voice was apparently affected for the rest of his life (Yeatman, p. 39). (Wellman, p. 54, claims it was his relatives who cut him down, but this seems highly unlikely; if the troops wanted to hang him, wouldn't they stick around for a few minutes to make sure he died?)
By 1864, when Jesse joined the Quantrill Gang (Yeatman, p. 50), the band were effectively out of Confederate control, preferring bushwhacking in Kansas and Missouri to regular service in Texas (Yeatman, p. 49). Not even Quantrill controlled most of them any more. Their recruiting methods were also irregular; while Frank was properly a member of the Confederate forces, it appears Jesse joined the terrorists entirely as a freelance (Yeatman, p. 52). That's not his age; by 1864, the Confederates were happy to have 17-year-olds in the military. But Jesse chose to be an irregular.
He certainly was quick to get in trouble. In an early raid, Jesse was shot through the chest, apparently while stealing a saddle (Yeatman, p. 53), though the claim was later made that he was fighting the Yankees.
By the end of the war, the irregulars were robbing trains; at Centralia they captured, looted, and destroyed a train of the North Missouri Railroad, killing two dozen Union soldiers who were aboard on furlough (Yeatman, p. 55). The James Boys were probably not present for this (Brant, p. 35, allows the possibility that Jesse was there, but as usual his evidence is thin), but they must have heard about it. And the James boys *were* present when a rescue party was slaughtered; many of the bodies of the rescuers were deliberately mutilated (scalped, beaten, and worse; Yeatman, p. 56).
By 1864, the entire James/Samuels clan was in exile -- Dr. Samuels evicted from his home (Yeatman, p. 62), Jesse James with ruffians under "Arch" Clement who were somewhere around Texas, having proved too rough even for Quantrill (Yeatman, pp. 73-74), and Frank James with Quantrill, who headed for Kentucky with the remainder of his force (Yeatman, p. 65). By 1865, the Federals were on Quantrill's heels; many of the guerillas were being killed, captured, or left behind when they lost their horses Yeatman, (pp. 66-68); Quantrill himself was mortally wounded on May 10 (Yeatman, p. 71).
The Clement gang, including Jesse, was meanwhile attacking Kingsville, Missouri, burning, looting, and murdering (Yeatman, pp. 73-74). Somewhat later, with the war clearly lost, Jesse suffered another bullet wound (reportedly making a spectacular escape before passing out; Settle, pp. 30-31; Wellman, p. 66); while still on his sickbed, he was paroled May 21, 1865 (Yeatman, pp. 76-77).
The wound kept him bedridden for months (Settle, p. 31); there were times when he was expected to die. The twice-injured lung apparently troubled him for the rest of his life (Yeatman, p. 95, on the basis of a statement by Cole Younger). During his recovery, he was cared for by his aunt and uncle, and became secretly engaged to their daughter Zerelda ("Zee") Mimms (Settle, p. 34; Wellman, p. 67, says that they fell in love but does not claim they became engaged).
Frank James (who had apparently acquired the nickname "Buck" during the war) was finally forced to surrender, along with other Quantrill survivors, on July 26, 1865, by which time Quantrill had been dead seven weeks. They might have come in earlier, had not some members of the band raped a woman; the authorities demanded they find the perpetrators (Yeatman, pp. 80-81). Still, Settle, p. 32, notes that neither Frank nor Jesse was considered in any way noteworthy in 1865.
Yeatman speculates that the guerrilla fighting in Missouri (the most bitter in all the Civil War) left the two brothers suffering from post-traumatic stress (Yeatman, p. 104); like a number of other veterans (e.g. Tom Dula), they, or at least Jesse, seem to have come home intending to return to normal life (Yeatman, p. 91). For four years, they lived at home (Settle, p. 32), but there are hints that they occasionally vanished for a few days, and they lived in an area much affected by lawlessness. Their whereabouts in the period 1869-1874 are almost impossible to trace (Yeatman, p. 99), but they came to be famous as robbers in this period.
On February 13, 1866 occurred the robbery of the bank of Liberty, Missouri, which resulted in the loss of some $60,000 and cost a bystander his life; it was said to be the first daylight bank robbery in peacetime (O'Neal, p. 167; Settle, p. 34; Wellman, p. 69; Yeatman, pp. 85-86).
Later folklore would connect this with the James Boys, and Wellman accepts this without question (in fact, he is already calling Jesse the head of the gang, on pp. 69, 73, even though such evidence as we have of the James/Younger gang does not seem to imply that there was a head). Although the Liberty bank is close to the James home, there is no real evidence that either the Jameses or the Youngers were involved. Wellman's link to the event is that the Boys had sometimes ridden through the town shooting off pistols, as if to establish their willingness to be wild (pp. 69-71). Scaring the tellers into turning over the money sounds logical -- until you realize that the robbers never used their names during the Liberty robbery. How can men whose identities aren't known have a reputation? And, since there were reportedly ten robbers (Wellman, p. 73), it would seem as if someone in the vicinity could have identified them had they been locals and done something to make themselves identifiable.
(Note: I'm not saying the Jameses and Youngers weren't involved. I'm saying it cannot be proved, and can't even be stated as a likelihood. It is merely a possibility.)
Several other robberies took place in the same area over the next few years (Settle, pp. 34-36). Some were more successful than others; none were connected with the Jameses, though some reportedly involved ex-Quantrill men. There is a stronger connection with the March 20, 1868 robbery of the Russellville, Kentucky bank; the James friend Cole Younger was probably part of this (Yeatman, pp. 93-95), and Settle, p. 38, notes that on the day of the robbery, the James Boys were reportedly suffering from "war wounds" -- which would make a lot more sense if the wounds in fact had a recent cause.
On December 7, 1869 came the robbery of the Davies County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri -- one of the robberies famously tied to the Jameses (Wellman, p. 81, says without question that the James Brothers and Cole Younger did it, with circumstantial details, but these of course are unverified.) Captain John W. Sheets, one of the bank owners, was shot to death during the attack (Settle, p. 38; Wellman offers the theory that he was killed because he resembled S. P. Cox, responsible for the death of the guerilla "Bloody Bill" Anderson). At least two robbers were involved; one was said to resemble Frank James. The evidence was thin, but a posse turned up to arrest the James brothers, who would prove to have no real alibi.
Apparently not willing to risk arrest, Frank and Jesse fled the Samuels farm on horseback (Settle, pp. 39-40; Yeatman, pp. 95-97). Eventually a price of several thousand dollars would be put on their heads. Soon after, a paper published a letter allegedly from Jesse, denying any crime but saying it was impossible to get a fair trial in Missouri (Settle, p. 41). There would be many more such letters in coming years. Most, however, appeared in papers associated with John Newman Edwards, who also published articles allegedly clearing members of the gang (Settle, pp. 51-52).
A later letter, signed "Jack Shepherd, Dick Turpin, Claude Duval" (after three famous English highwaymen) promised to pay the medical expenses of a girl hurt in the course of a robbery, and denied that the participants were thieves; they preferred the term "robber." This letter (Yeatman, p. 105; cf. Settle, p. 46) seems to be almost the sole foundation for the claim that the Jameses gave to the poor.
In 1873, robbers derailed and robbed a train in Adair, Iowa; the engineer was killed in the wreck. Again we cannot show that the Jameses were involved, but the method of removing rails and piling debris on the track fits their mode of operation (Yeatman, pp. 106-108). Settle, p. 47, observes that the gang did not invent this particular dirty trick, but it was to become a James/Younger signature. This particular robbery brought in about $2000. Descriptions of the robbers, an their behavior, caused Jesse to be called the head of the gang for the first time (Settle, p. 48). The robbery was considered important enough that the Pinkertons would be called in (Settle, p. 58).
1874 finally brings us back to relatively firm history, as both Jesse and Frank were married in that year (Wellman, p. 87). Jesse finally married his cousin "Zee" Mimms, nine years after they had become engaged, on April 24, 1874. The Methodist Reverend William James, uncle to both Jesse and Zee, agreed to marry them after trying and failing to talk Jesse out of his violent lifestyle (Yeatman, p. 119)
Frank married later that year, to Annie (Anna?) Ralston, who had earned a degree in science and literature in 1872. Ralston's father was a Unionist from Ireland; her parents reportedly were horrified to learn that she had eloped with such an outlaw (Yeatman, pp. 120-121). The Ralstons learned of it only indirectly (Annie's letter to her parents said only that she had eloped), and once they did so, they kept it secret from the community as much as possible (Settle, p. 42).
By the 1870s, with Missouri still feeling the after-effects of the Civil War, the various outlaws roaming the state were becoming a political issue; the legislature took various ineffectual steps to try to halt the depredations. The Pinkertons received another call (Yeatman, pp. 111-114) after another train robbery, at Gads Hill in 1874. (No, I'm not making that up; apparently Missouri has such a place as well as England; Settle, p. 49;Wellman, p. 86.) This was another robbery where the perpetrators could not absolutely be identified -- one Jim Reed confessed to it on his deathbed (Yeatman, p. 138) and denied the James Boys were there -- but it was widely credited to the brothers. And it is apparently certain that the Jameses were working with the three surviving Younger brothers (Cole, Jim, and Bob) by that time.
Unfortunately, the Pinkertons called in to deal with the problem were not up to the task; they didn't catch anyone, and a young agent named John W. Whicher was soon killed (Settle, pp. 59-60). Two other agents died trying to capture the Younger brothers, though they succeeded in killing John Younger (Settle, p. 60; Wellman, pp. 90-92, gives a dramatized version of the incident. Pp. 92-94 dramatizes the death of Whicher).
The detective agency would add another tragic page to the James story: on January 28, 1875, the Pinkertons (or someone; Yeatman, Wellman, and Brant are certain; Settle is not) firebombed the Samuels home, in the belief that Frank and Jesse were there. (According to Brant, p., 134, the explosion could be heard three miles away, and much of the house caught fire. Yeatman and Settle give no hints of major pyrotechnics. Wellman, pp. 96-98, has a rather pathetic account of what occurred, but also thinks it a relatively small explosive, possibly a Civil War grenade though he thinks it an iron flare. Either way, he agrees with those who consider it a relatively small explosive device)
But the bombers did not catch their men. Instead, they killed Archie Peyton Samuel, the half-brother of Jesse and Frank (whose age is variously listed as eight [Brant, Wellman], nine [Settle] and 13 [Yeatman]). In addition, a shell fragment hit Mrs. Samuel on the right wrist, shattering it and forcing the amputation of her hand (Yeatman, pp. 134-137; Settle, p. 76. Brant, of course, says that her hand was "blown off," and Wellman says it was "torn off"). A grand jury eventually filed murder charges against Pinkerton and certain of his employees, not all named (Yeatman, p. 143). The charges were dismissed in 1877 (Settle, p. 80), mostly on the grounds that the case was not being actively pursued and the charges were stale.
The firebombing clearly disturbed the family. Dr. and Mrs. Samuels eventually tried to sell their property, but found no takers (Yeatman, pp. 149-150; Settle, pp. 86-101). And Jesse and Zee, who by this time was pregnant, moved to Nashville in early 1875. Jesse used the name "John Davis Howard" (which we will of course see again); Zee became "Josie." At the time, Mr. Howard listed his occupation as "wheat speculator," though he often vanished for weeks at a time. During this period, Jesse apparently was trying to kill Allan Pinkerton (Yeatman, p. 151) -- but the result was rather Hamlet-like: He wanted Pinkerton to know and suffer, and he never had a chance to kill Pinkerton in such circumstances. If Jesse didn't get Pinkerton, the gang may still have committed murder: Daniel Askew, a neighbor of the Samuels family who may have helped the Pinkertons, was shot to death in April 1875 (Settle, p. 85). Most attribute the murder to the Jameses, though there was speculation the Pinkertons did it to silence a potential witness against them (Settle, p. 86).
