RAOUL FRANÇOIS CAMUS

Military Music of Colonial Boston

WHEN Isaack de Rasieres visited the colony of New Plymouth in 1627 he noted that “they assemble by beat of drum, each with his musket or firelock, in front of the captain’s door.” Describing the procession to the meetinghouse for religious worship, he continued, “and so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him. Thus they are constantly on their guard night and day.”1

This description, so typical of early settlements, indicates that the English had carried the militia system of military preparedness to the colonies. Every able-bodied man was required to contribute his part to assure the security of a society that faced the ever present danger of attack. That is, military experience was an ordinary, not extraordinary, aspect of civilian life.

The “beat of drum” introduces another everyday part of the life of the colonists. The drum was deemed an essential instrument not only for the militia, but also for other lay and religious purposes. The drum was used to warn, signal, give notices and orders. Edward Johnson commented in 1636 that the inhabitants of Cambridge “had as yet no bell to call men to meeting and therefore made use of a Drum.”2

In 1637, what is now known as the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts became the first militia company to be chartered in the western hemisphere.3 A year later Arthur Perry joined its ranks as a drummer. He was also Boston’s first recorded town drummer. Apart from the military beats which he drummed for his militia company, Perry’s drumming called the people to their meetinghouse for worship on Sundays and to lectures on Thursdays, proclaimed laws, gave notices of town meetings, auction sales, and the departure of vessels, advertised rooms for rent, children lost and found, and new importations of dry and other goods.4 Perry’s drum was probably similar to that depicted in figure 67, the standard size for the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and quite different from later-style side drums.5

Besides the drum, there were other musical instruments used in connection with military and civilian functions. Samuel Sewall noted in his diary the celebration in remembrance of the king’s birthday in 1686: “some marched throw the Streets with Viols and Drums, playing and beating by turns.”6 Note that the viols and drums did not play together, but “by turns.” There is at this early date a definite distinction between the orchestral instruments, later the band, and the field music. More than a century later the New York artist Elkanah Tisdale pictured a colonial military procession in which a miscellany of instruments was used (fig. 68). The custom still continued of employing whatever musicians and instruments that were available, and so in the Tisdale etching a violin or viola and a bugle are depicted with the usual fife and drum, and in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book a violin or viola is depicted with the drum (fig. 69).

Massachusetts colonists also had brass instruments, for Sewall noted that the eighteenth century was welcomed at daybreak on the Boston Common by four trumpeters.7 They may not have been as elaborately dressed as the court trumpeters in figure 70, but the trumpets would have been of the same folded type. Another brass instrument was used by the Boston Gazette in its logo, as shown in figure 71.

Fig. 67. The Drummer, an engraving by Jacob de Gheyn ii, Netherlands, 1587.

Fig. 68. Detail from “The Procession,” an etching by Elkanah Tisdale, New York, 1795.

Fig. 69. “A Procession,” an engraving from A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (Worcester, Mass.: Isaiah Thomas, 1788).

Fig. 70. “8 Trumpets, the Kettle Drums, the Sergeant Trumpet, the Six Clerks in Chancery,” an engraving by Nicholas Yeates, London, 1687.

Fig. 71. “Man with a Bugle on Horseback,” an anonymous American woodcut, logo of the Boston Gazette, 1719–1734.

Like the instruments, the music and traditions of the colonies were imported from Europe, and so it is necessary to be familiar with Old World developments in order to understand New World practices. The military band of the seventeenth century was developed in the army of Louis XIV, and consisted of three oboes and either a bass oboe or a bassoon. In an effort to reinforce the inner voices, and to add a new tone color, two French horns were added in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. At the same time one or more trumpets appeared occasionally, normally for use in flourishes or signals, but not as yet an integral part of the band.

Armies still marched to the cadence of the drum, but other instruments were added to provide interest with melody. As the number of instruments increased and their repertory likewise grew, the band tended to become an entity distinct from the regimental drummers, who along with the fifers continued as the field music. The word hautboys, from the oboes of Louis XIV, came to signify the combination of military instruments, as well as the musicians themselves, regardless of the actual instruments used. Thus a newspaper report of the “Hautboys and Fifes in Ranks” preceding Col. Benjamin Franklin in a parade of the Philadelphia Regiment in 1756 can be interpreted to mean that a band was present, not restricted to oboes alone.8

About the middle of the eighteenth century the clarinet was introduced into the band, and the instrumentation became standardized in the Western world into what is now referred to as Harmoniemusik. Until the end of the century the ideal band had pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, though less affluent regiments might do without the oboes or clarinets. The number of musicians was very much a question of money, for the bandsmen were not paid by the Crown, but rather hired, uniformed, and supported by the officers of the regiment. A print of the changing of the guard in London in 1753 (fig. 72) indicates how the band was used at that time. One can clearly see the band of eight musicians which precedes a grenadier company. There are no drums visible in the picture, as those instruments were not a part of the band. The regimental drummers and fifers would be apart, remaining with their own companies and forming the field music for certain special ceremonies in the military routines of camp life.

Fig. 72. Detail from View of the Royal Building . . . St. James’s Park, London, an anonymous hand-colore engraving (London: H. Parker, 1753).

A print of the changing of the guard at St. James’s Palace, London, around 1790 (fig. 73) depicts the band in England just before the turn of the century. Comparing this print with the same changing of the guard in 1753 (fig. 72), one can see that the original Harmoniemusik combination has been altered. A serpent has been substituted for one of the bassoons in order to strengthen the bass line; a trumpet has replaced one of the clarinets or oboes, and the horn is the crooked variety instead of the earlier natural horn. The bassoon, on the other hand, appears to be a double curtal, a remnant from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In front of the combined band and field music marches the drum major. His baton is a gentleman’s walking stick, more French in form than the traditional British mace. As part of the field music, he wears drummer’s lace, as do the rest of the fifers and drummers.

It was just at this time, at the end of the eighteenth century, that widespread interest in Turkish music brought additional percussion instruments into the bands. From the professional army of Turkey came the bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and tambourine. The combination of these percussion instruments was known as Janissary music. Hence, one finds in figure 73 three turbanned and costumed Negroes and two young boys playing these instruments. They follow the band, but are clearly separate. Finally comes the field music, consisting of snare drums and fifes.

Fig. 73. Detail from Changing of the Guard, St. James’s Palace, an anonymous English hand-colored engraving, ca. 1790.

It was not until after the period of the American Revolution, however, that Janissary instruments became common in Europe. Some of the French bands that came with Rochambeau in 1781 are believed to have had Janissary instruments, but no indication has as yet been found that America subscribed to the fashion until the nineteenth century.

Having looked at European developments for an understanding of American practices, one can return to the musical life of colonial Boston. As early as 1716 Edward Enstone was selling “Haut-Boys” and other musical instruments, and offering to teach all the instruments that he sold.9

Concerts were advertised in Boston newspapers from at least 1729 on, and Faneuil Hall was frequently the scene of musical performances. The musical climate of Boston must have been quite encouraging, for in 1754 the musician Stephen Deblois felt sufficiently confident of success that he built a hall “for the purposes of concerts, dancing, and other entertainments.”10

In 1764 Deblois offered almost a full range of items available in Europe at the time, including music, accessories, and musical instruments. Significant to the military historian is the inclusion in the listing of “the 55 New Militia Marches . . . and 40 Tattoos and Night Pieces for serenading (18 Divertimenti . . .) [and] Tutors for Singing and for all Instruments singly . . . by Rutherford, Johnson and Thompson.”11

The year 1764 also saw the appearance of A Collection of the Best Psalm-Tunes, in two, three, and four-parts by Josiah Flagg, engraved by Paul Revere and printed on paper manufactured in the colonies. There had been many psalmbooks published before, of course, but this marked the appearance of a musician who figured prominently in the military life of the community.

When British regiments landed in Boston on October 1, 1768, the inhabitants witnessed their entry onto the Common “with muskets charged, bayonets fixed, colours flying, drums beating, fifes &c. playing.”12 It was noted that “the Yankey Doodle Song was the Capital Piece in their Band of Music.”13 The typical British regiment of the time consisted of eight line companies and a grenadier company, with a light infantry company being added later. Each company was authorized three officers, four noncommissioned officers, forty-seven privates, and two drummers. The elite company of grenadiers was also authorized two fifers, quite frequently boys. Because of their importance as signalmen and heralds, the drummers were ranked and paid as corporals, and were usually men. Except for royal regiments, their coats were the color of the regimental facing, and were adorned with “drummer’s lace,” designed to permit their easy identification in the smoke and confusion of battle. Since the drummers gave the orders to the soldiers by means of their beatings, this was most important, and understandably not left to boys. The drum shell was the same color as the coat, and was emblazoned with the king’s cypher. Some of these details can be seen in figure 74, one of a series of paintings depicting the various uniforms of the British Army in 1751 by David Morier. The fifer, drummer, and private are from the grenadier company of the 49th Regiment of Foot, which arrived in Boston during May and June of 1775.

Fig. 74. 49th Regiment, a painting by David Morier, English, 1751.

In spite of their familiarity with military customs through their militia training, Bostonians were shocked and annoyed by some of the British practices. “To behold Britons scourg’d [on the Common] by Negro drummers was a new and very discouraging spectacle,” wrote the editor of the “Journal of the Times,”14 even though punishments were normally meted out by the regimental drummers. In this particular regiment, the 14th Foot, the drummers were blacks whom the colonel of the regiment had bought and trained for that duty while the regiment was stationed in the West Indies. The public execution in 1768 of a deserter from that same regiment was noted as “the first execution of the kind ever seen in this town, tho’ during the late war [1755–1763] a much larger body of troops had been encamped here.”15

Most offensive to the Bostonians, however, was the practice of changing the guards with full ceremony even on the Sabbath. Editorials repeatedly complained about worshipers being disturbed by the “drums beating and fifes playing, unheard of [on the Sabbath] before in this land.”16 By December it had reached the point that the selectmen appealed to the commanding general “to acquaint him that the music of the fife &c. on the Sabbath was very disagreeable to the inhabitants, and might have an ill effect upon the younger and more thoughtless part of the community with respect to the observance of that day, and as they apprehended it contrary to law, they expressed their hopes and desires that it might be omitted for the future, as they had taken notice it had sometimes been in stormy weather.”17 Apparently the selectmen’s appeal fell upon deaf ears, for an entry of the following day noted that “the noise of the fife was this day more general and offensive than it has been upon any Sabbath, since the troops came upon us.”18 What had been feared came to pass: the “sober inhabitants,” who had been greatly grieved by the music of the fifes and drums on the Sabbath and who feared “what unhappy effects it would have on the minds of our inconsiderate youth, and the lower class of people,” were shocked that on “the last Lord’s day our Common was covered with great numbers of people, some of whom were diverting themselves with horse-racing, &c. in the very presence of our wardens.”19

The attitude towards bands of music seemed to have been quite different, however. Not only was there no complaint about the band that performed on a Sabbath in May of 1769, but rather the band was described as “elegant,” the French horns singled out as “inimitable,” and the tune that they played was included in the account by name.20 The tune was “Nancy Dawson,” a popular ballad of the time, and the band was probably that of the 64th Regiment, since they were quite active in Boston and had been frequently described as elegant. The horns might have been mentioned because they were new to the colonial concept of a band. A few months earlier, when John Rowe was installed as grand master of Masons for North America, he noted in his diary that the procession was accompanied by “two Brass Bands of Music, the 59th & 64th Regiments.”21 On the basis of later advertisements, it is known that the 64th Regiment band had oboes, bassoons, and French horns, the standard Harmoniemusik.22 Rowe’s description of a brass band must be attributed to his familiarity with the hautboy combination (oboes and bassoons), resulting in his surprise at the appearance of the horns. These brass instruments would have made quite an impression when added to the band, both visually and aurally. Since Rowe is commenting only on the brass instruments, the implication seems clear that Boston had militia bands, but that the French horns had not as yet become regular members.

In March of 1769 a concert was given at Concert Hall for the benefit of the “Fife-Major of the 29th Regiment.”23 Rowe attended the concert, and noted that “there was a large genteel Company & the best Musick I have heard performed there.”24 The name of the fife major is not given, nor is the instrumentation or nature of the performers. The regiment is not identified further than the number, so that it might possibly have been an American militia regiment, although the British 29th Foot was in Boston at the time. In June of the same year Josiah Flagg advertised a concert which included the statement “Last Concert this season.” The fife major’s concert may have been one of the series, and performers may have been the same in both. Again the instrumentation is not specified, but the concert ended with the apparently popular “British grenadiers.”25 The musicians may have been from the 29th Foot, or they may have been from the band of the 64th Regiment, as Flagg later gave many concerts with their assistance. The men in one or both cases may even have been local musicians who were attempting to form a musical organization, for Flagg in an advertisement of 1773 claimed that he was the “First Founder, [and had] at great Expense of Time, Trouble, etc., instructed a Band of Music to perform before the Regiment of Militia in this Town.”26 Information about this early militia band has not yet surfaced, other than Flagg’s statement, but the concert of 1769 may very easily have been performed by this band.27 Flagg had seen the example of the British regimental bands, and wished to organize the same for his own militia regiment. The band may not have been very large at first, or may not have had a permanent organization, for Rowe witnessed a parade in 1770 where there were “Three Flags Flying, Drums Beating & a french Horn.”28 Colonial standards may not have been as high as European, nor the officers’ purses as full, for one-man bands were not restricted to the above-mentioned parade. Roberts wrote of the commander of the Central Militia Company who employed a one-eyed clarinetist “to march about eight paces in front” of the company.29

Since the military bands were financed by the officers of the regiment, it must be assumed that the majority of their performances were for these officers, and in the normal military ceremonial duties. It is rare therefore that one comes across references to such performances. John Rowe attended the funeral for one of his military friends at which the band of the 64th Regiment led the procession. This band also found time for concerts. In 1771 the band of the 64th performed twice at Concert Hall, the first time in conjunction with W. S. Morgan, the second with Josiah Flagg. They appeared regularly throughout 1772, 1773, and 1774, sometimes at Concert Hall and at least once at the British Coffee House. The nature of these concerts can be learned from the advertisement (fig. 75) carried in the Boston Evening Post of May 9, 1774. The actual pieces to be performed were seldom included in a concert advertisement; therefore this program is of great interest as an example of the typical concert fare of the time. It must be remembered that the military bandsmen of the eighteenth century were “double-handed,” that is, they performed on wind instruments while outdoors, and some exchanged those for stringed instruments for indoor and social occasions. This program, performed indoors, was not a band program in the modern sense, but rather a concert for orchestra.

