G'day Q,

Here is the full text (17 stanzas, instead of Paterson's 15 ...!) and the notes given by Douglas Stewart & Nancy Keesing in Old Bush Songs, Angus & Roberston, Sydney (~ 1957?).

BILLY BARLOW

Benjamin Griffin (?)

When I was at home I was down on my luck,
And I yearnt a poor living by drawing a truck;
But old aunt died and left me a thousand– "Oh, oh,
I'll start on my travels," said Billy Barlow.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        So off to Australia came Billy Barlow.

When to Sydney I got, there a merchant I met,
Who said he could teach me a fortune to get;
He'd cattle and sheep past the colony's bounds,
Which he sold with the station for my thousand pounds.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        He gammoned the cash out of Billy Barlow.

When the bargain was struck, and the money was paid,
He said, "My dear fellow, your fortune is made;
I can furnish supplies for the station, you know,
And your bill is sufficient, good Mr Barlow."
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        A gentleman settler was Billy Barlow.

So I got my supplies and I gave him my bill,
And for New England started, my pockets to fill;
But by bushrangers met, with my traps they made free,
Took my horse, and left Billy bailed up to a tree.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        I shall die of starvation, thought Billy Barlow.

At last I got loose, and I walked on my way;
A constable came up, and to me did say,
"Are you free?" Says I, "Yes, to be sure, don't you know?"
And I handed my card-"Mr William Barlow."
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        He said, "That's all gammon" to Billy Barlow.

Then he put on the handcuffs, and brought me away
Right back down to Maitland, before Mr Day;
When I said I was free, why the J.P. replied,
        "I must send you down to be i-dentified."
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
So to Sydney once more went poor Billy Barlow

They at last let me go, and I then did repair
For my station once more, and at length I got there;
But a few days before, the blacks, you must know,
Had speared all the cattle of Billy Barlow.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        "It's a beautiful country," said Billy Barlow.

And for nine months before, no rain there had been,
So the devil a blade of grass could be seen;
And one-third of my wethers the scab they had got,
And the other two-thirds had just died of the rot.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        'I shall soon be a settler," said Billy Barlow.

And the matter to mend, now my bill was near due,
So I wrote to my friend, and just asked to renew;
He replied he was sorry he couldn't, because
The bill had passed into Tom Burdekin's claws.
Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
"But perhaps he'll renew it," said Billy Barlow.

I applied; to renew it he was quite content,
If secured, and allowed just 300 per cent;
But as I couldn't do it, Carr, Rodgers & Co.
Soon sent up a summons for Billy Barlow.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        They soon settled the business of Billy Barlow.

For a month or six weeks I stewed over my loss,
And a tall man rode up one day on a black horse;
He asked, "Don't you know me?" I answered him "No."
"Why," says he, "my name's Kingsmill. How are you Barlow?"
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        He'd got a "fi. fa." for poor Billy Barlow.

What I'd left of my sheep and my traps he did seize,
And he said, "They won't pay all the costs and my fees"; .
Then he sold off the lot, and I'm sure 'twas a sin,
At sixpence a head and the station thrown in.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        "I'll go back to England," said Billy Barlow.

My sheep being sold, and my money all gone,
Oh! I wandered about then quite sad and forlorn,
How I managed to live, it would shock you to know,
And as thin as a lath got poor Billy Barlow.
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        Quite down on his luck was poor Billy Barlow.

And in a few weeks more the sheriff, you see,
Sent the "tall man on horseback" once more unto me,
Having got all he could by a writ of fi. fa.,
By way of a change he'd brought up a ca. sa.,
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        He seized on the body of Billy Barlow.

He took me to Sydney, and there they did lock,
Poor unfortunate Billy fast 'under the clock";
And to get myself out I was forced, you must know,
The schedule to file of poor Billy Barlow. f
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        In the list of insolvents was Billy Barlow.

Then once more I got free, but in poverty's toil;
I've no "cattle for salting", no "sheep for to boil";
I can't get a job-though to any I'd stoop,
If 'twas only the making of "portable soup".
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        Pray give some employment to Billy Barlow.

But there's still a "spec" left may set me on my stumps,
If a wife I could get with a few of the dumps;
So if any lass here has "ten thousand" or so,
She can just drop a line addressed "Mr Barlow".
        Oh dear, lackaday, oh;
        The dear angel shall be "Mrs William Barlow".

Collected by Russel Ward from the Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser of 2nd September 1843, where there is the explanation: 'The first performance of the amateur company for the benefit of the Maitland Benevolent Society took place at the Northumberland Hotel on Monday evening last… Several songs were sung, and the following, which was written expressly for the occasion by a gentleman in Maitland, was received with unbounded applause." Other versions exist but this appears to be the original Australian version. According to an undated and unidentifiable newspaper cutting in the Sir Joseph Abbott papers the "gentleman in Maitland" who wrote the words was Benjamin Griffin.

"Portable soup"-soup boiled until it practically solidified; when in the form of "cakes" it was stored in tin canisters for reliquefying when occasion required.

The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser would have been a fairly local (probably weekly) paper up in the Hunter Valley (inland from Newcastle). There are obviously, since Russel Ward located them, copies in a major library ... almost certainly the The Mitchell Library, the important founding collection of Australiasian and Pacific materials at the State Library of New South Wales. The synopsis of the newspaper article, given in the notes, does give a fair idea of the background ... and the extra cutting (from one of the Mitchell Collections) gives the probable authorship.

Regards,

Bob Bolton