In an interesting twist, Jesse also published several letters boasting (lying) about his whereabouts and activities. What is interesting is that they contain many more errors of grammar, spelling, and punctuation than the earlier letters he had supposedly published in the Edwards papers -- as if two different men had written them. If originals of any of these alleged letters survived, no one bothered to mention them.
In 1875, Zee gave birth to Jesse Edward James, publicly known as "Tim Howard"; he would answer to the nickname "Tim" all his life. (Yeatman, p. 161). There seems to be some dispute about the exact date; Settle, p. 129, says December 31; Yeatman, p. 161, has August 31.
At this time, the first known James associate was captured alive. Tim Webb, who had recently taken part in a robbery in Huntington, West Virginia, was captured, and though there is no evidence the Jameses or Youngers took part in this robbery (Settle, p. 87), Webb probably knew where Jesse was living in hiding. So Jesse and Zee moved to Baltimore for about a year (Yeatman, p. 162); Frank also spent some time there. But in 1876, the two returned to Missouri, leaving their wives behind (Yeatman, p. 164).
In Missouri, they met the Youngers, and for some reason decided to try a raid on Minnesota. On arriving in the state, they scouted various banks, according to Cole Younger, they eventually picked the bank in Northfield in part because former Union general and Mississippi carpetbagger governor Adelbert Ames was associated with the place, and the infamous general Benjamin "Beast" Butler (for whom see, e.g., "Hold On, Abraham") apparently had money there (Yeatman, p. 171; Settle, p. 95).
For the story of the disastrous Northfield raid itself, see the notes to "Cole Younger" [Laws E3]. Frank and Jesse were said to have been injured in the fracas (Settle, p. 98; cf. Brant, p. 179, who says that Frank's hand was crushed in the vault door), but it didn't slow them down; they were the only two to escape police. (Settle, p. 96, notes that, to this time, police still didn't have a reliable description of either brother, and indeed, Huntington, p. 50fff., describes occasions on which the pursuers actually encountered the robbers but did not recognize or succeed in capturing them.) After separating from the Youngers, Frank and Jesse managed to reach the South Dakota border about ten days after the raid (Yeatman, p. 183).
(Lyle Lofgren tells me that the town of Garretson, South Dakota, on the Minnesota border northeast of Sioux Falls, has a "Jesse James's Leap," or some such thing, which Jesse is alleged to have ridden his horse across. Lyle adds that he thinks it too wide for any horse, and what are the odds that Jesse would have tried it on an unfamiliar horse?)
The brothers apparently decided that that was enough outlawry for a lifetime. Soon after that, they and their families found new homes and tried, at least for a while, to live quietly.
Frank apparently settled in Nashville. He seems to have used the name Ben J. Woodson. He reportedly worked very hard as a sharecropper, except perhaps for a brief time when he suffered from malaria (Yeatman, p. 202).
Jesse, still using the name "John Davis Howard," chose a more rural setting, in Humphries County some distance to the west. He didn't draw much attention except for owning a very fast horse, occasionally showing great skill with a pistol, and sometimes acting a little paranoid (Yeatman, pp. 196-197). Around this time, Zee gave birth to twin boys, Gould and Montgomery, who however died soon afterward (Yeatman, p. 201; Settle, p. 132). On February 8, 1878, Frank's wife Annie bore Robert Franklin James. In one of the strangest twists of the James saga, he was apparently called "Mary" as a baby (Yeatman, p. 203). Settle, p. 132, reports that Zee nursed Robert when Annie proved unable to produce enough milk.
Both Frank and Jesse were gamblers, but it appears Jesse wasn't nearly as good at it; he lost a lot, and also suffered from lawsuits over his financial dealings, and at least once bounced a check (Yeatman, p. 204). In December 1878, he moved again (Yeatman, p. 205). In 1879, it was his turn to suffer malaria (Yeatman, p. 207). In July of that year, his daughter Mary was born (Yeatman, p. 211; Settle, p. 129). This was Jesse's last child; note, therefore, that (contrary to most versions of "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1], he did *not* have three children when he died).
At about this time, Jesse seems to have decided it was time to return to outlawry. Frank, from what we can tell, just wanted to be left alone. (Reconstruction had ended with the disputed Hayes/Tildren election of 1876, and sympathy for unreconstructed rebels was less.) Frank in the years around 1880 was apparently deliberately courting friendships with pillars of the local community (Yeatman, p. 228), presumably to have character witnesses if he needed them.
Yeatman, p. 213, based on later testimony of Dick Liddil (cf. Settle, p. 148) says that Jesse's new gang consisted of his cousin Wood Hite (Robert Woodson Hite, a cousin of Jesse's whose family still lived in Kentucky), Ed Miller (the brother of the slain Clell Miller), Tucker Bassham, Bill Ryan, and Dick Liddil (this is the spelling of Settle, Yeatman, and even Brant; others have used "Liddell" or other forms). This gang in October 1879 robbed a train at Glendale (the one James robbery celebrated in song in which Frank played no part; Settle, pp. 133, 148). The take from this robbery, apart from non-negotiable securities, was about $6000 (Settle, p. 102).
Late in 1879, a report circulated that Jesse was dead (Settle, pp. 103-104). It was, of course, false.
Somewhat later, Tucker Bassham was arrested. It appears Jesse and Ed Miller rode off (to silence him?). Miller never returned; it is speculated that Jesse killed him (Yeatman, p. 218). On September 3, 1880, Jesse robbed a stagecoach in showy fashion, apparently trying to imitate the famous English highwaymen (and incidentally picking up some loot which would be found in his home after his death); other robberies followed (Yeatman, pp. 219-220).
In early 1881, Frank and Jesse were again briefly scared out of their homes; they went briefly to Alabama (Yeatman, pp. 229-230). This was fateful, because Jesse became aware of the large crew working on the Muscle Shoals canal. In March, he took Bill Ryan and Wood Hite and robbed the man carrying the workers' pay (Yeatman, pp. 233-234). The total haul was over $5000.
On March 25, Bill Ryan got drunk and turned rowdy. He was taken into custody carrying about $1400 and four firearms. Although he refused, upon being taken, to tell authorities anything, Frank, Jesse, and Dick Liddil concluded that they must again leave home. Frank would later confess to despair at "again becom[ing] a wanderer" (Yeatman, p. 240).
This is another vague period in the history of the James Boys; Jesse ended up in Kansas City using the name J. T. Jackson (Yeatman, p. 248), but witnesses disagree about where Frank was; he said he never went that far west, and stayed clean in this period (Yeatman, p. 260), but others claim he was part of the gang that, on July 16, 1881, attacked a train near Gallatin. Jesse, Dick Liddil, and Clarence and Wood Hite were very likely present. Two men including the conductor were killed; the total haul was about $700 (Yeatman, p. 249).
In the period around 1870, the press was split about outlaws. By 1880, it was more strongly against their depredations. Missouri governor Thomas T. Crittenden (1832-1909) had been elected in 1880 in part on a promise to settle the James Gang. (The Missouri Republican platform ha actually attacked the Democrats for failing to do what "a Republican state" had done, referring to Minnesota's prosecution of the Youngers; Settle, p. 106.) The law didn't permit him to set a price on their heads, but he induced the railroads and other businesses to offer a total of $50,000 for the members of the gang. For Jesse and Frank, the reward was $5000 each for their capture (if taken alive) and another $5000 upon conviction (Settle, p. 110; Yeatman, p. 252).
On September 7, 1881, a train was robbed at the "Blue Cut" curve. Along with the usual crew of Jesse, Clarence and Wood Hite, Dick Liddil, and perhaps Frank, there was a new recruit named Charlie Ford (Yeatman, pp. 253-254). Since the safe contained only about $400, the outlaws beat the express messenger, then robbed the passengers as well (Settle, pp. 111-112).
Bob Ford's first association with the gang seems to have been part of a robbery with brother Charlie, Dick Liddil, and Wood Hite; Jesse reportedly was not part of the crew (Yeatman, p. 261).
About this time, former gang member Tucker Bassham, sentenced to ten years, was offered full pardon in return for cooperation. He helped convict Bill Ryan, then fled the area, no doubt the fact that his home was burned added to his desire to depart. On September 28, 1881, Ryan was sentenced to 25 years (Settle, pp. 113-144; Yeatman, pp. 257-258).
Things finally started to come apart when the gang suffered from internal dissent. A young widow named Sarah Norris Peck had married the old widower George Hite, the father of Wood and Clarence. It appears the Hite children never liked her, and vice versa; eventually, she swore out a warrant against Wood Hite. The police captured Wood, but he escaped. However, when Wood met Dick Liddil, and Bob and Charlie Ford, Wood quarreled with Liddil (possibly over the affections of one Martha Bolton; Settle, p. 116). In the fight that followed, Liddil was hurt and Hite killed, reportedly by Bob Ford as he was shooting at Liddil (O'Neal, p. 143; Yeatman, pp. 261-262). Hite, recall, was Jesse's first cousin, so the Fords and Liddil now had reason to fear the leader of their former gang.
Liddil would surrender to authorities January 24, 1882, with promises of immunity if he could bring in the rest of the gang (Settle, p. 116) -- but the event was kept out of the papers to avoid rousing Jesse's suspicions. Clarence Hite, suffering from the tuberculosis which would kill him in 1883, and afraid of being caught, followed Liddil on February 11 (Settle, p. 117; Yeatman, p. 266). Thus, of the post-Younger Frank-and-Jesse-James Gang, only Frank and Jesse were still free; of the gang which followed that, which was really Jesse's alone, Jesse was the only one left. Nor could he turn to Frank any more; Frank had decided to leave the west, possibly forever. In October 1881, he and his family, after visiting various spots in Virginia and North Carolina (trying to find a place that was safe, prosperous, and not troubled by disease), settled in Lynchburg, Virginia; he used the name "James Warren" (Yeatman, p. 263).
Jesse wasn't done with crime. On November 9, 1881, he went to St. Joseph, Missouri; he would settle at 1318 Lafayette Street. Jesse's companion on his first visit to the town was Charlie Ford. It was to be a short-lived but fateful partnership.
Ford family patriarch James Thomas Ford had been born in 1820 in Virginia; he moved back and forth from Missouri to Virginia several times (Yeatman, p. 264). He was in Missouri at the start of the Civil War, but moved back to Virginia in 1862; his son Bob was a newborn at the time. An older brother of Charlie and Bob, John Ford, would fight for the Confederacy with Mosby's Rangers (Yeatman, p. 265).
Around 1869, the Ford family returned to Missouri. Bob and Charlie apparently were introduced to Jesse in 1881 by Ed Miller. Charlie, as noted above, was the first to join the James Gang. But Jesse soon asked Charlie to recruit another man for his diminished gang, and Charlie recruited Bob (Yeatman, p. 267).
Bob was soon in touch with the authorities; he apparently didn't like Jesse's management (he is reported to have said that Jesse was "dead" as a gang leader; Yeatman, p. 265). Bob Ford met with Governor Crittenden on January 13, 1882 in Kansas City; he reports that he was offered $10,000 dead or alive for Jesse (and the same for Frank). Frank was out of reach, but Jesse was available.