One hopes that the musical performance was on a higher level than the printed advertisement, with its typographical errors and incompleteness. The opening work, for example, was by Pietro Guglielmi. In a set of Periodical Overtures printed by Robert Bremner around the year 1773 in London, the thirty-first work is Guglielmi’s overture La Pazzie di Orlando. Since this is the only work by Guglielmi in the whole set of parts, it may be assumed that the advertised “1st” is an error for “31st.” In the same set of six works, scored for string quartet, two oboes, and two horns, the other five are by François Joseph Gossec. Number 33 is a symphony, opus 12 number 2. In three movements, allegro, andante, and presto, it is typical of lighter orchestral music of the time. Carl Barbandt was another popular composer of the time, but which of his concertos was performed is not indicated. The song “All in the downs,” or “Black eyed Susan,” was a popular ballad in which the young lady bids farewell to her lover before he sails off to battle in his warship. Excerpts from Thomas Arne’s opera Artaxerxes were frequently performed, and most popular seems to have been the aria “The soldier tir’d of wars alarms.” The kettledrums and military uniforms of the musicians must have left a deep impression on the audience, many of them officers in His Majesty’s Service, as the soloist sang: “The Soldier tir’d of Wars Alarms forswears the clang of hostile arms. But if the brazen Trumpet sound, he burns with Conquest to be Crown’d, and dares again the field.” Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kelly, had three works published as part of the Periodical Overtures, but which one was the “Grand Simphony” [sic] that concluded the concert is not indicated.

There were British musical units active in Boston in 1774 in addition to the famous band of the 64th Regiment. A “Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music” given at Concert Hall in September of that year, by the same Morgan who had given the concerts with the 64th Regiment in previous years, featured “clarinets, Hautboys, Bassoons, French horns, Trumpets, Kettle Drums, &c., &c.” The advertisement noted that “The Gentlemen Performers of the Army, Navy, and of the Town, have promis’d Mr. Morgan their assistance in Concert; likewise some of the best Performers from the several Bands of Music of the Line.”30 This combination of the best military and civilian musical forces speaks well for the cultural integration of the city a brief seven months prior to the “shot heard round the world” at Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775. In December of 1774 Rowe attended a funeral procession that was led by the 4th Regiment and its band of music.31 They had recently arrived in Boston, and must have immediately entered into the musical activities of the city.

Fig. 75. Advertisement from the Boston Evening Post, May 9, 1774.

At the beginning of 1775 there were nine British regiments stationed in Boston, and at least eight of them are known to have had bands of music.32 Bostonians must have had many opportunities of seeing and hearing these groups perform. A visiting doctor noted in his diary for the 21st of March of that year: “After breakfast being a fine day, went to the Common & got upon the top of the High hill at the back of Mr. Hancock’s fine house. . . . It being about the time of mustering & changing guard, & the troops quartered in the different parts of the town; the Drums & Fifes, with the musick of the different regiments was heard on every side & had a most charming effect.”33

Others did not find the music quite as charming. Fifing and drumming on the Sabbath, a subject for complaints since the first British landing in 1768, seemed to be even more prevalent than before. The tune “Yankee Doodle” had been and continued to be widely used by the British as a musical taunt against the local populace. In March of 1775 there is a documented complaint that the tune was played by the field music of the 4th Regiment near a church during religious service in order to annoy the congregation.34 Also in March a colonial farmer visiting Boston was seized on a false charge. He was stripped, tarred, and feathered, and then paraded through the streets with a sign around his neck declaring him to be “American Liberty, or a Specimen of Democracy.” More important for this paper, he was accompanied by twenty fifers and drummers of the 47th Regiment playing “Yankee Doodle.”35

The colonists had been thinking militarily before the start of the Revolutionary War. T. and J. Fleet had brought out a Boston edition in 1773 of The Manual Exercise as Ordered by His Majesty in 1764, the standard military regulations for the British Army.36 That same year, 1773, Gilbert Deblois was selling “French horns, Bassoons, Hautboys, fifes, drums, English and German flutes . . . ,” with tutors for each instrument, plus “a great assortment of gold and silver Regimental and Train of Artillery Laces, Bindings, Shoulder Knots, Apaulets, Hat Loops, etc.,” swords, hangers, belts, and powder flasks. For officers seeking to form regimental bands the appeal of the instruments which could comprise Harmoniemusik adds significance to the order of the instruments named in the advertisement. Deblois’ trade card was even more explicit for it offered “Fifes, Drums, with all other Sorts Instruments proper to compose a Band of Music for a Regiment.”37

Committees of Safety had been established, and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, like similar groups throughout the colonies, had been reorganizing the militia, forcing out Tory officers and replacing them with sympathetic leaders. A resident described in detail his impression of the new volunteer militia units:

Am almost every minute taken off with the agreeable sight of our militia companies marching into the Common, as it is a grand field day with us; and I assure, were you to see ’em, you’d scarcely believe your eyes, they are so strangely metamorphos’d. From making the most despicable appearance they now vie with the best troops in his majesties service, being dressed all in blue uniforms, with drums and fifes to each company dress’d in white uniforms trim’d in ye most elegant manner; with a company of Grenadiers in red with every other apparatus, that equal any regular Company I ever saw both in regard to appearance and discipline, having a grand band of musick consisting of eight that play nearly equal to that of the 64th. What crowns all is the Cadet company, being perfectly compleat and under the best order you can conceive of, with a band of musick likewise, that perform admirably well. What with these and Paddock’s company of artillery make ye compleatest militia in America.38

The occasion was the celebration of the birthday of the king. The troops participating were the Company of Cadets, commanded by John Hancock, with a band of music; the Company of Grenadiers with their band of music;39 the Massachusetts Artillery Company; a cavalry troop; and the “militia of the town,” or common militia. Some writers have mistakenly interpreted “band of music” to indicate a group of ten or more fifers and drummers, but this is obviously in error. The newspaper reported that “the band of music belonging to the regiment of Cadets and Major Paddock’s fifes and drums, after dinner, were in the balconies in King-Street, and alternately played a great variety of tunes before a vast number of spectators.”40 That a band of music is quite separate and distinct from the field music of drums and fifes is borne out by a report of the celebration of the king’s coronation in September of 1773. The Independent Cadets and the Company of Grenadiers, each with their own band of music, participated in the festivities, and “in the evening [there] was a grand concert of Music at Concert Hall, and a number of fireworks were played off on King Street.”41 It is very doubtful that the musically sophisticated Bostonians would be willing to attend a “grand concert” performed by fifers and drummers.

Attention is directed to the commanding officer of the Independent Cadets, Col. John Hancock, who later became president of the Continental Congress. At this time the Cadets had a band, presumably of eight musicians like that of the Grenadier Company, who played “admirably well.” A year later, when the Independent Cadets dissolved owing to the rising frictions leading to the Revolution, the musical instruments and equipage were turned over to Hancock for safekeeping until the Cadets could be reactivated.42

Preparation for any possible outbreak of hostilities continued. Companies of minutemen were established, to be ready to respond at a moment’s warning. The first call was sounded by William Diamond, a drummer in Captain Parker’s militia company from Lexington. Born in Boston, and having learned the art of drumming from a British soldier stationed there, Diamond was only nineteen when he beat the call to arms. The drum that he used, now owned by the Lexington Historical Society, is illustrated in figure 76.43

From all over New England men responded to the news from Lexington. Within a few days a conglomeration of militia units held together by common ideals, but little else, began a siege of Boston. The Massachusetts Provincial Congress resolved that eight thousand men be immediately enlisted and formed into companies of seventy-nine men each, including one drummer and one fifer, nine companies forming a regiment.44 New Hampshire sent regiments of ten and twelve companies, Maryland of eight companies, and a Canadian regiment reported with twenty.45 There was no standardization of size among the units, but all depended upon the drum for communicating orders.

By March of 1776 the British situation in Boston had become untenable and Gen. Howe decided to evacuate all his troops. As the Americans entered Boston, they marched to the tune of “Yankee Doodle,” and traversed the town from end to end with “drums beating and colors flying.”46 Fearing that New York might be the next objective, Gen. Washington ordered the majority of his army to that city, leaving Gen. Artemas Ward in command of six regiments in and around Boston for the protection of the entire area.47

Within two weeks of assuming command he ordered that his chief executive officer, the brigade major, set up his office in the general’s own quarters, and that the “drums-and-fifes majors of the whole brigade” meet in that office on the following day.48 The orders for that day read to the troops at retreat parade contained the statement that “the General [Ward] observes with pleasure the improvement the drums and fifes have made in martial music, and their attention to duty. He hopes that the drum-and-fife majors will continue to exert themselves in instructing those under their care in every branch of their duty.”49 To ensure that the fife and drum majors would continue “to exert themselves,” a chief drum major, Hugh Rayner, and a chief fife major, John Whiting, were appointed on the very next day. So that there would be no question in anyone’s mind as to the importance placed on the music, explicit details were also given:

Fig. 76. Side drum used in the battle at Lexington, 1775.

All the drums and fifes in town are to attend the stated exercises at the time and place appointed. All the drums-and-fifers majors of this division of the army are to meet twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday, on the bottom of the Common, for practice. The drums and fifes of each regiment off duty are to practice separately, under the direction of their respective majors, till the chief drum-and-fife majors shall think them sufficiently instructed to join in one body. It is recommended the musicianers of each regiment that they emulate each other in striving to excel in this pleasant part of military discipline.50

To reinforce the total effect of this drive, Ward decreed that the next day’s parole, or sentry’s challenge, would be “martial.” to be answered by the countersign “music.”51 This concentrated emphasis in a brief four days seems to have had its effect, for no further mention of music is contained in the orderly book.

It will be remembered that, two years before, the musical instruments of the band of the Independent Cadets had been turned over to its commander, John Hancock, for safekeeping until such time as the Cadets could be reconstituted. Some other officers had different ideas, and took advantage of the situation. Writing from Philadelphia, where he was serving as president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock requested a favor of Gen. Philip Schuyler:

On the Departure of our Troops from Boston, to New York, Colo Greaton & I believe some other of the Cols from my Colony, Without my Knowledge or Consent took into their Possession & out of the hands of the proper officer with whom I had left them, some French horns, Bassoons & other Instruments of Musick which I purpose imported for the use of a Military Corps under my command. I have to request the Favor of you to Give Orders to Colo Greaton, or any officer who may have them, to deliver them to you. I shall esteem it a Favor, if you have any good opportunity, You would please to order them to be sent to me. I believe you will find my name on them.52

Gen. Schuyler was at the time away from the main part of the army, so he requested his second-in-command, Gen. Gates, to collect the instruments and forward them to his house at Albany.53 Schuyler then wrote to Philadelphia of his instructions to Gates, and hoped that he would soon be able to forward the instruments to Hancock.54 He does not seem to have been successful, for six months later Hancock reminded Schuyler, “I never heard anything of my band of musick since I wrote you.”55 Schuyler’s correspondence does not indicate a reply, nor does Gates’ correspondence make any reference to the request. Nothing more has been located regarding these instruments. Col. Greaton commanded the 24th Continental Infantry, later the 3d Massachusetts, and it is very possible that the instruments remained with the regiment and were used by a band, although no documentation regarding this has as yet been located.

Boston remained peaceful after Howe left in March of 1776, and their distance from the actual site of warfare seems to have given the Bostonians some sense of assurance that military preparations were no longer an emergency. On May 29, 1777, the following order was given to the troops in Boston:

The Honble House of Representatives having represented that the frequent Drumming around and near the Court House greatly interrupts the Debates of the Assembly, and desire that a stop may be put thereto, the General therefore forbids any Beating of Drums during the sitting of the Council or House of Representatives (except on some special occasions) either for practicing or on Duty, above the Coffee House in Congress Street, or between the Old Brick Meeting House, and the Town Pump in Main Street. Fife Major Hywill will fix a parade for the Musick of Colo Crane’s Battalion, somewhere without the before mentioned Limits.56

The fife major referred to in the orders was John Hiwell, who had been appointed to that position in Knox’s Regiment of Continental Artillery on February 1, 1776.57 Prior to that time he had been a sergeant,58 but little else is known about his early life. On January 1, 1777, according to Heitman, Hiwell had been promoted to the rank of second lieutenant,59 yet the above order refers to him as fife major. It is very possible, in the light of subsequent events, that Hiwell carried on the duties of fife major, with the rank, pay, and allowances of a second lieutenant. A likely justification for this extra consideration is that he was responsible for the regimental band of music. If only the fifes and drums were meant, there would be no need to single out Hiwell and “the Musick of Colo Crane’s Battalion” in the above-quoted order. Artillery officers and men have always considered themselves apart from and above the regular infantry of the line and Col. John Crane’s Massachusetts battalion was the 3d Regiment of Continental Artillery. Thus it would not be surprising to find documentation that this regiment supported a band of music. Since it is known that Crane had a band of music in 1778,60 one can be fairly certain that the above order documents the existence of the band a year earlier.