The motivations of the Ford Brothers are rather unclear at this point. When word finally slipped out that Liddil had been taken, they may have feared that Jesse would try to get rid of them, too. Yeatman says, Jesse and the Fords were tending their horses when Jesse said he was too hot and took off his coat; he apparently also took off his gun belt. He turned his back to brush off some pictures, and the Fords pulled out their pistols. Bob apparently fired first; he hit Jesse in the back of the head (Yeatman, p. 269). Settle's account is more like the traditional one of Jesse climbing a chair to hang a picture, and mentions only Bob drawing his gun (p. 117). Brant's account (pp. 224-225) also mentions the chair, claiming that the Fords became suspicious when Jesse took off his guns, which Brant claims he never did. Whatever the exact events (for which, of course, we have only the accounts of the two brothers), Jesse was dead by gunshot When Zee arrived, Charlie claimed it was an accident -- but he and Bob quickly headed off to report to the authorities.
Some people were not convinced that the body was really Jesse's, but his mother and wife, and several others, attested to it -- and many relics of his robberies were found in his home (Settle, p. 1180.
Jesse's relics quickly became highly sought-after items; if eBay had existed in 1882, the Samuels would have been set for life. The owner of the house Jesse was renting did a fine business giving tours, though the visitors did much damage carving off souvenirs (Settle, p. 127). Jesse was initially buried on the family farm, apparently to protect his body; later he was moved to the family plot -- and his grave monument soon chiseled away by more relic-hunters (Settle, p. 166).
After Jesse's death, the Fords claimed that Governor Crittenden had offered the reward for Jesse dead or alive; Crittenden of course claimed he had demanded the capture of the Jameses (Yeatman, p. 271). According to Settle, it is still not known what money was paid to whom. Crittenden's role remains ambiguous -- he encouraged the betrayal of Jesse, but ended up treating Frank with tender loving care.
The Fords ended up facing murder charges, first for Jesse, then for Wood Hite, whose body was exhumed (Yeatman, p. 272). On April 17, 1882, Bob and Charlie pled guilty to the murder of Jesse. Sentenced to death, they were pardoned by Crittenden (Settle, p. 1189). They eventually were acquitted in the death of Hite (Yeatman, p. 275).
In October of that year, after complicated but obscure negotiations probably involving Crittenden, assorted prosecutors, and James apologist John Newman Edwards, Frank James finally turned himself in (Settle, pp. 130-131; Yeatman, p. 279). It took some time to decide on charges, since the statute of limitations had passed for many of his crimes. Eventually he was charged with a murder at Gallatin. The result was circus-like. A newspaper ascerbically remarked that it wasn't clear if Frank had surrendered to the State of Missouri or Missouri to Frank (Settle, p. 134).
There were few left to testify against Frank. Clarence Hite was dead. Bill Ryan had given no testimony against Frank. The Fords had not worked with him. The charges against him were mostly for crimes committed after Northfield, so the Youngers could not testify even if they wanted to. That left only Dick Liddil, who by this time was on trial in Alabama. And he was claiming he had not taken any part in Frank's crimes, which (it appears to me) would make his testimony hearsay. Authorities tried to award him clemency to get the real truth out of him; President Chester A. Arthur refused (Settle, pp. 137-138). The main case had to be tried in an opera house to provide seats for spectators (Settle, p. 139). Liddil was the only real witness. The jury needed less than four hours to reach a not guilty verdict.
It was then decided that Liddil's testimony could not be used further, since he was a felon, and the other Missouri charges dropped (Settle, p. 150). Frank then was sent to Alabama for the Muscle Shoals robbery. Again it was just Liddil's word, and Frank had an alibi; he was again found not guilty (Settle, pp. 152-153). On February 21, 1885, the last of the charges based on Missouri crimes was dropped (Yeatman, p. 289). There was still the matter of the Northfield robbery, but no one from Minnesota was pursuing the matter. Frank was free.
It is interesting to note that Crittenden failed of renomination in 1884, partly because of the James affair (Settle, p. 154).
Frank seems to have stayed straight for the rest of his life. He moved to Dallas in 1887 and became a successful salesman for a time, then turned to other odd jobs. Eventually he was turned down for a patronage job he thought he deserved as a token of his reform (Settle, p. 163; Yeatman, p. 299), after which he went into acting. In 1903, he and Cole Younger (now out of jail and given a conditional pardon) opened a Wild West show that was named after them. It was to be surrounded by controversy and quarrels among the performers; at one point even Cole and Frank were indicted, though they got off by noting that they did not own, manage, or bankroll the show; they were simply paid performers lending their names to the production. When matters grew too troublesome, the two quit the show (Yeatman, pp. 302-311).
By that time, Frank's political disillusionment was so extreme that he publicly declared himself a Republican (generally regarded as unthinkable for a Confederate veteran) on August 20, 1904 (Settle, p. 164; Yeatman, p. 311); he would in time come out in favor of women's suffrage (Yeatman, p. 318). In 1907 he bought farm in Fletcher, Oklahoma (Yeatman, p. 314). After stepfather Reuben Samuels died in 1908 in a mental hospital, suffering some sort of dementia, and Zerelda Samuels died February 10, 1911 (Yeatman, p. 317), Frank inherited the Samuels farm and turned it into a tourist attraction. It has served that function for much of the time since, though different owners have devoted different degrees of attention to it.
Frank never really told his story; once, when asked about his past, he said, "I neither affirm nor deny.... If I admitted that those stories were true, people would say, 'There's the greatest scoundrel unhung,' and if I denied 'em they'd say, 'There's the greatest liar on earth," so I just say nothing" (Yeatman, p. 319). He died February 18, 1915, the next to last of the Northfield robbers; Cole Younger, the last, would die in 1916.
Frank was certainly the most fortunate of the gang. The Youngers served long terms in prison; Bob died there, and Jim committed suicide after his release; Cole had some modest success as a showman. The other two Northfield raiders were dead. Wood Hite was dead. Clarence Hite died of tuberculosis (there were suspiciously many TB cases among the James Gang; one suspects someone carried the disease. Probably Jesse, given his lung problems. And the fact that several of them were related may have meant that they had the same genetic lack of immunity).
Charlie Ford also suffered from tuberculosis, and he apparently became addicted to morphine as a result; he killed himself on May 4, 1884 (Yeatman, p. 291). One suspects that this is the main reason why the Jesse James songs mention Bob and not Charlie.
Bob Ford wandered around the west, trying a short stint as a police officer before taking to saloon-keeping. He was at his third of these, in Creede, Colorado, when a man named Ed Kelly (Ed O. Kelly? Ed O'Kelly?) shot him on June 8, 1892 (Yeatman, p. 292). Ironically, Kelly himself would be shot to death in 1904 in Oklahoma City.
Jesse's wife Zee died on November 13, 1900 (Yeatman, p. 296). There were various imposters over the years -- a fake Zee arose as early as 1885, when Zee was obviously still around. A later Zee apparently was credited with charismatic gifts! (Yeatman, p. 297). There were also an assortment of fake Jesses over the years, including one John James in 1931 (easily discredited). One J. Frank Dalton was still making a claim as late as 1950, more than a century after Jesse's birth. (Fans of science fiction will be chagrined to note that the infamous Raymond F. Palmer, responsible for Amazing Stories in its worst years, helped to promote this legend, mentioning it in a radio conversation; see Yeatman, pp. 328-333). A fake Frank arose while Frank was still alive (Settle, p. 164).
That was typical of the stories about the James Family: No lie was too outlandish to be told. The rumors that Jesse had not been assassinated were not really put to rest until the end of the twentieth century. In the 1990s, an autopsy showed that the body buried as Jesse James had bullets in the right places to be Jesse, and the mitochondrial DNA was properly matched to several of his relatives. Brant, p. 266, calls this proof that the body was Jesse's. The scientists quoted by Yeatman, pp. 371-376, in fact repeatedly denied that the matter was proved, but the evidence was "consistent" with the conclusion that it was. Under the circumstances, the probability is extremely high.
Even before tabloid journalism, they seem to have been tabloid fodder. StarTribune published a famous photo of the bodies of Clell Miller and Bill Stiles after the Northfield raid. The text claims that the photographer sold 50,000 copies of the photo (which would imply he earned about $8,000 for that one photo). There were also wild stories told of what happened to Miller's body -- supposedly it ended up in the office of Dr. Henry Wheeler, who as a young man was credited with shooting Miller. This, of course, has never been proved.
Jesse Jr. eventually studied law, and at one point became involved in a divorce proceeding and custody battle with his wife; they managed to reconcile, but he had a nervous breakdown in 1924 and was never really the same afterward. He died in 1951 (Yeatman, p. 320).
Mary James Barr died March 11, 1935 (Yeatman, p. 321). Anne Ralston James died in July of 1944 (Yeatman, p. 326), seventy years after she married Frank.
Books about the James Gang were beginning to appear even in their lifetimes, though the amount of fiction included was astonishing. Yeatman, p. 223, tells of one book that described a cave carefully fitted out as a hideout, with a stove, a panelled ceiling, beds, and stalls for horses. The Youngers were subject of a book published 1875 (Settle, p. 180); this book, by Augustus P. Appier, was reprinted as late as 1955 despite being highly inaccurate. The first book to include the Jameses seems to have been Noted Guerilla by none other than John Newman Edwards; this 1877 book included many outlaws in addition to the James Brothers, but the James and Younger brothers were prominent. The James/Younger Gang was the sole subject of a book by J. A. Dacus in 1880; Settle, p. 184, notes 16 editions of this book.
Even Frank Triplett's biography, which was assembled after some contact with the Samuels family, was cobbled together hastily after Jesse's death and contained a lot of false reports from the newspapers (Settle, p. 192; Yeatman, p. 275); if the family had any influence on it, it came in the form of the strong sympathy Triplett's book shows the Jameses. The various chapbooks about the Jameses were of course pure fiction.
Settle, p. 197, says that the first relatively sober history was not published until 1926 -- and even it veered too far toward the dramatic. To this day, there are books being published treating Jesse as an unreconstructed Confederate rather than a plain and simple robber. The fact that Jesse worked mostly in former slave states, and shot quite a few Southerners, makes no difference.
Wellman, p. 69, quotes William H. Wallace, himself a resident of the area: "The usual defence of the outlaws [that it was forced upon them by the North]... is overwhelmed by the evidence. Every bank robbed by them during the fifteen years of their career[,] with possibly two exceptions, belonged to Southern men.... The truth is, too, that the persons killed in these bank robberies were Southerners. We had as well admit the truth -- they robbed for money, not for revenge."
Compare also Wellman, p. 88, also from Wallace: "the charge [has been] made hundreds of times that the Southern people of Missouri endorsed the depredations of these outlaws and were opposed to their being overthrown. This is absolutely untrue. Especially has it been charged that the ex-Confederates of Missouri... endorsed the conduct of the James Boys. Precisely the opposite is true."
Jo Frances James (daughter of Jesse Junior) once sold a manuscript to Hollywood, which supposedly underlay the Tyrone Power/Henry Fonda film "Jesse James." But Jo Frances said of the result, "I don't know what happened to the history part of it. It seems to me the story was fiction from beginning to end.... About the only connection it had with fact was that there once was a man named James and he did ride a horse" (Yeatman, pp. 326-327). That strikes me as a pretty good last word on the whole legend..- RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: FR379