In June of 1777, less than a month after the above order was given, Hiwell received 180 dollars from Col. Crane “to recruit men for his Reg. of Arty.”61 At that time a Continental bounty of twenty dollars and one hundred acres of land was offered to anyone who enlisted for the duration of the war, and ten dollars to anyone enlisting for three years.62 Since Hiwell was fife major, presumably he was sent to enlist musicians. Considering that Hiwell was a skilled musician63 and that the drum major would logically be in charge of recruiting drummers, it is likely that Hiwell was trying to recruit additional men for the regimental band.

In 1778 Hiwell was appointed as inspector and superintendent of music for the Continental Army, with the pay and allowances of a captain of Artillery.64 He was still responsible for the 3d Artillery Band, however, and supervised its many performances at social and ceremonial occasions while the regiment served in the Revolution. There are many instances where Crane’s band is mentioned, always with favorable comments as to the musicians’ ability.65

Following the surrender at Yorktown in October of 1781, there was little organized fighting, particularly in the North. Not wishing to disband completely his army prior to the formal acceptance of a peace treaty, Washington decided to grant furloughs, thereby maintaining the organization of the army. Having functioned as a unit for so many years, the members of Crane’s band remained together even while home on leave. The Salem Gazette of January 16, 1783, carried the announcement illustrated in figure 77. Hiwell had drawn two clarinets and cane for bassoon reeds from the commissary specifically for Crane’s band, and the advertisement mentioned “Duets on the Horns,” so that the band must have been the standard Harmoniemusik combination of pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, similar to the style accepted by the European bands.

The concert was performed “at so great acceptance” that the band was engaged to assist in a concert for the poor the following week. Less than a month later the band performed a similar concert at Portsmouth,66 which is noted as being the “first real public concert recorded in New Hampshire.”67

The band returned to the regiment in time for the announcement of the cessation of hostilities on April 19, 1783, and finally the day arrived for which the men had been waiting so patiently: “Regimental Orders, 9th June 83. . . . The men engaged during the war are to parade tomorrow morning 10 o’clock before Col[onel’s] Quarters—prepared to march to their respective homes—. . . The Non Commissioned Staff and Band are to [be] furnished with Musketts and Accoutrements from the 3 years men. . . .”68

Fig. 77. Advertisement from the Salem Gazette, January 16, 1783.

Certainly the musicians must have continued playing when they got back home, for there are many references to “the Massachusetts Band” performing in Boston. Richard Franko Goldman has traced a direct relationship between this band of Col. John Crane and that of Patrick S. Gilmore, almost a century later: “The Massachusetts Band was formed in Boston in 1783; it was known from about 1812 as The Green Dragon Band, changing its name again in about 1820, to the Boston Brigade Band. It was this band that became, in 1859, Gilmore’s Band, the first great American band and undoubtedly one of the finest that has ever played.”69 Whether or not Goldman’s lineage is correct, colonial military bands were to form a significant part of the musical heritage bequeathed to post-Revolutionary America.

1 Percy Scholes in The Puritans and Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 60–64, quotes many sources which indicate that such eminent Puritans as Milton, Cromwell, and Bunyan as well as somewhat less-known ones such as Whitelocke, Cromwell’s ambassador to Sweden, and Colonel Hutchinson were sympathetic to and enjoyed dancing. Music and dance maintained a position of importance in seventeenth-century England.

2 Dictionary of National Biography quotes [A Register of] Members of Inner Temple, p. 252.

3 James P. Cunningham, Dancing in the Inns of Court (London: Jordan and Sons, Ltd., 1965).

4 The Sabbath was so strictly observed and so universally respected in the first days of the Massachusetts Colony that there was no need for an ordinance enforcing it until 1653. Dancing was not specifically referred to but would certainly have been included in the category of forbidden occupations and pastimes. Nathaniel Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628–1688, 6 vols. (Boston: William White, 1853–1854), iv, i, 150, 347, 395; v, 239, 469; Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 39 vols. (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1876–1909), Second Report, pp. 131, 151; from Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in the Wilderness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 76. The Boston Record Commissioners report: “28^th. 2^mo. 1662. . . . It is Ordered that the Counstable watche be giuen out for the ensueing yeare 1662. . . . A charge shall be giuen verballie, or read vnto the watch euery night. The Form of Charge. . . . [number] 2. If after 10 of y^e clocke they see any lights, then to make discreet inquiry, whether there be a warrantable cause, likewise if they heare any noyse or disorderlye carriage in any house wisely to demand a reason of it, & if it apeare, a reall disorder, that men are danceing, drinckeing, Singinge vainlie & c, they shall admonish them to cease, but if they diserne the Continnuance of it after moderate admonition, then to acquainte the Counstable of it, or him that hath the care of y^e watch for that night, who shall see to the redress of it & to take the names of the persons to acquaint authoritie there with.” Record Commissioners of Boston, Seventh Report, pp. 8–9.

5 Margaret Dean-Smith has made a careful study of the many editions of Playford’s Dancing Master in Playford’s English Dancing Master: A Facsimile Reprint with an Introduction, Bibliography and Notes (London: Schott and Co., Ltd., 1957).

6 [Increase Mather and others], An Arrow Against Profane and Promiscuous Dancing; Drawn Out of the Quiver of the Scriptures (Boston: Samuel Green, 1684), p. 24 (Evans 414).

7 A number of books written before 1700 on the general subject of education which recommend dance are mentioned by Joseph E. Marks on pages 42, 43, and 174 of his book, America Learns to Dance (New York: Exposition Press, 1957); they are The Boke named the Governour, by Sir Thomas Elyot (1531); The Scholemaster, by Roger Ascham (1571); Positions, by Mulcaster (1581); The English Gentleman, by Richard Braitwaite (London: Felix Kingston, 1633) and The English Gentlewoman (London: B. Alsop & T. Fawcet, 1631) by the same author; and, perhaps most important of all, Some Thoughts Concerning Education by the great Nonconformist authority John Locke (ed. by Robert H. Quick [Cambridge University Press, 1880]).

8 Mather, An Arrow, p. 3.

9 The kind of mixed dancing which was the subject of disapproval seems to have been a sort of informal improvised jigging about, which a couple might feel inspired to engage in after having imbibed together in a tavern. This was a distinctly lower-class kind of dancing, and definitely not what was taught in dancing classes.

10 Mather, An Arrow, p. 21.

11 Bridenbaugh, Cities in the Wilderness, pp. 252, 276.

12 Cotton Mather, A Cloud of Witnesses; Darting out Light upon a Case too Unseasonably made Seasonable to be Discoursed on (Boston: B. Greene & J. Allen, 1700), pp. 1, 8 (Evans 921). The sentiments expressed and the quotations from authoritative sources used to support them both in this sermon and in An Arrow . . . seem to be in large part borrowed from the Histrio-Mastix of William Prynne (London, 1633), with such adaptations and additions as made them suitable to the Mathers’ use (see Scholes, Puritans, p. 322). Such displays of erudition were a standard feature of seventeenth century sermons, which, besides conveying moral and theological truths, were expected to entertain and inform.

13 At this time the publications of French dancing masters such as Feuillet and, later, Rameau began to appear along with those of their English translators and counterparts: John Weaver, E. Pemberton, John Essex, Kellom Tomlinson, and others.

14 A list of 210 dance titles in New England manuscripts is found in Joy Van Cleef, “Rural Felicity,” Dance Perspectives, lxv (Spring 1976), Appendix C, but two more manuscripts with additional titles have been found since publication.

15 Professor John Ward of Harvard University has two such English collections, one of which dates from 1721. At Yale in the Beinecke Library is another, dated 1747, bearing the name of Walter Rainstorp, and containing tunes as well as figures.

16 Henry Beck recorded three dance tunes on this page. For the directions to a country dance entitled “Stoney Point,” see fig. 62. “La Prominade” is the same tune as “The King of Denmark’s favourite” found in Twenty Four Country Dances (London, 1769); see fig. 8.

17 Most of the editorial interpolations in imprints have been recently discovered by author Keller.

18 At this period country dances were always performed in two lines, men facing women; cotillons on the other hand were performed in square formation for four couples.

19 Asa Willcox copied the figures of “The King of Denmark’s Favourite” into his manuscript just before he copied “The Faithfull Shephard.” The dance is identical and indicates strongly that Willcox was familiar with material found in the Thompson collection.

20 Cited in Carl Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt (London, 1955), p. 165.

21 Large collections of country dances frequently mentioned have been abbreviated. Please see pages 14 and 15 for complete citations.

22 Clement Weeks, dance ms (Greenland, [New Hampshire], 1783), p. 9.

23 It is interesting to note here that this particular volume was autographed in 1755 by Edward Augustus Holyoke of Salem (1729–1829) when he was twenty-four years old. His daughter Judith married William Turner in 1795. William was the son of William and the grandson of Ephraim Turner, all three of whom were dancing masters in Boston.

24 For one example see Arthur F. Schrader’s discussion of the song text “Rebels” set to the tune “Black joke,” no. 12 in his study “Songs to Cultivate the Sensations of Freedom” in this volume, pages 148–150.

25 Roger Fiske, English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1973), p. 12.

26 Clement Weeks, dance ms (Greenland, [New Hampshire], 1783), p. 12.

27 James A. Fishar was not Johann Christian Fischer (1733–1800), German oboist and composer, but probably John Abraham Fisher (1744–1806), English violinist and composer.

28 Another manuscript now in America is derived entirely from a specific London publication. The New England Historic Genealogical Society owns a manuscript collection of dances which is derived entirely from Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1782 (London: T. Skillern, [1782]). This collection was only recently brought to our attention. It is interesting that few of the dances in the collection are to be found in other American manuscripts. Like the Merrill ms, it seems to be a copy of a specific book, not a personal collection of favorite dances. Perhaps this is the reason that so often the same title appears in several manuscript collections of dances or tunes; there were favorites here in America, they seem to have been fairly widespread in their popularity, and they are clearly derived from English sources on a selective basis.

29 Nancy Shepley, dance ms (Pepperell, [Massachusetts], ca. 1795), p. 4v.

30 For an extended discussion of this old English melody long associated with the dance, see William Chappell’s Popular Music of Olden Time (New York, 1965), pp. 227–233; and Claude M. Simpson’s The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music (New Brunswick, N.J., 1966), pp. 268–278.

Whittier Perkins has copied several dance tunes on this page. “The new way of wooing” appeared in Wright’s Collection (ca. 1742), p. 9; “Jemmy Dang the weaver” appeared in Rutherford’s 200 Country Dances (ca. 1756) and in Clement Weeks’ manuscript collection (as “Jenny Dangs”; see fig. 15); and a dance called “The Hare in the Corn” appeared in Wright’s Collection (ca. 1742), p. 4, but to a different tune.

31 The tune should not be confused with either of two other popular melodies, “Hunt the hare” and “Hunting the hare,” which occur variously on single song sheets, in Twenty Four Dances for the Year 1768 (London: Chas. & Saml. Thompson, [1768]), p. 42, and in American manuscript tune collections of around 1800.

32 “Cottillion” as Cushing Eells copied it was a very popular tune in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in England and America. Apparently of French origin, it was known as “Cotillion oats peas beans,” “Cacina,” “French march,” “Cassino,” and later in American sources as “Baltimore.” It is recognizable as the tune for the singing game “Oats, peas, beans and barley, oh!”

33 For “Dusty Miller” see pp. 30–33 in this study. The music for “Lady Hope’s Reel,” a very popular dance in England and America, can be found in the Giles Gibbs’ manuscript collection of fife tunes made in Connecticut in 1777 (p. 13r). “The Merry Dancer” is a common title throughout the dance literature. As “The merry dance,” “The merry dancer,” and “Merry dancers,” many tunes and dances can be found in both England and America.

34 Chappell, Popular Music of Olden Time, p. 672.

35 The title “Irish Wash Woman” changes to “Irish Washerwoman” after about 1795.

36 For an example of a broadside verse set to this tune see the study of the Irish-man’s Epistle to the Officer’s and Troups at Boston, no. 9 in Arthur F. Schrader’s article in this volume, “Songs to Cultivate the Sensations of Freedom,” pp. 139 and 141.

37 Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Comedies and Tragedies (London: Humphrey Robinson, 1647), p. 441.

38 As with many other popular dances and airs of the eighteenth century “The maid of the mill” was collected in rural twentieth-century England by Cecil Sharp (see his Folk-Dance Airs [London: Novello & Co., 1909], preface and p. 14).

39 The Cabot ms is in the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts.

40 The tunes preserved on these chime clocks reflect the selections made by most manuscript authors in this period. Three can be found in Timothy Swan’s Suffield, Connecticut, manuscript of 1777 now at the American Antiquarian Society. These include “Elliot’s minuet,” “Hob [or] nob,” and “Fr[ench] king’s minuet.” “Hob or nob” is now known as “The Campbells are coming” and with “Over the water to Charly” dates back to dance collections of the 1750s in England. “Over the water” and “The cuckoo’s nest” appear in Giles Gibbs’ manuscript collection made in 1777 in East Windsor, Connecticut, and “The cuckoo’s nest” appears in Clement Weeks’ collection of dances made in 1783 (see fig. 15). “Rakes of Rodney” was well known with its own title as well as the topical title “Rhode Island march.” An excellent study of the clocks and an inaccurate discussion of the tunes can be found in Penrose R. Hoopes’ Shop Records of Daniel Burnap, Clockmaker (Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society, 1958).

41 “Nancy Dawson’s fancy” in Thompson, 200 Country Dances, vol. 2, p. 52, is not the same tune or dance.

42 Chappell, Popular Music of Olden Time, p. 719.

43 Clement Weeks, dance ms (1783), p. ii.

44 Weeks, dance ms, p. 8.

45 Weeks, dance ms, p. 8.

46 Stephen Bonsal includes this charming story concerning “Successful Campaign” in his anecdotal narrative, When the French Were Here (Garden City, N.Y., 1945), p. 58.