Jesse James (IV)


DESCRIPTION: "You've heard of heroes brave in all their glory...." These heroes are contrasted with James, who "joined the bad guerrillas," robbed banks, "invented robbing trains," avoided the Pinkertons -- and finally was shot by Robert Ford
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: outlaw death train betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 93, "Jesse James" (5 texts, 2 tunes; this is the "E" text)
Roud #11225
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES: For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: FCW093E

Jesse James (VI -- "I Wonder Where My Poor Old Jesse's Gone")


DESCRIPTION: Jesse James song recognized by the chorus, "Oh I wonder where my poor old Jesse's gone... I will meet him in that land where I've never been before." Jesse is killed by Robert Ford; his life is recalled
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1963 (The Golden Ring)
KEYWORDS: outlaw death betrayal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 4, 1882 - Shooting of Jesse James (then in semi-retirement under the name of Howard) by Robert Ford, a relative and a former member of his gang tempted by the $10,000 reward
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Darling-NAS, pp. 187-188, "Jesse James" (1 text)
DT, JESSJAM1
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jesse James (I)" [Laws E1] and references there
NOTES: I don't know if this version is actually traditional; the Golden Ring text is collated, and I believe someone (Mitchell Trio?) attributed it to Paul Clayton. I've never seen a pure dyed-in-the-wool text from tradition.
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: DarNS188

Jesse James (VII - "Jesse James Was a Bandit Bold")


DESCRIPTION: Jesse and Frank James come to town with ponies for sale. While there, they attend a ball, and have great success with the girls. The local men try to attack them, but Jesse and Frank out-fight them and escape to Mexico
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (University Missourian)
KEYWORDS: outlaw dancing escape
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden, pp. 401-404, "Jesse James" (3 texts, of which only the second, called "A Missouri Ballad" in the original publication, is this song)
Roud #2242
NOTES: This is item dE44 in Laws's Appendix II.
For full background on Frank and Jesse James, see the notes to "Jesse James (III)," the James song which has perhaps the strongest factual basis. - RBW
File: Beld419b

Jessey James


See Jesse James (II) [Laws E2] (File: LE02)

Jessie and Jimmie


See The Sons of Liberty [Laws J13] (File: LJ13)

Jessie at the Railway Bar


See Jessie, the Belle at the Bar (File: R051)

Jessie Munroe [Laws P40]


DESCRIPTION: Johnny is entranced by Jessie and asks her too marry, offering her houses and land. She says that his holdings are poor and he unattractive. Johnny returns to Betty, less attractive but more faithful
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Creighton-NovaScotia)
KEYWORDS: courting beauty virtue
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws P40, "Jessie Munroe"
Peacock, pp. 291-292, "Jessie Munro" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 78, "Jessie Munroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 72-73, "Jessie Munro" (3 texts, 1 tune)
DT 517, JESSMUNR
Roud #1807
File: LP40

Jessie o' Dundee


DESCRIPTION: The singer returns from the war to the banks of the Tay. He courts Jessie but her father discovers them "beneath the shade." She declares she would leave Dundee with the singer. Her father takes them to be married "this night"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 985, "Jessie o' Dundee" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #6734
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sweet Jessie o' Dundee
NOTES: GreigDuncan5 quoting Duncan: "Alexander Mackay from Al. Murray, blacksmith, Balquharn, about twenty-six years ago. Noted 13th March 1907." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5985

Jessie of Ballington Brae


See Bessie of Ballington Brae [Laws P28] (File: LP28)

Jessie of Old Rayne


DESCRIPTION: The singer is "on the main An' sailin wi' a heart deprived O' Jessie o' Old Rayne." He will miss the places "where I hae spent my youthfu' days" and Newton's woods where he used to meet Jessie. They parted "in hopes to meet again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell parting Scotland separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1523, "Jessie of Old Rayne" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #21189
NOTES: GreigDuncan8: "Learnt in Rayne sixty years ago. Noted September 1906."
"Rayne is a parish, which lies in Aberdeenshire Council Area, some 7 miles (12 km) northwest of Inverurie and 12 miles (19 km) south of Turriff in Aberdeenshire." (Source: Gazetteer for Scotland site).
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3": Newton is at coordinate (h3,v6-7) on that map [roughly 23 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81523