47 For a dance to “From the man whom I love” see fig. 61.

48 Clement Weeks, dance ms (1783), p. 21.

49 The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Frances H. Jackson in the preparation of this paper. Her valuable collection and notes made on dance of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the foundation of this study.

1 Isaack de Rasières, “New Netherland in 1627,” New-York Historical Society, Collections, ii (1849), 352.

2 Johnson’s Wonder-Working Providence, 1628–1651 (New York, 1910), p. 135.

3 From 1746 until the present the armory of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts has been located on the upper floor of Faneuil Hall in Boston. This hall, donated to the city by Peter Faneuil in 1742, was a multipurpose building housing town offices and a large assembly hall over a marketplace, a practice common in England at the time. See Walter Muir Whitehill, Boston: A Topographical History (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 41–43.

4 Oliver Ayer Roberts, History of the Military Company of Massachusetts now called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 2 vols. (Boston, 1898), 1, 76.

5 For further background on the musical instruments and general topics discussed, see Raoul F. Camus, “The Military Band in the United States Army prior to 1834” (New York University, Ph.D. diss., 1969).

6 Samuel Sewall, Diary 1674–1729, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 5th Ser., v–vii (1878–1882), v, 154.

7 Sewall, Diary, vi, 27–28.

8 Pennsylvania Gazette, March 25, 1756; Pennsylvania Journal, March 25, 1756. This is the earliest-known mention of an actual military band in America, but further research may discover that the other leading colonial seaports had their militia bands as well.

9 Boston News-Letter, April 16, 1716.

10 Annie Haven Thwing, The Crooked and Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston 1630–1822 (Boston, 1920), p. 86.

11 Boston Gazette, June 28, 1764. The musical compositions are significant because they were the standard musical fare for the military band. The publishers are significant because both Rutherford and Thompson, around 1759, published fife tutors which served as texts for the Revolutionary fifers.

12 New-York Journal, October 13, 1768; Boston Evening Post, December 12, 1768; Gentleman’s Magazine, xxxviii (London, 1768), 512.

13 New-York Journal, October 13, 1768; Boston Evening Post, December 12, 1768.

14 New-York Journal, October 20, 1768; Boston Evening Post, December 19, 1768. The “Journal of the Times” was first published in New York, and later reprinted in the other leading colonial newspapers, including the Boston Evening Post. The editor, or editors, remained anonymous, though their purpose was obviously to support and encourage the colonial cause. See also Boston under Military Rule, 1768–1769, as Revealed in a Journal of the Times, comp. Oliver Morton Dickerson (Boston, 1936).

15 New-York Journal, November 17, 1768. The account went to some length in describing each step in the ceremony in detail. The editors of the Boston Evening Post, however, did not seem to find it quite so unusual, for their edition published the afternoon of the execution, October 31, stated simply, “The Soldier belonging to the 14th Regiment, who was apprehended for Desertion since their arrival here, and sentenced to Death by the Court Martial, was Shot this Morning in the Common, in View of all the Troops.”

16 New-York Journal, November 17, 1768. See also issues of November 24, December 15, and December 31, 1768, and of January 1, January 12, May 3, and June 22, 1769.

17 New-York Journal, January 19, 1769.

18 New-York Journal, January 19, 1769.

19 New-York Journal, July 13, 1769; Boston Evening Post, July 31, 1769.

20 New-York Journal, supplement, June 29, 1769; Boston Evening Post, July 17, 1769.

21 John Rowe, Letters and Diary of John Rowe, Boston Merchant (Boston, 1903), p. 180.

22 Boston Evening Post, October 5 and 11, 1772; September 19, 1773; May 9, 1774.

23 Boston Gazette, March 13, 1769; Boston Chronicle, March 9–13, 1769.

24 Rowe, Letters and Diary, p. 184.

25 Boston Chronicle, June 26–29, 1769.

26 Boston Evening Post, October ii and 18, 1773.

27 The newspaper advertisements do not specify the performers or the group, but Frederick W. Coburn, s.v. “Flagg, Josiah,” Dictionary of American Biography, vi, 449–450, claimed that it was Flagg’s military band that performed. The entry is, unfortunately, not documented.

28 Rowe, Letters and Diary, pp. 204–205.

29 Roberts, History, ii, 66.

30 Boston Evening Post, September 5, 1774.

31 Rowe, Letters and Diary, p. 288. The funeral was for John Maturin, secretary to Gen. Thomas Gage.

32 Gentleman’s Magazine, January 1775; Rowe, Letters and Diary, p. 288; John Boyle, “Boyle’s Journal of Occurrences in Boston, 1759–1778,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register, lxxxiv (1930), 381. The 4th, 5th, 10th, 23d, 38th, 43d, 47th, 52d, and 59th Regiments of Foot were in Boston at the beginning of 1775. No indication of the existence of a band has as yet been found for the 52nd Regiment. The 64th Regiment, with its band, was stationed at Castle William, in Boston harbor. By early June 1775, the 35th, 49th, 63d, 64th, 65th, and 67th Regiments of Foot had arrived at Boston. There are references in inspection reports to bands in all but the 65th Regiment, though it may be assumed that that regiment would have followed the custom and would also have had a band.

33 Robert Honyman, Colonial Panorama, ed. Philip Padelford (San Marino, Calif., 1939), p. 42.

34 John Andrews, “Letters of John Andrews, Esq., of Boston, 1772–1776,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, viii (1866), 400.

35 New-York Journal, March 30, 1775. Discipline was very strict in the eighteenth century armies. Persons convicted of crimes or breaches of discipline were ceremonially punished in front of their regiments or brigades. Where the crime was sufficiently serious to warrant dismissal from the service, but not the penalty of death, the culprit was “drummed from the army.” Traditionally, the music associated with this ceremony was the “Rogues march.” James Thacher, in his Military Journal of the American Revolution (Hartford, 1862), p. 12, stated that the field music played the “Rogues march” on this occasion. Thacher may have unconsciously substituted melodies in his journal, remembering only the connotation rather than the specific tune used, or it is possible that both tunes were played alternately. In either case, considering the social implications of the “Rogues march,” its juxtaposition with “Yankee Doodle” in such a situation would seem to imply that the British regarded the two melodies synonymously. This insult would most certainly have been clearly understood by the local citizens. The Boston Evening Post of March 13, 1775, does not mention the music performed, but includes a sworn statement of the farmer Thomas Ditson. The sign hung on his back, according to Ditson’s statement, read, “American Liberty or Democracy exemplified in a Villain who attempted to intice one of the Soldiers of his Majesty’s 47th Regiment to desert and take up Arms with Rebels against his King and Country.” Holt, the publisher of the New-York Journal, may have been embroidering on the musical facts as well as simplifying the contents of the sign for his readers, or he may have had some other source of information not yet located. Ditson’s full deposition was printed in the Virginia Gazette (Dixon & Hunter) of April 8, 1775, testifying to the widespread and rapid circulation of this cause celèbre, and to the vehemence of the reaction against this insult.

36 Boston Evening Post, March 29, 1773.

37 Boston Evening Post, August 23 and September 13, 1773. This advertisement also appeared in the Boston News-Letter of September 9, 1773. A copy of the trade card is in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

38 Andrews, “Letters,” pp. 323–324.

39 The Company of Grenadiers had been formed just the year previous, according to accounts published in the Boston News-Letter of June ii, 1772. Some indication of the interest taken in these volunteer militia units can be observed from the great achievement of organizing, clothing, and equipping this company in such a brief space of time.

40 Boston Evening Post, June 7, 1773; Boston News-Letter, June 10, 1773. See also Roberts, History, ii, 178.

41 Boston Evening Post, September 27, 1773.

42 Andrews, “Letters,” p. 342.

43 The drum measures 15 inches high by 17 inches wide, and bears a scene of the famous battle, obviously painted considerably later. The counterhoops are painted red, and seven fiber snares are stretched across the bottom head. It is possible that the rope loops, in place of the usual leather ears, are contemporary. For a well-written account of the stand at Lexington and Concord, with many references to this young drummer, see Arthur B. Tourtellot, William Diamond’s Drum (Garden City, 1959).

44 The Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of Safety (Boston, 1838), p. 520. For a listing of the various regiments formed and their commanders, see Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution (Washington, D.C., 1893), pp. 30–33.

45 John W. Wright, Some Notes on the Continental Army (Vails Gate, New York, 1963), p. 20.

46 Dorothy Dudley, Theatrum Majorum (Cambridge, 1876), p. 60.

47 The units were the 3d, 6th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 27th Continental Infantry Regiments, commanded respectively by Cols. Ebenezer Learned, Asa Whitcomb, John Glover, Paul Sargent, Edmund Phinney, and Israel Hutchinson, and usually referred to by the colonel’s name. See Israel Hutchinson, “Orderly Book,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, xvi (1878), 336–364.

48 Hutchinson, “Orderly Book,” p. 347.

49 Hutchinson, “Orderly Book,” p. 347.

50 Hutchinson, “Orderly Book,” p. 348.

51 Hutchinson, “Orderly Book,” p. 348.

52 John Hancock to Philip Schuyler, July 13, 1776, Schuyler Papers, Letters received, pp. 133–134, Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library.

53 Schuyler to Gates, July 19, 1776, Schuyler Papers, Letter Book, ii, 262, Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library.

54 Schuyler to Hancock, July 20, 1776, Letter Book, ii, 266.

55 Hancock to Schuyler, December 30, 1776, Schuyler Papers, Letters received, p. 221, Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library.

56 William Heath, General Orders issued by Major General William Heath when in Command of the Eastern Department 23 May 1777–3 October 1777 (Brooklyn, 1890), pp. 6–7.

57 War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records, ms.18791, National Archives, Record Group 93.

58 Heitman, Historical Register, p. 222.

59 Heitman, Historical Register, p. 222. See also Massachusetts Soldiers & Sailors of the Revolution (Boston, 1900), vii, which ascribes this date of rank to “Continental Army pay accounts.”

60 Camus, “Military Band,” pp. 294–300.

61 War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records, ms. 20152, National Archives, Record Group 93.

62 Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army (New York, 1967), p. 40.

63 Camus, “Military Band,” p. 402.

64 General Orders, August 19, 1778, as quoted in George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, D.C., 1931–1944), xii, 337.

65 For further information on Crane’s Regimental Band, see Camus, Military Band, pp. 211–213, 294–300, 364–366.

66 New-Hampshire Gazette, February 15, 1783, as cited in Oscar G. Sonneck, Early Concert-Life in America (New York, 1969), p. 319.

67 Louis Pichierri, Music in New Hampshire, 1623–1800 (New York, 1960), p. 112.

68 Regimental Orders, June 9, 1783, orderly book of the 3d Regiment of Artillery, manuscript collection, New-York Historical Society.

69 Richard Franko Goldman, The Wind Band (Boston, 1961), p. 35.

1 John Adams, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield et al., 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1961), i, 341.

2 Some verses were attached to American caricatures. Evidently too few secular “single sheet” songs (which included music) were published in America to allow for substantial numbers of topical songs. Probably the unlocated editions of The Liberty Song (Evans 10881) and of Hopkinson’s Battle of the Kegs (Evans 16305) would qualify as “sheet music” if they could be examined.

3 “All that we can claim for the writers of these songs, is a manifest spirit of devotion to the cause and defiance to its enemies.” Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution (New York, 1855), p. vi.

4 Philip Davidson, Propaganda and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, 1941).

5 Bruce Granger, Political Satire in the American Revolution (Ithaca, N. Y., 1960).

6 For an extended discussion of the tune derivation see James Fuld, The Book of World Famous Music (New York, 1966), pp. 510–514.

7 For descriptions of the marching and the singing, see the Christian Science Monitor for August 28, 1963.

8 Henry Commager and Richard Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-Six (New York, 1958), ii, 892–893: “Except for a convivial song, here and there, set to traditional music, one cannot imagine the American soldiers actually singing the songs we have here: most of them are hothouse products.”

The chapter (22) which follows the above comment is titled “Songs and Ballads of the Revolution” and includes seventeen “Patriot” songs and five “Loyalist and British” songs. In this writer’s experience most of these twenty-two songs are quite singable for a musician who understands the genre and the period. The songs usually must be shortened for audiences in our impatient times, but length was no barrier to complete performance in the eighteenth century when the singing itself was a pastime. The vocabulary, the syntax, and the rhetoric of these songs pose difficulties for some singers and listeners today, but the vocabulary, the syntax, and the rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence and of Washington’s “Farewell Address” pose equal problems for some modern readers and listeners.

Specialists in American music may note that three song texts included among the “hothouse products” referred to above are “Chester” by William Billings, “Bunker Hill” by Nathaniel Niles and Andrew Law, and “Toast to Washington” by Francis Hopkinson. Three other song texts from that same chapter are included in the present study with their original music and so may be performed and judged for themselves. They are Liberty Tree, Halcyon Days of Old England, and [The Rebels].

9 Edith Schnapper, The British Union-Catalogue of Early Music, 2 vols. (London, 1957), ii, 744.

10 Irving Lowens has suggested that off-color texts associated with “Yankee doodle” may have been one of the reasons why the tune was not printed in America before 1794, even though it certainly was well known here by 1767. See the essay by Lowens in the facsimile reprint Benjamin Carr’s Federal Overture (1794) (Philadelphia, 1957), p. 2.

11 “When the king enjoys his own again,” first written about 1643, was one of the strongest royalist songs against the Commonwealth, a favorite of the Jacobites thereafter, and even used for songs in support of the Hanovers. Since at least one anti-Commonwealth song text entitled The World turned upside down (British Museum, Thomasen Tracts, 669.f.10 [47]) was published “to the tune” in 1646, it is one of the candidates for the “honour” of having been played at the Yorktown surrender. There is a nagging question as to whether this tune was well enough known under the title of “World turned upside down” to be so recognized at Yorktown in 1781, and disagreement on whether the basic tune remained popular long enough to serve this way. However, if a tune associated with the “World” title was played by the British during their surrender at Yorktown, this is the only such tune found so far that would not have been utterly ridiculous from their point of view. For copies of the tune and some of its texts, and for a further discussion of its history and the musical aspects of the surrender see the works noted below. Another of the “candidates” is discussed in this study. See fig. 86 and its accompanying text.