Jessie, the Belle at the Bar


DESCRIPTION: The singer sees Jessie working at the railroad bar. He courts her. Though warned that she is fickle, he offers to wed; she accepts -- then runs off with the costly wedding dress and marries a newspaper publisher
AUTHOR: G. Ware
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (broadside L.C.Fol.70(121b))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage abandonment
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,So) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
GreigDuncan4 754, "Jessie at the Railway Bar" (2 texts)
Randolph 51, "Courting Jessie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 169, "Pretty Jessie of the Railway Bar" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 70-72, "(Jessie, the Belle at the Bar)" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 479, "Jessie at the Railway Bar" (source notes only)
Roud #3265
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(121b), "Jessie at the Railway Bar," unknown (probably Glasgow), 1884
NOTES: The commentary for broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(121b) states "the location of the railway station in 'Jessie at the Railway Bar' occasionally varies, with one version placing the events in Moorgate station rather than Brighton station." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R051

Jest Talkin'


See Talking Blues (File: LoF224)

Jesus and Joses


See notes under The Bitter Withy (File: L689)

Jesus At Thy Command


DESCRIPTION: "Jesus at Thy command I launch into the deep And leave my native land Where sin lulls all asleep." Singer trusts Christ to save him and asks for a heavenly wind to take him to a heavenly port.
AUTHOR: Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778)
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (see note quoting William Allen)
KEYWORDS: religious sea ship ship nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
RECORDINGS:
Frank Verrill, "Jesus At Thy Command" (on Voice02)
NOTES: Re: The London Missionary Society: "The first missionary party, consisting of over thirty persons, sailed down the Thames in the ship 'Duff' on the 10th August, 1796, singing, 'Jesus at Thy command we launch into the deep.'" (source: The History of Revivals of Religion by William Allen, "Chapter I - The History of Revivals of Religion - Part III," at The New Revival Library site)
"['Jesus At Thy Command'] is in the Primitive Methodist Hymnal of 1889 and was written by Augustustas[sic] Montigue Toplady." (source: The Veteran "traditional folk music label" site). - BS
Augustus Montague Toplady is most famous for writing the words to "Rock of Ages (I)"; for his history, see the notes to that song.
He is credited with two volumes of religious lyrics. Nonetheless Granger's Index to Poetry lists only seven of his works which made it into their voluminous database (and it appears that two of those are actually alternate names for "Rock of Ages"). This is not one of the works they cite. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: RcJeATCo

Jesus Born in Bethlehem


See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Born in Galilee


See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Borned in Bethlea


See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus Christ I Want to Find


DESCRIPTION: "Jesus Christ I want to find; Pray tell me where he is, 'Cause him alone can ease my mind And give my conscience peace." "Tell me which way my redeemer's gone." The singer describes how to recognize Jesus, and is thanked for his lecture
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 602, "Jesus Christ I Want to Find" (1 text)
Roud #11913
File: Br3602

Jesus Done Taken My Drifting Hand


DESCRIPTION: "Hush, little baby, and don't you cry; Yo' mudder an' fader is bo'n to die! Jesus done taken my driftin' han'. Good Lord, Lord, Lord! Over de hills bright shinin' lan'." "Mind out, Sister, how you step on de cross...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 580, "Hush, Little Baby" (1 text)
Roud #11896
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics) and references there
File: Br3580

Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed (Tone the Bell Easy)


DESCRIPTION: "When you hear dat I'se a-dyin', I don' want nobody to mo'n... Well, well, well, tone de bell easy, Jesus gonna make up my dyin' bed. The singer recounts Jesus's death, prays that Jesus be with him, and remembers the faith of his dead mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Blind Willie Johnson)
KEYWORDS: Jesus death farewell religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 605-608, "Tone de Bell Easy" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
DT, TONEBELL
Roud #10975; also 15557
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" (Columbia 14276-D, 1927; on BWJ01, BWJ02)
Jubilee Gospel Team, "Lower My Dying Head" (QRS, 1928; on Babylon)
Charley Patton, "Jesus is a Dying-Bed Maker" (Paramount 12986, 1930; rec. 1929)
Dock Reed, "Jesus Goin' to Make Up My Dyin' Bed" (on NFMAla2)
Horace Sprott, "Jesus Going to Make Up My Dying Bed" (on MuSouth04)
Unknown artists, "Jesus Goin' Make Up My Dyin' Bed" (AFS CYL-5-8, 1933)
NOTES: Josh White sings a much, much simpler version of this song, with the same chorus and some of the same verses. The Lomaxes admit that their very long (fourteen stanza) version is composite. I can't really tell how much comes from tradition and how much they mortared in. - RBW
File: LxA605

Jesus Is a Rock


DESCRIPTION: "Jesus is a rock in a wearied land, In a wearied land, in a wearied land... A shelter in a time of storm, in a time of storms." "He is whom I fix my hopes upon, A narrow way till in my view...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Henry, from Hettie Twiggs)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus mother storm
FOUND IN: US(SEmSo)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 657, "Jesus Is a Rock" (1 fragment)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 193, "Jesus is a Rock" (1 text)
Roud #7580
ALTERNATE TITLES:
My God is a Rock in a Weary Land
NOTES: This reminds me somewhat of "My Father's Gone to View That Land," but Randolph's fragment doesn't seem to have any actual words in common with that piece.
Henry's fragment is rather different in form ("Jesus is a rock in a whirly wind, A shelter in the time of storm, Hope my mother will be there, A shelter in the time of storm," repeated with other family members replacing "Mother," but the overall similarity is clear. - RBW
File: R657

Jesus Lover of My Soul


DESCRIPTION: Original hymn: "Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly." Parody: "Jesus, lover of my soul, Set me on top of telegraph pole. When the pole begins to break, Take me down for Jesus's sake."
AUTHOR: Original words: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
EARLIEST DATE: 1740 (publication); parody collected 1919
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad humorous
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 347, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (1 short text, the "telegraph pole" form)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), p. 41, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" (1 text, 1 tune, credited to John B. Dykes)
Roud #11737
RECORDINGS:
Uncle Dave Macon, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (Vocalion 5316, 1929; on CGospel1)
Rambling Rangers, "Jesus Lover of My Soul" (Vocalion 04628, 1939)
NOTES: The Charles Wesley lyric seems to be very popular in churches; the Sacred Harp has it to the tune "Martin" (listed as by S. B. Marsh); I have seen a Baptist hymnal with both that tune (listed there as "Marsh") and the tune "Refuge" (by Joseph P. Holbrook). A Lutheran hymnal has the Marsh tune (called "Martyn"). And a Methodist hymnal reveals two texts, one to "Martyn" and one called "Hollingside" by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876). My best guess is that the Dykes tune is the only one written for these lyrics.
However, I have yet to find any of these texts in tradition. The "telegraph pole" parody, by contrast, *is* from tradition, though it's not clear how widespread it is. - RBW
You wanted it from tradition? Uncle Dave Macon! - PJS
Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was the eighteenth child of Reverend Samuel Wesley and his mother Susanna(h) (Johnson, p. 38, spells the name "Susanna," Willson, p. 540, "Susannah"). His older brother (who was Wesley child #15) was of course John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
According to Willson, p. 540, Susannah Wesley "was a woman of deep personal religion and of inflexible will," who offered little tenderness but who drove her children to be both industrious and intellectually gifted. In John Wesley she created a rather inflexible zealot, but "Charles, the author of many famous hymns, was gentler and more poetic."
Both brothers went to Oxford (Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 557); Charles earned his B.A. in 1730 and his M.A. in 1733. Both brothers went to the American colonies in 1735, but Charles quickly returned home due to ill health In 1749, he married Sarah Gwynne, a singer who accompanied him on his travels and helped popularize his songs. They had two surviving sons, who also proved musically gifted.
It was John Wesley, not Charles, who had a conversion experience when he encountered the Moravian Brotherhood (Charles too met with them, according to Johnson, p.38, but did not have quite the same effect on him). It was this which led Joh, originally a strict Anglican high churchman, to begin to change his approach (Willson, p. 540).
It is interesting to wonder how much difference John Wesley would have made without Charles. Kunitz/Haycraft:, p. 557, declare that Charles shared with John "much of the labor, though little of the fame, of [founding Methodism]. Except that, as he declared, he was born to be a follower and his brother to be a leader. Charles'[s] part in the movementwas as active as, and often more stable than, that of John. His greatest distinction is that he was not only the 'poet of the Revival,' but also the most prolific hymn writer of all time. He wrote over 6500 hymns."
Properly, we should say hymn texts; he rarely if ever produced an original tune, and many of his texts are in fact sung to multiple melodies. Examples of that phenomenon in the Index are filed under "Am I Born to Die? (Idumea)," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (yes, really -- not everyone uses the Mendelssohn tune),"A Charge to Keep," and apparently "And Must I Be to Judgment Brought?" He may also have been responsible for the original of "You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord." - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: Br3347

Jesus Met the Woman at the Well


DESCRIPTION: Jesus meets a (Samaritan) woman as she comes to draw water, and tells her "everything [she] has ever done." She proclaims him a prophet, and announces the news in the town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 (recorded by the Selah Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Courlander-NFM, pp. 59-60, "(Jesus Met the Woman at the Well)" (1 text plus a fragment); p. 252, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (1 tune, partial text)
RECORDINGS:
Pilgrim Travelers, "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well" (Specialty 329, n.d.)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maid and the Palmer" [Child 21] (subject)
cf. "See the Woman at the Well" (subject)
cf. "Lift Him Up That's All" (subject)
NOTES: For the story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, see John 4:5-26 - RBW
File: CNFM059