Joseph Ritson, Ancient Songs from the Time of King Henry the Third to the Revolution (London, 1790), pp. 229–231; William Chappell, Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Times, 2 vols. (London, 1859), ii, 434–439, reprinted in facsimile by Dover Publications (New York, 1961), hereafter abbreviated as Chappell; Claude Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music (New Brunswick, N.J., 1966), pp. 764–768, hereafter abbreviated as Simpson; Lewis Winstock, Songs and Music of the Redcoats (Harrisburg, 1970), pp. 80–82; and Raoul Camus, “The Military Band in the United States Army prior to 1834” (New York University, Ph.D. diss., 1969), pp. 341–351.

12 A. S. Collins, “Language 1660–1784,” in Pelican Guide to English Literature, vol. 4: From Dry den to Johnson, ed. Boris Ford (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1957), pp. 134–140.

13 Arthur F. Schlesinger, Sr., “A Note on Songs as Patriotic Propaganda, 1765–1776,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., xi (1954), 79.

14 J. A. Leo Lemay, A Calendar of American Poetry in the Colonial Newspapers and Magazines and in the Major English Magazines through 1765 (Worcester, 1972), items 2055–2057, pp. 283–284. Also, American Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, lxxx, part 2 (1971).

15 For publication details on these songs see Schnapper, British Union-Catalogue of Early Music, under the song titles. Copies of the songs may be found in the Julian Marshall Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

16 Granger, Political Satire, p. 48, cites a copy in London Chronicle, March 11, 1766, p. 236, which the writer has not seen.

17 Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, ed. Thomas D’Urfey, 6 vols. (London, 1719–1720). Original sets are rare but C. L. Day, late scholar on the work of D’Urfey, described an anonymous reprint which appeared in 1876 as “extraordinarily accurate.” This 1876 reprint was reproduced in facsimile by Folklore Library Publishers Inc., 3 vols. (New York, 1959), with an introduction by Day.

18 Broadsides, Ballads &c. Printed in Massachusetts, 1639–1800, ed. Worthington C. Ford, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, lxxv (1922), 208.

19 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Manuscript Collection (Abs n. d.-9). There is also a photostat copy in the Massachusetts Historical Society broadside collection.

20 Clifford Shipton and James Mooney, National Index of American Imprints through 1800, 2 vols. (Worcester, 1969), ii, 579.

21 Bill Bonyun et al., The American Revolution through Its Songs and Ballads (Wiscasset, Maine, 1961).

22 E. P. Richardson in “Four American Political Prints,” American Art Journal, (November 1974), 36–44, makes an interesting case for this caricature’s having been made by a Boston loyalist. However, it seems to this author to make more sense for a caricaturist in England not to know that Washington had been in command outside Boston for six months than it does for a Boston loyalist to ignore the fact.

23 British Museum, Prints and Drawings, Political and Personal Satires, nos. 3887, 4001, 4133, 4147, 4162, and 5688.

24 “Loyalist Rhapsodies,” Peter Force Papers, Series viii–d, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

1 Walton’s remark in The Compleat Angler (London, 1653 and subsequent editions) concerning broadsides is toward the end of Chapter 2, “The Second Day.”

2 The colonial Scottish settlers early acquired a reputation for their interest in celebrations and music. The same announcement adds: “I am desired to acquaint the Scots Gentlemen, That as the Meeting is fixt for St. Andrew’s-Day, partly to commemorate the Patron of their Country, it’s hoped they’ll Contribute to the carrying on and continuing the same, by the Favour of their Company and Encouragement.”

3 Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, The Ladies Wreath (Boston, 1837), p. 384.

4 Clifford K. Shipton, Isaiah Thomas, Printer (Rochester, N.Y., 1948), pp. 5–6.

5 Phillips Barry, unaware of the Restoration assertion of 1662, wrote in 1937: “the ‘first shot’ fired in the ‘thirty years’ war for the rights of ballad music,’ was our statement in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii (1905), 124, that ‘the words constitute but one-half of a folksong; the air is no less an essential part.’” “American Folk Music” in Southern Folklore Quarterly, i (1937), No. 2, 38.

6 Bertrand H. Bronson, The Ballad as Song (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), p. 62.

7 See George Pullen Jackson, Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America (New York, 1937)., pp. 6, 18, 19; and Anne G. Gilchrist, “The Folk Element in Early Revival Hymns and Tunes,” Journal of the Folk-Song Society, viii, part 2 (1928), p. 63.

8 Barry, “American Folk Music,” p. 30.

9 Barry, “American Folk Music,” p. 33.

10 Patrick W. Joyce, Ancient Irish Music (Dublin, 1872), p. 22. Also cited in Barry, “American Folk Music,” p. 33.

11 Cotton Mather, Diary of Cotton Mather, 1681–1728, ed. Worthington C. Ford, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 7th Ser., vii–viii (1911–1912), viii, 242. A photographic reprint in two volumes was issued by Frederick Ungar (New York, 1957).

12 Remains of Myles Coverdale, republished by George Pearson from the unique copy of Coverdale’s Goostly Psalmes and Spiritual Songs in the Queens College Library, Oxford (Cambridge, Eng., 1846), p. 537.

13 Thomas Symmes, The Reasonableness of Regular Singing; or Singing by Note (Boston, 1720), p. 20.

14 See the excellent study by Samuel Eliot Morison, “The Reverend Seaborn Cotton’s Commonplace Book,” Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Publications, xxxii (1933–1937), 320–352. Morison points out on p. 321, “The fact that no printed version of the ballads that he copied can be found before 1660 need not alter the attribution of the copies to his undergraduate days since these ballads may well have been sung for years before they were printed, and doubtless older editions of the broad-sheets than those which have survived once existed.” Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music (New Brunswick, N.J., 1966) gives the tunes and information about “Jockey’s jealousy,” p. 341, and “The damask rose; or, omnia vincit amor,” pp. 153–155, as well as “Gerhard’s mistresse,” pp. 250–252.

15 Bronson, Ballad as Song, p. 61.

16 Albert B. Friedman, The Ballad Revival (Chicago, 1961), p. 59.

17 Sir Charles Harding Firth, An American Garland: Being a Collection of Ballads Relating to America, 1563–1759 (Oxford, 1915), pp. xxiv–xxv, 86–87. A Friendly Invitation was entered in the registry March 20, 1638, as Firth discovered in Edward Arber, A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554–1640, 5 vols. (London, 1875–1894), iv, no. 387.

18 For the tune and information about “Tom a’ bedlam,” see Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 710–713, and William Chappell, The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time, 2 vols. (London, 1859; facsimile reprint, New York, 1965), 1, 335. There is an arrangement for virginals in Drexel ms. 5612, p. 99, as well as in John Gamble’s “Commonplace Book” (1659), no. 64, both mss at the New York Public Library.

19 All ballads listed in this paragraph can be found in Firth, An American Garland: The Summons to New England, no. 7; A Song beginning “New England is preparing a-pace,” no. 8; A West-Country Man’s Voyage to New England, no. 9, and The Quaker’s Farwel to England, no. 11.

20 The Sewall broadside is reproduced in Ola Elizabeth Winslow, American Broadside Verse from Imprints of the 17th and 18th Centuries (New Haven, Conn., and London, 1930), pp. 116–117, and Georgia A. Bumgardner, American Broadsides: Sixty Facsimilies [sic] Dated 1680–1800, Reproduced from Originals in the American Antiquarian Society (Barre, Mass., 1971), no. 31.

21 Samuel Sewall’s Diary, 1674–1729, has been published twice. The earliest complete edition was issued by the Massachusetts Historical Society in its Collections, 5th Ser., v–vii (1878–1882). A recent edition with more extensive notes was edited by M. Halsey Thomas and published in New York by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973. This quotation can be found in the former edition in vol. vi, pp. 27–28, and in the latter in vol. i, pp. 440–441.

22 The tune is also found in Maurice Frost, English and Scottish Hymn Tunes, c. 1543–1677 (London, 1953), pp. 207–208.

23 Webster’s Imperial Dictionary (Chicago, 1904), p. 1748.

24 The Autobiography of Thomas Whythorne, ed. James T. Osborn, modern spelling ed. (Oxford, 1962), p. 132.

25 It was James Franklin who urged young Ben to write verse: “My brother thinking it might turn to account, encouraged me to put me on composing occasional ballads.” See A. H. Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 10 vols. (New York, 1905–1907), i, 239; and Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, intro. Carl Van Doren (New York, 1951), p. 19, for an account of the ballad episode. There is a useful résumé about Edward Teach (or Thach), known as Blackbeard, in the Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 1917), xix, 481–482.

26 The letter to Peter Franklin in Newport was first published under the title “Criticism on Musick” in the Massachusetts Magazine for July 1790, pp. 97–99. It is quoted in full in Oscar G. Sonneck, Suum Cuique: Essays in Music (Washington, D.C., 1916), pp. 59–84; see particularly p. 81.

27 In his New England History in Ballads (Boston, 1903), p. 56, Edward Everett Hale stated: “Mr. Ashton in his Real Sailor Songs (London, 1891), p. 79 and verso, disinterred the original Franklin—I suppose in the British Museum. It is very bad—as bad as it could be. But it bears every mark of being the original by Benjamin Franklin.” Charles O’Brien Kennedy in A Treasury of American Ballads (New York, 1954), pp. 4–6, was of the same opinion. However, since Ashton failed to mention the air “What is greater joy and pleasure,” neither Hale nor Kennedy went into the question of tunes although the latter declared: “we remember this one from our youth.” There is also a reprint of the Blackbeard ballad in C. H. Firth, Naval Songs and Ballads (London, 1908), xxxv, 167–169.

28 Chappell noted in 1859 that a copy of “‘How happy are young lovers’ . . . derived from the ballad of The Distracted Sailor” and was in turn to be sung “to the tune of ‘What is greater joy or pleasure,’ which carries the air a stage further back.” Ballad Literature and Popular Music, ii, 597.

29 “British Music at the Yorktown Surrender: ‘Welcome, Brother Debtor,’” pp. 593–595; and “St. George Tucker’s Journal at the Siege of Yorktown, 1781,” p. 392, both in William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., v (1948).

30 For the attribution to Francis Williams, see Edward Long, History of Jamaica, 2 vols. (London, 1774), ii, 476. In an eighteenth-century copy of the song in the Library of the Arsenal at Paris (mss.fr.6333) there is also a statement at the bottom of the page: “Les vers ont été composés par Francis Williams nègre de la Jamaique. Voyez, Histoire de cette isle par Edouard Long et la littérature des nègres p. 235 et suiv.” Actually the words in the English edition are more cautious: “it is said (I know not with what truth) that he composed the well known ballad of ‘Welcome, welcome brother debtor’ &c. But I have likewise heard the same attributed to a different author.” A single sheet folio in British Museum, g.307.(34*), credits Charles Coffey with the words.

31 The tune was also published in a beautifully engraved and illustrated edition with the text “Come and listen to my ditty” in George Bickham, The Musical Entertainer, 2 vols. (London, 1740; facsimile reprint New York, 1965), i, 54. There is an interesting set of keyboard variations in the British Museum dating from the 1770s entitled Hosier’s Ghost, or Wellcome, wellcome [sic], Brother Debtor. A Favorite Old Air, with Variations for the Harpsichord, or Piano Forte, etc. (Longman, Lukey &, Broderip: London, [n.d.]). I am indebted to Gillian Anderson for calling my attention to this publication.

32 There is a photographic edition of Good Newes from Virginia made from a copy (no. 100478) in the Public Record Office in London: Photostat Americana, 2d Ser. (Boston, 1940), no. 105. A reduced facsimile also appeared in W. H. Robinson, Catalogue 77 (London, 1948), opposite p. 103, and a facsimile and reprint in the William and Mary Quarterly, v, no. 3 (1948), 358. The Duke of Manchester copy was put up for sale at the Parke Bernet Gallery, New York, May 5, 1970, catalogue 3078, lot 22. The text was reprinted in Virginia Vetusta, ed. E. D. Neill (Albany, N.Y., 1885), pp. 147ff.

Christopher Brook wrote a Poem on the Late Massacre in Virginia (London, 1622), but he was not an eyewitness of the event. Capt. John Smith again discusses the Indian attack in the fourth book of his Generall Historie of Virginia (London, 1624) under the heading “The Massacre Upon the Two and Twentieth of March.”

33 Attempts to understand the Indian point of view were made but the educational efforts of Roger Williams and John Eliot never really took hold.

34 For a modern edition see Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst, I. Ser., xvi (1904), 134–135.

35 Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 13–16, gives detailed information on the many versions of “All you that love good fellows” and prints two of the early tunes. He does not discuss the 1724 and 1725 ballads published by J. Franklin. The London Prentice was published a number of times in Boston; the earliest surviving broadside was issued by Thomas Fleet in 1748 and was printed on the backs of papal indulgences captured by American privateers, presumably in the Caribbean.

36 Roger Williams, A Key into the Language of America (London, 1643), pp. 16–17 and 21.

37 The 1721 reprint of Some Meditations Concerning our Honourable Gentlemen and Fellow-Souldiers is in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 113.

38 Whoever W.W. was, he had two ideas in this ballad, one dealing with the actual struggle and the other with moralizing observations. The first half may have been written earlier.