Jesus Never Come in the Morning


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Jesus never come in the morning, Neither in the heat of the day, But come in the cool of the evening And wash my sins away." The singer warns against riches, looks forward to the end of the war, and is willing to die for God
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1944 (Wheeler)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MWheeler, p. 72-73, "Jesus Nevuh Come in the Mornin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10023
File: MWhee072

Jesus Nevuh Come in the Mornin'


See Jesus Never Come in the Morning (File: MWhee072)

Jesus on the Water-Side


DESCRIPTION: "Heaven bell a-ring, I know the road (x3), Jesus sitting on the water-side." "Do come along, do let us go (x3), Jesus sitting on the water-side."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, pp. 28-29, "Jesus on the Water-Side" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11978
File: AWG028

Jesus on the Waters


See A Little Ship Was on the Sea (File: GrD81756)

Jesus Says Go


DESCRIPTION: Singer is told that if he wants to be converted he should pray. He does, until his heart melts, then "my hands was tied, my feet was bound...." Cho: "Jesus says go -- I'll go with you/Preach the gospel and I'll preach with you...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recorded by Mississippi Jubliee Singers)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer is told that if he wants to be converted he should pray. He does, until his heart melts, then "my hands was tied, my feet was bound/The elements opened and the Lord come down/The voice I heard sounds so sweet/The love run out at the sole of my feet" Cho: "Jesus says go -- I'll go with you/Preach the gospel and I'll preach with you/Lord if I go, tell me what to say/For they won't believe on me"
KEYWORDS: ordeal religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #6984
RECORDINGS:
Dillard Chandler, "Jesus Says Go" (on Chandler01)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "You Go and I'll Go With You" (on Bluebird B-6928, 1937)
George Herod, "Lord, When I Was a Sinner" (on MuSouth07)
Mississippi Jubliee Singers, "Jesus Said If You Go I'll Go" (on Paramount 12495, 1927)
Sparkling Four Quartette, "They Won't Believe in Me" (on OKeh 8741, 1929)
NOTES: This song was also in the repertoire of Cas Wallin; he said that it was often sung by members of Holiness churches. Mary Sands, one of Cecil Sharp's most valuable ballad sources, claimed to have written it; the fact that it was also collected in 1954 from George Herod, an African-American from near Scott Station, Alabama, and recorded in 1927 by the Mississippi Jubilee Singers, makes this unlikely although not impossible. - PJS
File: RcJeSaGo

Jesus Says, "You Goes and I Goes Wid You"


DESCRIPTION: Jesus says, "You goes and I goes wid you; Preach de gospel and I'll preach wid you." The singer asks Jesus to tell him what to say. After some back-and-forth, the singer reports, "De elements opened and de Lawd come down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 603, "Jesus Says, 'You Goes and I Goes Wid You" (1 text)
Roud #11912
NOTES: This starts with elements of the commissioning of the Twelve (Matthew 10, and parallels; Matt. 28:19-20), but the ending is pure apocalyptic imagination. - RBW
File: Br3603

Jesus Setta Me Free


DESCRIPTION: "Let's go and tell it on the mountains (x3), Jesus setta me free." "It's come on everybody in the marvelous light, Jesus setta me free, Where the yoke is easy and the burden is light, Jesus setta me free." "Let's go and tell it on the mountains...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Forbes)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Chappell-FSRA 100, "Jesus Setta Me Free" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ChFRA100 (Full)
Roud #16941
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (I -- Christmas)" (lyrics)
cf. "Go Tell It on the Mountain (II -- Freedom)" (lyrics)
File: ChFRA100

Jesus Walked in Galilee


See Christ Was Born in Bethlehem (File: MA189)

Jesus, Won't You Come B'm-By?


DESCRIPTION: "You ride dat horse, You call him Macaroni; Jesus, won't you come b'm-by? You ride him in de mornin' And you ride him in de evenin'; Jesus, won't you come b'm-by? De Lord knows de world's gwine to end up...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious horse nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 60, "Jesus, Won't You Come By-and-bye?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 469, "Jesus, Won't You Come B'm-By?" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 11, (no title) (1 fragment, a single stanza that might be this)
Roud #12021
File: San469

Jesus, Won't You Come By-and-Bye?


See Jesus, Won't You Come B'm-By? (File: San469)

Jeune Fille Sans Amant, La (The Young Girl Without a Lover)


DESCRIPTION: French. A girl says she must have a lover. Mother says wait; go to the convent. The girl wants to go to a lover. Mother says here's money to get to the convent; the girl says with that money I will buy myself a man. You will be sorry, says the mother.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex warning dialog humorous lover mother
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 293-294, "La Jeune Fille Sans Amant" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Whistle, Daughter, Whistle" (theme)
File: Pea293

Jeune Fille si Amoureuse, La (The Girl So In Love)


DESCRIPTION: French. A girl says she must have a lover. Her mother sends her to a convent. At the convent a Brother consoles her. A Sister says that the Father would marry them. The girl says that her lover is not here but is a slave among the barbarians.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage captivity love separation lover sailor
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 525-526, "La Jeune Fille si Amoureuse" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Belfast Sailor" (theme)
File: Pea525

Jeune Militaire, Le (The Young Soldier)


DESCRIPTION: French. After years in the army a soldier stops at an inn. The hostess cries; she recognizes him as her husband. He asks why she has more children. She had reports that he had died and so remarried. He asks about her husband. She gives him gold to leave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1983 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage marriage reunion children wife soldier adultery
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 59, "Le Jeune Militaire" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best, "Le Jeune Militaire" (on NFABest01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Brave Marin" (theme)
cf. "Jack Robinson" (theme)
NOTES: [According to] Lehr/Best, "Le Jeune Militaire" is a version of "Brave Marin"; while the themes are very close the words are not. - BS
File: LeBe059

Jew Lady, The


See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jew's Daughter, The


See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jew's Garden, The


See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jeweled Ring, The


See Hind Horn [Child 17] (File: C017)

Jewish Lady, The


See Sir Hugh, or, The Jew's Daughter [Child 155] (File: C155)

Jigger, Rigger, Bumbo


See Ole Marse John (File: LoF271)

Jilson Setters's Blind Song


DESCRIPTION: "In sorrow and sadness I'm destined to roam, Distracted and forsaken I wander alone." The singer hears the birds and feels the breezes but cannot see nature or people. He prays God to take him to heaven "where the blind may all see."
AUTHOR: Jilson Setters (James W. Day)?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: injury hardtimes music rambling
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 181-183, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blind Fiddler" (theme) and references there
File: ThBa181

Jilson Setters's C.I.O. Song


DESCRIPTION: "I am going to tell you people, Perhaps you do not know, We all should work together And protect the C.I.O." The singer urges men to "stick together And defend the union plan." He points out that laborers do all the work
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: labor-movement nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 244-245, (no title) (1 text)
File: ThBa244A

Jilson Setters's Courting Song


DESCRIPTION: "It was all in the month of winter, I arrived by wagon to this place; I chanced to meet with a youthful lady...." He courts the girl and asks her to come away; her mother refuses and he is forced to depart; he hopes to meet the listeners in heaven
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")?
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: courting rambling rejection
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 184-185, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: Said to be built around a Riley ballad, though it's not clear which one.
Setters told Thomas that he used this song to make his wife jealous so she would court him. I wonder, though -- according to Thomas, it was his wife Rhuhamie who urged him to sing it to Thomas. - RBW
File: ThBa184

Jilson Setters's Indian Song


DESCRIPTION: "In an early day folks crossed the sea To explore the Indians' land." The Indians befriend the Whites; "Little did the Indian think They would spoil his hunting ground." "The white man done the Indian wrong"; they go to war -- but lose for lack of guns
AUTHOR: James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) hunting exploration war technology
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 186-187, (no title) (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan's Lament" (theme) and references there
NOTES: Although this doesn't seem to be very anthropoligically correct, it is quite sympathetic to the Indians -- rather surprising for the time. - RBW
File: ThBa186

Jilted Lover, The


See The Back o' Rarey's Hill (The Jilted Lover) (File: Ord156)

Jim Along Josey


See Jim Along Josie (File: R575)

Jim Along Josie


DESCRIPTION: Originally a blackface minstrel piece, now often reduced to odd lyrics held together by the refrain, "Hey jim-along, jim-along Josie; Hey jim-along, jim along Jo." Sample verse: "Any pretty girl that wants a beau, Just fall in the arms of Jim Along Joe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonsense lyric playparty
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 575, "Jim Along Josie" (1 text plus a fragment)
Warner 180, "Git Along Josie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 105, "Jam A-long, Josey" (1 text, 1 tune); also probably p. 106 (no title), (1 text, using this chorus in some instances; the verses include the terrapin and the toad, "My ole missus promise me When she die she set me free," "You get there before I do....")
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 103-104, "Jim Along Josey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4618
RECORDINGS:
Coon Creek Girls, "Jim Along Josie" (Songs from Renfro Valley - Bell, mx. 2002, n.d., postwar)
Lawrence Older, "Jim Along Josie" (on LOlder01)
Pete Seeger, "Jim Along Josie" (on PeteSeeger3, PeteSeegerCD03)
Tom Smith, "Hey, Get Along, Josie" (on USWarnerColl01)
NOTES: Spaeth suggests that this is a minstrel tune, and he's probably right. He suggests that it was written by Edward Harper, who presented it in his 1838 play "The Free Nigger of New York."
But it has entered oral tradition -- though perhaps in a filed-down form; Spaeth's text has a four-line verse while the traditional forms often use two-line stanzas. The choruses are the same. - RBW
File: R575