39 From the back sheet of The New England Courant, No. 161, August 24, 1724: “On Wednesday next will be publish’d, and sold by James Franklin in Union Street An Excellent new Song, Enttuled [sic], The Rebels Reward; Or, English Courage display’d. Being a full Account of the Victory obtain’d over the Indians at Norrigiwock, &c. Illustrated with a curious Cut.” Though the authorship of this ballad is anonymous, it may have been written by Benjamin Franklin, Sr. It certainly has a similarity to The Voluntiers’ March. See footnote 41. Representative poems by Benjamin Franklin, Sr., are found in J. G. Loring, “The Franklin Manuscripts,” The Historical Magazine, iii (New York, 1859), 9, 50–51, 86–87.

40 Two other ballads concerning the third Indian War are: A Brief / Narrative, or Poem, / Giving an Account of the Hostile Actions of some Pagan Indians towards Lieutenant Jacob Tilton [and his] / brother Daniel Tilton, both of the town of Ipswich, as they were on board of a small vesse[l bound home]/ ward; which happened in the summer-time, in the year 1722. With an Account of th[e remarkable] / Exploits of the said Tiltons, and their victorious Conquest over their insulting enem[ies . . . ] (Newburyport – from a Reprint by J. Thomas and H. W. Tingus – Printed by W. & J. Gilman, No. 9, State Street. [Boston] June, 1834). The broadside is signed W.G. In Mather Byles, Poems on Several Occasions (Boston, 1744), there are verses “To the memory of a young commander slain in battle with the Indians in 1724” which may well have been conceived as a song.

41 There are excellent articles on The Voluntiers March in the Bulletin of the Folksong Society of the Northeast for 1933, no. 4, 3–9; no. 5, 17–19; no. 6, 3–4, by Phillips Barry and Fannie H. Eckstorm. The entire bulletin was reprinted as Publications of the American Folklore Society, xi (1960), with an introduction by Samuel P. Bayard.

42 The reason that so much more has been written about Lovewell’s fight than Capt. Harmon’s victory is perhaps due to the fact that The Rebels Reward broadside was “lost” for many years and only recently came to light. The only copy is in the Henry E. Huntington Library at San Marino, California.

43 Here again despite the word speak the ballad was sung. The American parodist probably considered his substitution sing a little clearer. One must be careful not to classify initially broadsides with similar wording as poetry rather than verse to be sung to a definite air or “to any tune that fits.”

44 For an account of the romance of the thirteen-year-old Susannah Rogers and the Rev. Jonathan Frye see “Susannah Rogers’ Elegy on Jonathan Frye” in Bulletin of the Folksong Society of the Northeast (1933), no. 6, 3–4.

45 Fannie H. Eckstorm pointed out in an extended article entitled “Pigwacket and Parson Symmes” in the New England Quarterly, ix (1936), 378–402, that owing to the efforts of the Rev. Thomas Symmes, both the official account and the ballad give the date of the fight as Saturday, May 8, although Sunday, May 9, was the day it really occurred. The reason for this change she believes was to protect the reputation of Chaplain Jonathan Frye who should not have been scalp-hunting on the Sabbath. See also Frederic Kidder, The Expedition of Capt. John Lovewell, and His Encounters with the Indians; including a Particular Account of the Pequaket Battle, with A History of that Tribe; and a Reprint of Rev. Thomas Symme’s Sermon (Boston, 1865). An excellent essay is “The Ballad of Lovewell’s Fight,” by Professor George Lyman Kittredge in Bibliographical Essays: A Tribute to Wilberforce Eames (Cambridge, 1924), pp. 93–127.

46 Edward F. Rimbault was the first to transcribe the flageolet tablature of “The baffled knight,” Child ballad no. 112, in his Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy’s Reliques (London, 1850), p. 81. Bertrand H. Bronson, in Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, 4 vols. (Princeton, N.J., 1959–1972), ii, 547–563, gives a large number of tunes both from England and America. The latter, primarily found in New England, are discussed in Tristram P. Coffin, The British Traditional Ballad in North America (Philadelphia, 1963), p. 99. See also Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, p. 27.

47 The Chevy Chase tune used here, Bronson, Traditional Tunes, iii, 115, group b, no. 4, also called “In peascod time,” is described further in Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 368–371. The air goes back to 1600 and can be found in Drexel ms. 5612 and 5609, in the New York Public Library.

48 Other ballads in this study which call for the Chevy Chase tune are A Mournful Lamentation for the sad and deplorable Death of Mr. Old Tenor and A Poor Man’s Advice to his Neighbors (see below pp. 212–214 and pp. 290–292). Although not specified on the broadsides, a variety of sources indicate that The Grecian Daughter and Fair Rosamond were also sung to this famous tune (see below pp. 299–307).

49 A Brief Journal is also reproduced in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 119.

50 See The Journals of Henry Muhlenberg, trans. Theodore R. Tappert and John W. Doberstein, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1942–1958), i, 320.

51 For Pepperell’s paying the troops out of his own pocket see Joseph W. P. T. Frost, Sir William Pepperell, Bart. (1696–1759) (New York, 1951), p. 24; and for the phrase “a promise to pay . . . ,” see W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, A Popular History of the United States (New York, 1876–1879), iii, 217.

52 Worthington C. Ford’s account concerning the demise of “Mr. Old Tenor” is in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, xliii (1909–1910), 256ff. For his conclusion regarding several renderings, see p. 260.

53 There is a reproduction of A Mournful Lamentation for the sad and deplorable Death of Mr. Old Tenor in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 167.

54 The broadside Wonders Upon Wonders contains satirical words on Dr. Henry Sacheverell (? 1674–1724). Descending from a line of nonconformist English ministers, he was a political preacher who advocated the High Church and Tory cause between 1705 and 1709 when the Whigs were in power. Although the House of Commons ordered that he be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, the light sentence handed down in 1710 was considered a triumph for him, the High Church, and Tory party.

55 The Verses Relating to the Events of 1755 were probably written early in 1756. The transcription appearing in this text comes from a manuscript found among the papers of a family in Paxton, Massachusetts, which were transcribed no later than 1796 by Professor Franklin B. Dexter and sent to Samuel A. Green at the Massachusetts Historical Society. They were published only in the “Annual Meeting of April 1894,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2nd Ser., ix (1894), 3–5.

56 John and Alan Lomax in their American Ballads and Folk Songs (New York, 1935), pp. 525–527, give the words of a strange Braddock ballad with 8½ stanzas (it is incomplete) but no melody. The date in brackets is that of the battle.

57 See also Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 252–254.

58 The Ballad concerning the Fight between the English and French at Lake George is reproduced in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 121.

59 See Farmer and Moore, New Hampshire Collections, iii (1824), 218; and the article “Yankee Doodle” by Oscar G. Sonneck in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. (London, 1904–1910), v, 575–577.

60 The best studies on Yankee Doodle are by Oscar G. Sonneck. See his Report on “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Hail Columbia” “America” “Yankee Doodle” (Washington, D.C., 1909), pp. 79–164, 199, 214–217; and S. Foster Damon, Yankee Doodle (Providence, R.I., 1959). There is a collection of Yankee Doodle broadsides (Sabin 105958–105966) at the New York Public Library.

61 See “Winslow’s Journal” in Nova Scotia Historical Society, Collections, iii (1882–1883), 134, September 19th to Maj. John Handfield. On September 5th, while communicating the king’s orders to the inhabitants, he said: “The Part of Duty I am now upon what thoh [sic] Necessary is Very Disagreable to my natural make & Temper” (p. 94).

62 On the Valiant New England General is reproduced in Winslow’s American Broadside Verse, p. 123.

63 The eighteenth-century attitude was quite different from that of the romantic period as readers of Longfellow’s Evangeline will quickly realize.

64 For a discussion comparing “Souldiers life,” “Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor,” and “Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day” see Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 773–775. Also, the Journal of the Folk Song Society (London, 1903), ii, 105ff. gives a twentieth-century survival of “Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor” clearly related to the traditional tune.

65 A copy of An Endeavour to animate and incourage our Soldiers is reproduced in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 125.

66 There is a reproduction of On the Landing of the Troops in Boston, 1758 in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 127.

67 Consult Beckles Willson, The Life and Letters of James Wolfe (London, 1909), pp. 503–505; and A. Doughty and G. W. Parmlee, The Siege of Quebec, 6 vols. (Quebec, 1909), iii, 201–237. It is perhaps difficult to conceive how greatly prized military songs were in former days. “How stands the glass around” is associated with such names as the Duke of Berwick, Gen. Wolfe, and Alexander Hamilton. See Harry Mac-Neill Bland and Virginia W. Northcott, “Life Portraits of Alexander Hamilton,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., xii (April 1955), 187–198.

68 The best summary of broadsides connected with Wolfe is found in W. R. Mac-Kenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia (Cambridge, 1928), pp. 198–200. S. Foster Damon, Brown University: Harris Collection of American Poetry and Flays, Series of Old American Songs, Nos. 1 and 2 (Providence, R.I., 1936), has excellent notes on the Wolfe ballads and facsimile reproductions of the earliest printed versions of the tunes. The Scots also published an edition entitled Britannia; or, the Death of Wolfe. . . . (Printed and Sold by N. Stewart, Edin^r.. [? 1770]).

69 Further light on “Bold Wolfe” can be found in Alan Lomax, Folk Songs of North America in the English Language (New York, 1960), p. 42. A recording of “Montcalm and Wolfe” by Frank Warner can be heard on Disc Record Album No. 611, New York.

70 Thomas Paine’s pen name was “Atlanticus.”

71 The torn copy of The Brave Grenadier . . . and the year 1759 is in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island.

72 Canada subjected is reproduced in Bumgardner, American Broadsides, no. 8.

73 “Logan water” (“Liggan water”) is given as the tune for King William in disguise . . . Sold at the Bible & Heart in Cornbill, Boston where may be had a variety of other Verses, Histories, &c. There is a copy of this early nineteenth-century imprint in the Massachusetts Historical Society. William Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius (London, 1725) was the first collection of Scottish songs with their airs. The second edition in two volumes appeared at Edinburgh in 1733. A facsimile reprint (Hatboro, Pa., 1962) was made of the latter edition. See also Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 457–460.

74 The author is indebted to Claude Simpson who in personal correspondence sent his transcription of the tablature suggesting it be modified to bring out its fife-and-drum character. The fitting and alterations were made by the author.

75 Epilogue of The Recruiting Officer in The Complete Works of George Farquhar, ed. Charles Stonehill, 2 vols. (London, 1930; reprinted New York, 1967), ii, 111. The victories referred to by Farquhar were: Vigo Bay (October 12, 1702) where the British aided by the Dutch sank and captured a good part of the treasure fleet from the New World despite protection from Spanish and French ships; Schellenberg (July 2, 1704), Marlborough’s first triumph over the French in Bavaria; and Blenheim (August 13, 1704), where the great English general with Prince Eugene won the most notable battle of the War of the Spanish Succession.

76 The Virginia Gazette for September 10, 1736, speaks of a stage representation of The Recruiting Officer in Williamsburg by “the Gentlemen and Ladies of this Country.” George Washington attended a performance in 1771. See John W. Molnar, Songs from the Williamsburg Theatre (Williamsburg, Va., 1972), pp. 33, 204.

77 For a discussion of “The grenadiers march” see also Lewis Winstock, Songs and Music of the Redcoats (London, and Harrisburg, Pa., 1970), pp. 28–29, 33–36, and 62–63.

78 For a full account of Zenger and his significance see Livingston Rutherford, Peter Zenger (New York, 1904; reprinted New York, 1967); James Alexander, A brief narrative of the Case and Trial of Peter Zenger, Printer of the New York weekly journal by James Alexander, ed. Stanley Nider Katz (Cambridge, 1963); and Philip Davidson, Propaganda and the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1941).

79 Rutherford, Peter Zenger, pp. 45–46, and Alexander, A brief narrative, p. 18. A copy of the original broadside may be found at the New York Public Library. Reproductions may be found in Rutherford facing p. 38 and in the text edited by Katz, pp. 109–111. Chief Justice DeLancey’s charge to the Grand Jury, October 15, 1734, is worth quoting: “You must have heard of two Scandalous Songs that are handed about, it is your Duty to enquire the Author, Printer and Publisher of them. Some times heavy, half-witted Men get a knack of Rhyming, but it is Time to break them of it, when they grow Abusive, Insolent, and Mischievous with it.” Rutherford, Peter Zenger, p. 39. The order (Rutherford, Peter Zenger, p. 40) issued by the Supreme Court read:

“At a Supreme Court of Judicature held for the Province of New-York, at the City of New-York, Octob. 19, 1734. Present the Honourable James DeLancey, Esq; Chief Justice, the Honourable Frederick Philipse, Esq; second Justice.

“The Grand Jury having yesterday Presented two Scandalous and Seditious Songs or Ballads, lately dispersed about this City, one entitled, A Song made upon the Election of New Magistrates for this City; the other entituled, A Song made on the foregoing Occasion, both highly defaming the present Administration of His Majesty’s Government in this Province, tending greatly to inflame the Minds of His Majesty’s good Subjects, and to disturb and destroy that Peace and Tranquility which ought to subsist and be maintained in this Colony and in all other well governed Communities; of which Virulent, Scandalous and Seditious Songs or Ballads, they have not been able, on a strict enquiry, to discover either the Author, Printer or Publisher. It is therefore Ordered by the Court That said Virulent, Scandalous and Seditious Songs or Ballads be burnt before the City-Hall, sitting the Court, by the hands of the common Hangman, or Whipper, on Monday, the 21st of this Instant, at 12 o’Clock, and that the High-Sheriff of this City and County do take Order accordingly.”

80 Rutherford, Peter Zenger, pp. 70–71, and Alexander, A brief narrative, pp. 22ff. and 62.

81 For further data on “To all you ladies now at land,” see Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 647–651. There is a modern edition by John Edmunds in A Williamsburg Songbook . . . Selected and Set for Medium Voice and Keyboard (Williamsburg, Va., 1964), pp. 41–43.