Jim and Me


DESCRIPTION: Singer says that he and his old friend Jim used to be sinners, smokers and drinkers, but that God has saved them, and their money is now spent on their families. "What our God has done for us/He's done for Jim and me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (unissued recording, Kentucky Thorobreds)
KEYWORDS: virtue sin drink religious family gods
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
Roud #7381
RECORDINGS:
Garner Brothers, "Jim and Me" (JGS 20088, n.d.)
Kentucky Thorobreds, "Jim and Me" (Paramount, unissued, rec. 1927)
Preston & Hobart Smith, "Jim and Me" (on LomaxCD1704)
NOTES: Again fragmentary, but a narrative. - PJS
File: RcJaM

Jim Blake


DESCRIPTION: "'Jim Blake, your wife is dying,' came over the wires tonight." Railroad engineer Blake wires back that he is coming. But his train is wrecked, "derailed by an open switch." Blake's last message to his wife says they'll meet in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (_Railroad Man's Magazine_, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: train wreck disaster death husband wife
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 332-337, "Jim Blake's Message" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 139-140, "Jim Blake" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 479, "Jim Blake" (source notes only)
Roud #3531
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "Jim Blake's Message" (Decca 5467, 1935)
Vernon Dalhart, "Jim Blake" (Brunswick 173, 1927); "Jim Blake the Engineer" (Columbia 15192-D [as Al Craver], 1927)
File: GC479b

Jim Blake's Message


See Jim Blake (File: GC479b)

Jim Crack Corn


See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Jim Crow (I)


See Hop High Ladies (Uncle Joe) (File: R252)

Jim Crow (II)


See Jump Jim Crow (File: Gilb018)

Jim Crow Car


See She Gets There Just the Same (Jim Crow Car) (File: DarNS355)

Jim Fisk [Laws F18]


DESCRIPTION: Jim Fisk, though a rich and fine man, still remembers the poor and gives aid to many at the time of the Chicago fire. Fisk is shot by Edward Stokes (his rival for a girl); the singer is afraid that Stokes's wealth will allow him to win his freedom
AUTHOR: William J. Scanlon ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: murder trial money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 6, 1872 - Edward Stokes shoots Jim Fisk, "his rival for... the actress Josie Mansfield." Stokes (who, despite the song, was not rich) spent four years in prison for manslaughter
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws F18, "Jim Fisk"
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 90-96, "Jim Fisk" (2 texts, 1 tune, plus a copy of the cover of the sheet music)
Belden, pp. 415-416, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Dean, pp. 30-31, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 207, "Jim Fisk" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, p. 75, "Jim Fiske" (1 fragment, linked to this mostly on the strength of the line "He never went back on the poor.")
Burt, pp. 49-50, "(no title)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 416-419, "Jim Fisk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 550-552, "Jim Fisk" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, pp. 101-102, "Jim Fisk or He Never Went Back on the Poor" (1 text)
DT 631, STOVRDCT*
Roud #2215
NOTES: Belden calls "Jubilee Jim" Fisk (1834-1872) "Jay Gould's fellow bandit in Wall Street."
He did in fact work with Jay Gould to secure control of the Erie Railroad from Cornelius Vanderbilt, and also helped manipulate the "Black Friday" gold crash of Sept. 24, 1871, but his business practices do not appear to have been unusual for the time -- and, unlike many speculators, he did try to appeal to the public (he has been called "the most opulent of the robber barons"). According to Gilbert, he sent supplies to help the survivors of the Chicago Fire (October 8, 1871). It is ironic that it is his murder, rarely mentioned in the histories, that gained him a place in oral tradition.
Fisk's assassin, Stokes, died in 1901, reportedly having spent his last years in neurotic fear of Fisk's ghost (e.g. Stokes would only sleep in lighted rooms).
Much additional information can be found in Cohen, who notes incidentally that the recorded versions of this song are generally much shorter than the original "Stokes' Verdict" text.
Botkin, apparently quoting Barry, claims there are three Jim Fisk songs. This one (which exists in many variants, but is recognized by the fact that most stanzas end with the word "poor") is said to be the "most popular" -- and is, as of this writing, the only one I have encountered.
Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, mentions this song several times, noting on p. 217 both the fact that this song was attributed to William J. Scanlon (whom he calls a typical composer of the era) and the difficulty with this attribution: The first sheet music, published in 1874, has the initials "J. S.," rather than "W. J. S.," and Scanlon in any case was only 15 at the time. - RBW
File: LF18

Jim Fiske


See Jim Fisk [Laws F18] (File: LF18)

Jim Haggerty's Story


DESCRIPTION: The speaker and his companion go down to town, where the companion will confront a man hired to kill him. They enter the bar. The hired gun's girlfriend begs him not to shoot; the other is her father. But both men draw and fire and are killed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: death father family murder
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 135-136, "Jim Haggerty's Story" (1 text)
Roud #15550
NOTES: While this may be legitimate folklore (it has rather a tall tale feel), there is no evidence that it was ever a song, or traveled in the same traditional circles as ordinary folk songs. - RBW
File: LxA135

Jim Harris


DESCRIPTION: Famous captain Jim Harris, in Ronald P out of St Kyran's, runs down the Irene anchored in Paradise Sound. "It's all right when the wheel goes up, till it turns for to come down And you might make that same mistake as Jim Harris in Paradise Sound."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: sea ship crash
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lehr/Best 60, "Jim Harris" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: St Kyran's and Paradise Sound are in Placentia Bay, west of the Avalon Peninsula and on the south coast of Newfoundland. The song places the incident on May 31, 1934. It appears neither ship was lethally damaged and there was no loss of life. - BS
File: LeVe060

Jim Hatfield's Boy


DESCRIPTION: "You're sending me for life, judge, For killing Bill McCoy, But maybe you don't know, Judge, that I'm Jim Hatfield's boy." The singer, unnamed, describes the history of the Hatfield/McCoy feud and his need for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: feud death mother children revenge trial judge punishment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1880 - Beginning of the Hatfield/McCoy feud
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Thomas-Makin', pp. 13-16, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, p. 248, "(Jim Hatfield's Son)" (1 excerpt)
ST ThBdM013 (Partial)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Death of Fan McCoy" (subject) and references there
NOTES: For details on the Hatfield/McCoy feud, see "The Death of Fan McCoy." - RBW
File: ThBdM013

Jim Jones at Botany Bay


DESCRIPTION: The singer, Jim Jones, is taken, tried, and sentenced to transportation. En route, his ship is attacked by pirates, but the crew holds them off. Arriving in Australia, Jones vows to escape, join the bushrangers, and get revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South)
KEYWORDS: outlaw poaching trial transportation pirate
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (4 citations):
PBB 96, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 50-52, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 28-29, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 12-13, "Jim Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST PBB096 (Partial)
Roud #5478
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (tune) and references there
File: PBB096

Jim Larkin, R.I.P.