82 “Now, now you Tories all shall stoop,” or “Hey boys up go we,” was extremely popular in the eighteenth century. Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 304–308, points out that “more than fifty broadsides were written to the tune under one or another of its names and most of these pieces were on political subjects.” Songs critical of British authority were not treated lightly nor could one speak disparagingly of the king as the following document from the records of York County, Virginia, printed in Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, ii, No. 3 (Richmond, Va., 1921), 159, proves:

“At a Court held for York County, July the 19th, 1725. Present Lawrence Smith, Graves Packe, Thomas Nelson, Samuel Timson. Gent., Justices.

“William Robertson, Gent., attorney for our sovereign Lord King George, informs the court that Elizabeth Hansford, the wife of Thomas Hansford, did publicly sing a scandalous and opprobrious song, highly reflecting upon our said Lord the King, and also did curse and revile our said Lord the King, as in the informacon is set forth, to which she pleaded not guilty, thereupon a jury, to wit: Jones Irwin, foreman, Robert Sheild, John Robinson &c were sworn to try the issue & they haveing heard the evidence on both sides retired & being agreed on their verdict returned to the bar & delivered the same in these words: We find the deft guilty of singing the Song that is expressed in the informacon, which verdict on the mocon of the sd Attorney of our Lord the King is admitted to record, and thereupon it is considered by the court and adjudged that the Deft be fined the sum of twenty shillings for the use of our said Lord the King & ordered that the Defen^t & Thomas Hansford her Husband pay the same with costs als Ex^o.”

The Thomas Hansford mentioned above was the grandson of the Thomas Hansford, hanged by Sir William Berkeley in Bacon’s Rebellion. John Edmunds in A Williamsburg Songbook, p. 131, suggests that “A ballad on quadrille” containing satirical verses about George II from John Watts’ The Musical Miscellany, 6 vols. (London, 1729–1731), v, 193, was the sort of song for which Elizabeth Hansford was fined. Edmunds prints all ten verses together with the tune and a harmonization, pp. 129–130.

83 Albert Bushnell Hart, American History Told by Contemporaries, 5 vols. (New York, 1897–1929), ii (1898), 145ff., cites documents of the period which throw light on the reactions in England.

84 The resolutions of the congress of 1765 are in Henry Steele Commager, Documents of American History (New York, 1968), p. 58.

85 “William Almy to Elisha Story,” in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 3rd Ser., lvi (1921–1922), 234–237, especially 235–236.

86 There were several tunes with a “tantara rara” refrain and Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, gives “The crossed couple,” or “Tantara rara tantivy,” pp. 143–145, and “Sing tantara rara,” pp. 664–666. The air selected comes from Chappell, Ballad Literature and Popular Music, ii, 438.

87 “The Speech on the Stamp Act, January 14, 1766,” in Old South Leaflets No. 199 (Boston, 1908), viii, 451.

88 Several ballads celebrated the repeal of the Stamp Act but A New Song . . . to the Tune, A late worthy old Lyon has the most amusing text. The American Musical Miscellany (Northampton, 1798) prints the “Old lyon” tune under the name “The hobbies,” pp. 84–85, song no. 31. A few sentences from the opening statement “To The Public” are worth quoting since they are concerned with problems of texts and tunes: “The Editors of the American Musical Miscellany, present the public with the following collection of Songs, accompanied by notes:— And whenever they have found the same words of a song sung in different tunes, (which is not unfrequently the case) they have endeavoured to select such notes as, in their opinion, were best adapted to the words. . . . Their aim has been to cull, from a great variety of ancient Songs, such as have been, at all times, generally approved.” (Facsimile reprint: New York, Da Capo Press, 1972; pp. v–vi.) A Newport, Rhode Island, broadside of May 1766, Glorious News, Just received from Boston (a copy is at the New-York Historical Society), publicized the event by quoting from the London Gazette: “Westminster, March 18th, 1766. . . . Yesterday morning about eleven o’clock a great number of North-American Merchants went in their coaches from the King’s Arms tavern in Cornhill to the House of Peers, to pay their duty to his Majesty, and to express their satisfaction at his signing the Bill for Repealing the American Stamp-Act, there was upwards of fifty coaches in the procession.”

89 The tune “Heart of oak” with words by David Garrick first appeared in John Gay’s pantomime, Harlequin’s Invasion (London, 1759). The phrase “this wonderful year” in the opening stanza alludes to the successive victories of Minden, August 1; Quebec, September 13; and Quiberon Bay, November 20, 1759. For further discussion of the tune, consult Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 299–301.

90 See the chapter “A Song for American Freedom, July 1768,” in The Writings of John Dickinson (Philadelphia, 1895), pp. 419–432. The letter is given in full on p. 421.

91 For further details about The Liberty Song see Damon, Series of Old American Songs, no. 3, which also includes a facsimile reproduction of the tune as printed on p. 34 of Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack (1769); Evans 11112.

92 John Adams’ account of a Dorchester dinner at which both The Liberty Song and the Massachusetts Song of Liberty were sung can be found in John Adams, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield et al., 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1961), i, 341; and in the opening of Arthur F. Schrader’s study in this volume.

93 Evans 11526 describes the second printing of The Parody Parodized.

94 Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution (New York, 1856; reprinted New York, 1969), p. 45. The Massachusetts Song of Liberty was reissued as a broadside in 1812 by Nathaniel Coverly, Jr., of Boston when anti-British feelings were again at fever pitch.

95 The tune “Come jolly Bacchus” has had various names. In The Dancing Master (1718), and in Walsh’s The Second Book of the Compleat Dancing Master (London, 1719), the melody is called “Frisky Jenny, or, the tenth of June” (James II’s birthday). In Coffey’s The Beggar’s Wedding (1729), it became the “First of August,” or “Glorious First of August” (the date of George I’s accession in 1714). However, in Coffey’s The Devil to Pay (1731), he called the air “Come jolly Bacchus, god of wine,” the name by which it was best known here. Full details can be found in Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 90–92.

The tune was also used in 1739 for a song celebrating Admiral Vernon’s relatively unimportant capture of Portobello. Vernon was the much criticized British naval officer in the unsuccessful Cartagena attack of 1741. The British admiral, an impressive figure, was known as “Old Grog,” the nickname deriving from his coat of grogram cloth. This word was given to the drink of rum mixed with water which he served daily to his sailors as a form of rationing to curb drunkenness. The London broadside is entitled English Courage Displayed; or Brave News from Admiral Vernon; its text is published in Firth, Naval Songs and Ballads, pp. 177–178.

There is also a pertinent Boston broadside: Some Excellent Verses / On Admiral Vernon’s taking the Forts and Castles of Carthagena, / In the Month of March last. / . . . (Sold at the Heart and Crown in Cornhill, [1741]). Evans 4810; Ford 759. No tune is specified for the nonexistent victory but there is a naive woodcut of the naval attack on the forts.

96 See Schrader’s discussion of The New Massachusetts Liberty Song, no. 7 in his study in this volume, pp. 130–134; and Vera Brodsky Lawrence, Music for Patriots, Politicians and Presidents (New York, 1975), pp. 26–37.

97 For an account of the “British grenadiers,” see Lewis Winstock, Songs and Music, pp. 29–35. For further details about the words, see Schlesinger, “A Note on Patriot Songs as Propaganda,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., xi (1954), 80–81.

98 This copy of Walter’s Grounds and Rules of Musick Explained (Boston, 1760) is at the Boston Public Library.

99 Hiller B. Zobel, The Boston Massacre (New York, 1970), pp. 195–196.

100 Gilchrist, “The Folk Element in Early Revival Hymns and Tunes,” pp. 83–84.

101 For further information about “Confesse” see Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 136–137.

102 Arthur Schlesinger discusses the Boston Tea Party satires in his study “A Note on Patriot Songs as Propaganda,” pp. 77–88.

103 Schlesinger, in “A Note on Patriot Songs as Propaganda,” pp. 79–80, quotes the full text of A New Song. To the plaintive Tune of Hosier’s Ghost from a copy of the Virginia Gazette for January 20, 1774. He was apparently unaware of the Norwich broadside. A ballad entitled Three Ill-fated tea ships is also in Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution, pp. 55–58. See also Schrader’s discussion of A New Song, no. 8 in his study in this volume, pp. 134–138.

104 In 1739, Richard Glover wrote verses entitled “Hosier’s Ghost” in reference to the deaths of Admiral Hosier and his men at Portobello in 1726 and 1727 (see text, p. 176) and its later capture by Admiral Vernon during the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1730–1741) (see footnote 95). These verses were sung to the tune “Come and listen to my ditty, or, the sailor’s complaint,” but the verses became so popular that the old tune acquired the name “Hosier’s ghost.” The tune was also labeled “Cease rude Boreas,” and “Welcome brother debtor.” See Chappell, Ballad Literature and Popular Music, ii, 597–598; and footnotes 29–31, and 94 above.

105 Schlesinger, in “A Note on Patriot Songs as Propaganda,” p. 84, refers to the American Parody on “Rule Britannia.” It is interesting that the song with the original English words was published a number of times in this country prior to the War of 1812.

106 “Rule Britannia” has inspired many composers to write works based on it. See Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., 10 vols. (London, 1954), vii, 330, for a good summary of its history.

107 The Scottish musical influence in Britain and the colonies was a marked one in the second half of the eighteenth century.

108 The literary allusions to Trulla and Hudibras in the ballad text refer to Samuel Butler’s famous mock romance which satirized the hypocrisy of the Puritans. One of the principal sections of the poem described how Trulla, the profligate woman, triumphed over Hudibras the hero of the burlesque epic. J——nny S——tt, later General John Morin Scott, was a noted lawyer and defender of the Sons of Liberty. Sawney M’D——g—ll referred to Alexander McDougall, sometimes known as the “American Wilkes” for his outspoken criticism of the Crown. King S——rs was Capt. Isaac Sears, active in leading mob demonstrations and a prominent member of the New York Committee of Fifty-One. P——r V—n B——k was Peter van Brugh Livingston, a strong defender of the popular party. He along with McDougall and Sears resigned from the committee in 1774 to protest the attempt of the conservative merchants to dominate its decisions.

109 Bronson, Traditional Tunes, i, 354–361, gives a superb summary of “The Abbot of Canterbury,” or “Derry down,” tunes. See also Coffin, The British Traditional Ballad, pp. 52–53; and William Chappell, A Collection of National English Airs, 2 vols. (London, 1838–1840), ii, no. 9a.

110 Sir Philip Sidney speaks of “Chevy Chase” in his Apology for Poetry (London, 1595), edited by Edward Arber (London, 1868), p. 9: “I never heard the olde song of Percy and Douglas, that I found not my heart mooved more than with a Trumpet: and yet is sung by some blinde Crouder, with no rougher voyce than rude stile; which being so evill apparrelled in the dust and cobwebbs of that uncivill age, what would it worke tyrmmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pinder?” For Joseph Addison’s lengthy discussion on “the old Song of Chevy Chase” see The Spectator, ed. Donald F. Bond (Oxford, 1965), vol. i, no. 70 (May 21, 1711), 297–303; and no. 74 (May 25, 1711), 315–364. Bishop Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 3 vols. (London, 1765) has a commentary and the text in vol. i, book iii, pp. 231–246.

111 The modern comments on Chevy Chase (known to Sir Walter Scott and Professor Child as The Battle of Otterborn) are numerous and for its survival in this country readers should consult Coffin, The British Traditional Ballad, pp. 110–111; Arthur Kyle Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Charlottesville, Va., 1929; reprinted 1969), pp. 416–418; Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, British Ballads from Maine (New Haven, Conn., and London, 1929), pp. 243–248; Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 96–101; and Robert S. Thompson, “The Transmission of Chevy-Chase,” Southern Folklore Quarterly, xxxix (Mar., 1975), 63–82.

112 The Spectator, i, no. 70 (May 21, 1711), 297–298.

113 For an account of the widespread influence of the story see Adolphe de Ceuleneer, La charité romaine dans la littérature et dans l’art (Antwerp, 1920); also in Annales de l’Académie Royale d’Archéologie de Belgique (Bruxelles, 1919), lxvii, 6e sér. tome vii, pp. 175–206. The Vermont Spooner imprint is described in Sinclair Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers 1670–1870, 2 vols. (Princeton, N.J., 1968), ii, 23–24, No. 1384, and fig. 8. For information on the various Windsor editions, see Marcus A. McCorison, Vermont Imprints 1778–1820 (Worcester, 1963), Nos. 486 (1798), 1078 (1809), 1173 (1810), and 1292 (1811).

114 Rubens’ Cimon and Piro is today at the Hermitage in Leningrad. There is a copy of the John Smith print at the New York Public Library. At the bottom of the Smith print, in the middle of the page, is the inscription Roman Charity; in the left corner, Reubens [sic] pinx; and in the right corner, I. Smit. ex.

115 It may logically be argued that RES stands for the name of the engraver but, since for more than half a century specialists have been unable to find anyone with these initials and the John Smith rendering of the Rubens canvas unquestionably inspired the Alden Spooner imprint, the R(ubens) E(xcudit) S(mith) suggestion is certainly a possibility.

116 The Roxburgbe Ballads, ed. William Chappell and J. W. Ebsworth, 9 vols. (Hertford, Eng., 1871–1899), viii, 4–6. The editor also calls attention to another undated broadside, A Worthy Example of a Vertuous Wife, who fed her Father with her own Milk, being condemned to be starved to death, and afterwards pardoned by the Emperor. The tune is, Flying Fame. . . . (Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and William Gilbertson [n.p., n.d.]).

117 Bishop Percy gives an account of Fair Rosamond and a version compiled from black letter copies in the Pepys collection. See Percy, Reliques, ii, book ii, no. 5, 133–145. See also Roxburghe Ballads, vi, 673–675. The widow Franklin was Ann, wife of Benjamin Franklin’s half brother James. James left Boston for Newport, Rhode Island, in 1727 and died there in 1735.

118 Oscar G. Sonneck, in Francis Hopkinson: The First American Poet-Composer (Washington, D.C., 1905), pp. 36–39, discusses the relationship between Hopkinson and Robert Bremner.

119 The numerous editions of Children in the Woods should be carefully analyzed. From 1768 to 1800 Evans lists nos. 41808, 42030, 45849, 46410, 29114–17, 29955, 35086, and 48390. For further data consult Margaret Dean-Smith, A Guide to English Folk-Song Collections (London, 1954), p. 51. Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 103–105, is as usual most informative. G. Malcolm Laws, American Balladry from British Broadsides (Philadelphia, 1957), pp. 290–291, gives details of English, Irish, and Scottish broadsides.

120 The comments on the Two Children in the Wood in The Spectator, i, no. 85 (June 7, 1711), 361–362. This ballad is also given an important place in Percy’s Reliques, iii, book ii, no. 18, 170–177, and in Roxburghe Ballads, ii, 214–221. An alternate tune name in the seventeenth century was “Rogero.”

121 A song about the ballad was also issued as sheet music: The Children In The Wood, / A Favorite Ballad, / For The Harpsichord Or Piano Forte (New York Printed & Sold at G. Gilfert’s Music Store / No. 177 Broadway) includes parts for “Guittar” and “Ger. Flute,” 2 p.

122 See The Spanish Lady’s Love in Percy, Reliques, ii, book ii, no. 23, 227–231, and in Roxburghe Ballads, vi, 655–656.

123 See Chappell, Ballad Literature and Popular Music, i, 186, and Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 677–678.

124 For Barbara Allen and other broadsides consult Coffin, British Traditional Ballad, pp. 82–85. See also Charles Seeger’s analytical study of “Versions and Variants of the Tunes of ‘Barbara Allen,’” Selected Reports, i, no. 1 (Los Angeles/Berkeley, 1966), 120–167; and Mieczyslaw Kolinski, ‘“Barbara Allen’: Tonal versus Melodic Structure,” Ethnomusicology, xii, no. 2 (1968), 208–218, and xiii, no. 1 (1969), 1–73.

125 William S. Powell, “A Connecticut Soldier under Washington: Elisha Bostwick’s Memoir of the First Years of the Revolution,” in William and Mary Quarterly, Ser. 3, vi (1949), no. 1, 104–105. See also Bronson, Traditional Tunes, p. 215, group ad, no. 35.

126 Anne G. Gilchrist, “‘Death and the Lady’ in English Balladry,” Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, iv (1941), 38.

127 This Death and the Lady broadside is in Bumgardner, American Broadsides, no. 31. The number of editions which appeared prior to 1800 is not certain, but besides 42033, Evans also lists 30317 and 43742. See Ford 3057 to 3061 for other editions.

128 Roxburghe Ballads, vii, viii–x; iv, 29.

129 Chappell in his National English Airs, p. 141, said that there is an affinity between the old “Death and the lady” tune, better known as “Fortune my foe,” and the more current version in the early eighteenth century. Also, the folk versions beginning “Fair lady, lay your costly robes aside” are definitely related to both. See James Henry Dixon, Ancient poems, ballads, and songs of the Peasantry of England, taken down from oral recitation (London, 1846), xvii, 24–28; and Robert Bell, ed., Early Ballads illustrative of history, traditions and customs; also Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England . . . (London, 1877; reissued Detroit, 1968), pp. 252–255. The latter is an amplification of Dixon’s book.

130 Gilchrist, “‘Death and the Lady’ in English Balladry,” pp. 37–48.

131 A Hymn, Composed by the Reverend Mr. Whitefield . . . is reproduced in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 51.

132 For the authorship of Charles Wesley consult Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology (New York, 1957), p. 32.

133 Billings published his setting of A Hymn, Composed by the Reverend Mr. Whitefield in The Singing Master’s Assistant (1778), p. 3, and in subsequent editions.

The survival of the Wesley words to a folk tune is extremely interesting. One wonders whether the Kentucky Hard-Shell Baptists had a broadside of the original Boston edition or a later printing among their possessions. The Lomax recording in the Library of Congress (G, no. 1941) preserves the manner of intoning the hymn, and a metronome speed d=60 is given in his Our Singing Country, p. 38.

134 The reader is urged to consult Coffin’s excellent analysis of the Lord Bakeman (Bateman) story in British Traditional Ballad, pp. 58–60, and Bronson’s assemblage of “Lord Bakeman” melodies in Traditional Tunes, i, 409–465.

135 For a bibliographical description of The Happy Ship Carpenter broadside, see John E. Alden, Rhode Island Imprints 1727–1800 (New York, 1949), p. 123, no. 604. Another copy sold at the Heart & Crown in Cornhill, Boston, has the title True Love Well Rewarded. Ford 3158 is entitled The Happy Ship-Carpenter; or Heroic Damsel, Being a Curious New Ballad, to an excellent New Tune.

136 “The Young Seaman’s Misfortune,” in Hyder Edward Rollins, ed., The Pepys Ballads, 8 vols. (Cambridge, 1929–1932), iv, 224, is the same ballad with a different title. Note that the lines which follow the printer’s address on the Providence broadside document the brisk continuation of the hawking and peddling of ballads to which Cotton Mather objected a century earlier.

137 The “Spinning wheel” air used for The Happy Ship-Carpenter can also be found on song sheets, and in Allan Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, 4 vols. (London, 1724), ii, 187.

Barry stressed the fact that folk singers not only change notes but also meter to accommodate the verse. “Such alteration of rhythmic structure . . . [may] operate to adapt an air originally fitted for a stanza in anapaestic metre—12s or 11s—to one in double common metre, that of the Irish Come-all-ye or street ballad, in which so many of the woods songs are written. One might imagine, for instance, a folk composer, lacking an air to a ballad in double common metre, thus changing the rhythm of the familiar air to ‘Lord Randall’ so that it might be used for ‘The Jam on Gerry’s Rocks’” (Barry, “American Folk Music,” p. 36).

138 The Connecticut Historical Society has a copy of The Factor’s Garland (Concord, N.H., 1793) in chapbook form (Bristol-Evans b7241, mp 45768). Regarding the Massachusetts imprints, see Ford 3012–3016.

139 See Phillips Barry’s observations on “Elegies” and “Lines” Bulletin of the Folksong Society of the North East (1934), no. 8, p. 5.

140 For the tune “Penitent” see Gilchrist, “Folk Element in Early Revival Hymn Tunes,” p. 72.

141 The tunes “Retirement” and “Davisson’s retirement” are given (without text) in Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs, p. 123.

142 A facsimile of An Exhortation to young and old is in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 103.

143 “The broom, the bonny broom” (Child ballad no. 217) goes back to the earliest edition of The Dancing Master (1651) with its popularity lasting into the nineteenth century.

144 For an earlier reference to “Come all you worthy Christians,” see the text, pp. 187–188, and fig. 121. For another related melody, “Clamandra,” see Jackson, Spiritual Folksongs, no. 93, pp. 119–120. A similar version, “Burns’ farewell,” can be found in George W. Chase, Masonic Harp (Boston, 1858), p. 103, where the tune is referred to as “the original air.”

145 See footnote 129 and fig. 203 of this study for the related tune, “Fortune my foe.”

146 A facsimile of Father Abbey’s Will (Ford 608) appears in Bumgardner, American Broadsides, no. 52, and in Winslow, American Broadside Verse, p. 163. Besides the various American broadside editions, the text was reprinted in the Massachusetts Magazine for November 1794. A privately printed edition with notes was published by John Langdon Sibley at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1864. See Ford 609–618 for later editions.

147 For John Seccomb see Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, viii, 481–490.

148 The most complete study of broadsides and periodical publications of John Seccomb’s humorous verses is George T. Goodspeed, “Father Abbey’s Will,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, New Ser., lxxiii (1961), pp. 18–37. For Seccomb’s authorship see pp. 26, 28, 29–30.

149 The copy reproduced here is the one purchased by the homesick Tory Samuel Curwen (Harvard, A.B. 1735), August 1, 1782.

150 Goodspeed, “Father Abbey’s Will,” p. 30.

151 Bronson, Traditional Tunes, i, lx.

152 I am indebted to Mr. J. A. Parkinson at the Music Library of the British Library, London, for this discovery.

153 Helen Hartness Flanders and Margaret T. Olney, Ballads Migrant in New England (New York, 1953), pp. 14–16.

154 See footnote 4.

155 “London is a fine town,” or “Our Polly is a sad slut,” air no. 7 in Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (1728), was extremely popular in the early eighteenth century. Not only was it included in The Dancing Master but it was set to seven different texts in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719–1720). See also Simpson, British Broadside Ballads, pp. 460–466.

156 “A la mode de France,” also called “Nonesuch,” probably received its tide when Queen Henrietta Maria was in Holland during the great Civil War (1642 or 1643) raising money and troops for the cause of her husband, the unfortunate Charles I. The original broadside has not survived but the words were printed in Rump (1662), i, 27, to which we have referred above. Cecil Sharp gives a harmonized version in Country Dance Tunes, set iv, p. 5.

157 There is a copious literature about Capt. Kidd. Opinion is divided regarding his role as a pirate, his culpability for murder, and the political aspects of his trial. The British Dictionary of National Biography article written by John Knox Laughton states that Kidd was a victim of the faction opposing the Whig government and was sentenced on insufficient evidence. Frank Monaghan in the Dictionary of American Biography believed that “Kidd was found guilty upon clear and weighty evidence.” Sir Cornelius Neale Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd (New York, 1911), Ralph D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure (New York, 1911), pp. 26–129, Homer H. Cooper, “William Kidd, Gendeman,” in The American Mercury for November 1924, pp. 337–346, and Hugh F. Rankin, The Golden Age of Piracy (Williamsburg, Va., 1969), pp. 50–64, are on the miscarriage-of-justice side while Graham Brooks, The Trial of Captain Kidd (Edinburgh, 1930), and others think he received his just deserts. This account of Kidd’s life has been taken from these various sources. See also J. Judd, “Lord Bellomont and Captain Kidd,” New-York Historical Society, Quarterly, xlvii (1958), 67–74; L. H. Leder, Robert Livingston (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1961), especially chapter vi; C. C. Gardiner, Lion Gardiner and his Descendants (St. Louis, Mo., 1890), pp. 100–101; Morton Pennypacker, “Captain Kidd,” New York History, xxv (1944), 482–531; and Frederic de Peyster, The Life and Administration of Richard, Earl of Bellomont (New York, 1879); and above all William Hallam Bonner, Pirate Laureate: The Life & Legends of Captain Kidd (New York, 1947).

158 Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1932), xi, 93.

159 Dictionary of American Biography, v, 367.

160 Bonner, Poet Laureate, p. 37.

161 Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1917), xi, 94.

162 Hugh F. Rankin, The Golden Age of Piracy, p. 60.

163 Dictionary of National Biography, xi, 94.

164 Hugh F. Rankin, The Golden Age of Piracy, p. 80.

165 Dictionary of American Biography, v, 368.

166 Dictionary of National Biography, xi, 94.

167 Dalton, The Real Captain Kidd, pp. 2.04–205.

168 For the contemporary literature, see The arraignment, tryal, and condemnation of Captain William Kidd, for murther and piracy &c. (London, Printed for J. Nutt, 1701); Paul Lorraine, The Ordinary of Newgate his Account of the behaviour . . . of Captain W. Kidd and other Pirates . . . executed May 23, 1701 (London, 1701); and A True Account of the behaviour and last dying speeches of . . . W.K. and the rest of the Pirates that were executed . . . 23rd of May, 1701 (London, 1701).

169 Dictionary of American Biography, v, 369.

170 Just why the captain’s name was changed from William to Robert is not known.

171 The best discussion of Kidd broadsides is in MacKenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, pp. 267–269. The words of the earliest English printing are in Firth, Naval Songs and Ballads, pp. 134–137. Laws, American Balladry, pp. 158–159, lists American texts and tunes. Hale, New England History in Ballads, pp. 37–40, prints all twenty-five verses. Lomax, Folk Songs of North America, p. 70, speaks of the ballad of Capt. Kidd, pp. 6 and 15, and the use of the traditional tune with religious words, p. 70.

172 Bronson, Ballad as Song, p. 23, in his chapter entitled “Samuel Hall’s Family Tree,” says of the “Put in all” tune that it “is in all probability the one we are seeking of ‘Chimney Sweep.’” See also Simpson, British Broadside Ballad, pp. 672–675.

173 For religious borrowings of “Captain Kidd” tunes, see Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs, no. 142, pp. 159–160; Down East Spirituals, pp. 259ff.; and Another Sheaf of White Spirituals, pp. 27ff., 37ff., 180ff., and 196.

174 The quotation from Mrs. Hogg is given on the back of the frontispiece of Leslie Shepard, The Broadside Ballad: A Study in Origins and Meaning (London, 1962). Although not concerned with colonial broadsides, this is one of the best books on the subject as a whole and well worth reading.

175 For further details on William and Margaret (Fair Margaret and Sweet William) see Bronson, Traditional Tunes, ii, 155–188. George Saintsbury’s observation is in the Cambridge History of English Literature, 12 vols. (Cambridge, Eng., 1907–1927), ix, 185–186; quoted also in Evelyn Wells, The Ballad Tree (New York, 1950), p. 208.

176 The pre-nineteenth-century printed ballad of this type, however, has been largely ignored. I hope to examine this branch of the early broadside as well as certain aspects of other early verse in a subsequent article.

177 Morison, “Seaborn Cotton’s Commonplace Book,” p. 342: “I have not reproduced in full some of the broader quotations.”

178 Readers of this paper should study Sharp’s analyses and comments on folk music in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (New York, 1917), written with Olive Campbell.