DESCRIPTION: Jim Larkin fought the Peelers in 1913 and "was treated to the batons by the Forces of the Crown." "The worker is a freeman now by his persevering fight." "R.I.P"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1947 ("Sold in the streets of Dublin the day of James Larkin's funeral," according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: strike violence labor-movement Ireland memorial death police
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Jan 30, 1947 - "James Larkin died in his sleep." (source: _James Larkin_ on the Spartacus Educational site)
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 20, "Jim Larkin, R.I.P" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Larkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union in 1909.
"By 1913 so many Dublin workers had joined the IT&GWU that employers refused to employ unionised workers, resulting in the infamous Dublin Lock-Out when over 100,000 workers were sacked and many more refused admittance to their workplace for over eight months. After the Lock-Out the IT&GWU was firmly established."
From 1914 to 1920 he organized workers in New York anLarkin founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union in 1909.
"By 1913 so many Dublin workers had joined the IT&GWU that employers refused to employ unionised workers, resulting in the infamous Dublin Lock-Out when over 100,000 workers were sacked and many more refused admittance to their workplace for over eight months. After the Lock-Out the IT&GWU was firmly established."
From 1914 to 1920 he organised workers in New York and was jailed until 1923 for "criminal syndicalism." He returned to Ireland and established the Worker's Union. He was later elected to the Dublin City Council and Dail Eireann. (source: Searc's Web Guide to 20th Century Ireland - James Larkin (1876-1947)). - BS
That Dublin workers needed organization around the turn of the twentieth century is hardly to be denied. According to Golway, p. 207, prior to the activities of Larkin, "nearly half of all annual deaths [in Dublin] took place in workhouses, asylums, and prisons"; he points out that many workers were putting in seventy hour weeks to earn pay equivalent to what we would now call only about half of the "poverty line."
Similarly Kee, p. 195): "The poverty and squalor of much of Dublin in the early years of the twentieth century appalled all who encountered it. A government report issued in 1914 assessed that of a Dublin population of 304,000, some 194,000, or about sixty-three percent, could be reckoned 'working classes'. The majority of these working classes lived in tenement houses, almost half of them with no more than one room to each family. Thirty-seven per cent of the entire working class of Dublin lived at a density of more than six persons per roon; fourteen per cent in houses declared 'unfit for human habitation.'"
Larkin's troubles with the British police were not entirely related to his union activities, though. Born in Liverpool, he did not settle in Ireland until 1906/1907, when James Sexton (head of the National Union of Dock Labourers) sent him to Belfast to organize the dock workers there.
Larkin was a fine choice for the role. According to O'Connor, pp. 54-55, "Larkin was a remarkable orator and journalist who could lift the people from their knees woth a brilliant phrase. He had a voice that could carry across a prairie, and a towering, crag-like presence. His quivering face... became the symbol of hope to the downtrodden and hungry masses who listened to him."
Larkin did manage to bring many of the workers into a union, leading them on strike late in 1907. The strike turned violent, though some of the police sided with Larkin. With the union going bankrupt, Sexton settled without Larkin's agreement. Larkin therefore broke away from Sexton's group to form the IT&GWU in 1908.
Socialist in principles, Larkin was associated with James Connolly (1868-1916; for more on him, see "James Connolly") in the United Tramway Company strike. This turned into a lockout as William Martin Murphy, who was responsible for management bargaining, set out to destroy Larkin (Townshend, p. 48; O'Connor, pp. 55-56).
Larkin, who had spent a few weeks in prison before the government relented (Townshend, p. 49), rose to fine heights of oratory (when the Catholic hierarchy opposed his union, he declared, "They cannot frighten me with hell. Better to be in hell with Dante and Davitt than to be in heaven with [Ulster leader Edward] Carson and Murphy"; see O'Connor, p. 57). But strikers were starving, and the government blocked all attempts to help them (O'Connor, p. 56). Larkin fled Ireland after the strike fizzled in 1914 -- while Connolly stayed, and was one of the instigators of the Easter Rising. Larkin of course went to America, where he was imprisoned during a "Red Scare" in 1916 (O'Connor, p. 55).
Larkin came back to Ireland in 1923, to find that his own Union -- which was about twenty times as big as when he left home -- had no leadership place for him. He founded a socialist political party; though he eventually joined the Labour Party, he spent most of the rest of his life feuding with his old associates. Still, he was remembered by the people as a founder of the union movement.
Regarding his relations with other leaders, Kee writes (p. 198), "Subsequent dramatic events... have had the effect of making Connolly seem the major labour figure in twentieth-century Irish history.... But the fact that Connolly was to be cut off in his prime and win a martyr's crown in 1916, while Larkin, accidentally missing the heroics, was to live on to 1948 through years of Irish disillusion, political quarrelling, and personal identification with Soviet Communism, should not blind one historically to the other fact that it was Larkin who first effectively brought the old incoherent national emotions into Irish twentieth-century labour relations."
The song's description of fighting the Peelers in 1913 appears to be a reference to events of August 31, 1913. Larkin had been arrested for seditious libel on August 28, but was released on bail. He was supposed to speak in Dublin on August 31. He appeared in disguise, but it was clear it was him. Once the crowd started cheering him, the police attacked the crowd, resulting in one death and many injuries (O'Connor, p. 56).
This is not the only song about Larkin and 1913; Harte, pp. 32-33, prints a piece, "Dublin City, 1913" by Donagh McDonagh, which covers events of 1913 to 1916. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: OLcM020

Jim Porter's Shanty Song


See The Lumber Camp Song (File: Doe210)

Jim Ross Song, The


DESCRIPTION: Ross, "an elderly gent" courts Mary Ann, "the pride of Dundas," offering "houses and lands" because he has little money. She agrees to marry but does not appear for the wedding. She explains why she changed her mind [the song breaks here].
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: age courting wedding rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 112-113, "The Jim Ross Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12459
NOTES: Dundas is near the east coast of Kings, Prince Edward Island. - BS
File: Dib112

Jim Strainer Blues


DESCRIPTION: Jim Strainer tells Lula that if he catches her with Willie he'll kill her. Singer follows Lula to the burying ground. Jim Strainer has killed her, on the ballroom [barroom?] floor. Willie is sentenced to 15 years; Jim Strainer gets 99, and cries
AUTHOR: possibly Will Shade
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (recording, Memphis Jug Band)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Jim Strainer tells Lula that if he catches her with Willie he'll kill her. Singer tells the hearse driver to roll slowly, so he can see Lula one more time. He follows her to the burying ground and watches as they ease her down. Jim Strainer has killed her, on the ballroom [barroom?] floor. Willie is sentenced to 15 years; Jim Strainer gets 99, and cries
KEYWORDS: grief jealousy love warning violence crime murder prison punishment trial burial death mourning lover
FOUND IN: US
RECORDINGS:
Memphis Jug Band, "Jim Strainer Blues" (Victor 23421, 1933; rec. 1930; on StuffDreams1)
File: RcJiStBl

Jim the Roper


DESCRIPTION: "The dug him a grave at the set of the sun, His riding was over, his roping was done." The cowboys bury Jim, and return to "their cabins, deserted and lorn." "No sound save the Yellowstone dashing a-foam." Jim's ghost is seen be the rive
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Larkin)
KEYWORDS: death burial cowboy ghost
FOUND IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Larkin, pp. 164-165, "Jim the Roper" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5764
File: Lark164

Jim Whalen


See James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC07)

Jim, the Carman Lad


See Jim, the Carter Lad (File: FSC096)

Jim, the Carter Lad


DESCRIPTION: The carter/driver reports on his happy life: "Crack, crack, goes my whip, I whistle and I sing, I sit upon my wagon, I'm as happy as a king." He ignores bad weather, recalls being trained by his father, and tells of courting his sweetheart in the cart
AUTHOR: E. H. Harding?
EARLIEST DATE: 1870
KEYWORDS: work travel courting
FOUND IN: US(MA) Ireland Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greig #99, p. 1, "Jim the Carter Lad" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 457, "Jim the Carter Lad" (3 texts, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 96, "The Stage Coach Driver's Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 244-245, "Jim the Carter Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 228, "Jim, the Carter Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H171, p. 40, "Jim, the Carman Lad" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JIMCART*
Roud #1080
RECORDINGS:
Jack Goodfellow, "Jim The Carter Lad" (on FSB3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Lumber Camp Song" (lyrics)
File: FSC096

Jimmie and Nancy


See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jimmie Brown the Newsboy


DESCRIPTION: Singer, Jimmie Brown, the newsboy of the town, wears no hat or shoes, and is cold and hungry. [He wanders from place to place.] He tells of his drunkard father, who has abandoned the family. His mother says he will "sell the gospel news" in heaven
AUTHOR: A. P. Carter?
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Carter Famiy)
KEYWORDS: poverty travel abandonment work drink father worker
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, JIMBROWN
Roud #4996
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy" (Victor 23554, 1931; Montgomery Ward M-5027, 1936; rec. 1929)
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys, "Jimmie Brown, the Newsboy" (Columbia 20830, 1951)
NOTES: Almost no one lists a composer for this song, but the Harry Fox Agency has two separate listings. One is for A. P. Carter, the other is for Jimmy Rodgers and George Vaughan. I'm inclined to believe the former, since I've found no evidence Rodgers ever recorded the song, but on the other hand he seems to have collaborated with Vaughan on at least one other song. - PJS
File: RcJBtNew

Jimmie Crack Corn


See The Blue-Tail Fly [Laws I19] (File: LI19)

Jimmie Jones


See Joseph Mica (Mikel) (The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver) (Been on the Choly So Long) [Laws I16] (File: LI16)

Jimmie Jot


See Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4] (File: LC04)

Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River) [Laws C4]


DESCRIPTION: Jimmie tries to break a logjam and is drowned. His badly cut up body is recovered the next day. He is mourned by sweetheart, family, and fellow workers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: logger death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws C4, "Jimmie Judd (The Beau Shai River)"
Warner 18, "Jamie Judge (or, Bonshee River)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck 55, "The Beau Shai River" (2 texts, one entitled "Jimmie Jot")
Gardner/Chickering 112, "Jimmie Judd" (1 fragmentary text)
Fowke-Lumbering #29, "Jimmy Judge" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
DT 680, JIMJUDGE
Roud #636
NOTES: Fowke quotes Gravelle to the effect that James Angus Dudge was born in Quebec in 1846, but Gravelle can only speculate about the date of his death; he suspects the date was c. 1866. - RBW
File: LC04

Jimmie Rendal


See Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)

Jimmie Tucker


See The Chisholm Trail (II) (File: EM186)

Jimmie Whalen


See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)

Jimmie Whalen's Girl


See Lost Jimmie Whalen [Laws C8]; also James Whalen [Laws C7] (File: LC08)

Jimmie-Ma-Riley-Oh!


See Jimmy My Riley (File: Br3195)

Jimmy


See On Top of Old Smokey (File: BSoF740)

Jimmy and his Own True Love [Laws O30]


DESCRIPTION: Jimmy and Annie are out walking one fine day just before he sets sail. She bids him farewell and gives him a diamond ring as a token of her love. He promises to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1841 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.18(276))
KEYWORDS: courting sea farewell ring
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws O30, "Jimmy and his Own True Love"
Mackenzie 44, "Jimmy and His Own True Love" (1 text)
DT 485, JIMMTRUE
Roud #958
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.18(276), "Sailor and his Truelove," J. Jennings (London), 1790-1840; also Firth c.12(147), Harding B 17(266b), "[The] Sailor and his Truelove"; Firth c.12(149) , "Jemmy's Farewell" ("As a sailor and his true love one morning in May")
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jimmy and Nancy (III)" (plot)
File: LO30

Jimmy and I Will Get Married


See The Lover's Curse (Kellswater) (File: HHH442)

Jimmy and Nancy (I)


See Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38] (File: LM38)

Jimmy and Nancy (II)


See A Seaman and His Love (The Welcome Sailor) [Laws N29] (File: LN29)
GSPLITRBalladIndex.HTMLGSplit Archive&{FCCE7D5C-7BB5-4EC3-B04B-4F0350F5B7B7}vtÙ³‰Aʤ