G'day again,

This is an old Australian song for which the common tune is The Irish Washerwoman. It was reported in a newspaper in 1832 ... presumably written down by a journalist as a nice little oddity!

BOTANY BAY COURTSHIP
Anon.               (Usually sung toThe Irish Washerwoman)

The Currency Lads may fill their glasses,
And drink to the health of the Currency Lasses;
But the lass I adore, the lass for me,
Is a lass in the Female Factory*.

O! Molly's her name, and her name is Molly,
Although she was tried by the name of Polly;
She was tried and was cast for death at Newry,
But the judge was bribed and so were the jury.

She got "death recorded." in Newry town,
For stealing her mistress's watch and gown;
Her little boy Paddy can tell you the tale,
His father was turnkey of Newry jail.

The first time I saw the comely lass
Was at Parramatta, going to Mass;
Says I, "I'll marry you now in an hour,"
Says she, "Well, go and fetch Father Power."

But I got into trouble that very same night!
Being drunk in the street I got into a fight,
A constable seized me - I gave him a box -
And was put in the watch-house and then in the stocks.

O! It's very .unaisy. as I may remember,
To sit in the stocks in the month of December;
With the north wind so hot, and the hot sun right over -
O! Sure, and it's no place at all for a lover!

"It's worse than the treadmill", says I, "Mr Dunn,
To sit here all day in the .hate of the sun!"
"Either that or a dollar," says he, "for your folly," -
But if I'd a dollar I'd drink it with Molly.

But now I am out again, early and late
I sigh and I cry at the Factory gate,
"O! Mrs R----, late Mrs F-----n,
O! Won't you let Molly out very soon?"

"Is it Molly McGuigan?" says she to me,
"Is it not?" says I, for she knowed it was she.
"Is it her you mean that was put in the stocks
For beating her mistress, Mrs Cox?"

"O! Yes and it is, madam, pray let me in,
I have brought her a half-pint of Cooper's best gin,
She likes it as well as she likes her own mother,
O! Now let me in, madam, I am her brother."

So the Currency Lads may fill their glasses,
And drink to the health of the Currency Lasses;
But the lass I adore, the lass for me,
Is a lass in the Female Factory.

(Notes from .OLD BUSH SONGS and Rhymes of Colonial Times., Enlarged and Revised from the Collection of A.B. Paterson, Edited by Douglas Stewart & Nancy Keesing, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1957)

From the "Botany Bay Eclogues" in the Sydney Gazette of 14th July 1832. "An excellent new song, as it ought to be sung in the Theatre Royal, Sydney, by Mr Bert Levy, in the character of the Ticket-of-leave Holder". The point of this song is that the Parramatta Female Factory was the place to which the lower class of settler went in search of a wife. Thomas Dunn had been chief constable at Sydney, but had retired to Parramatta to enjoy light duty and a pension.
The reference to Mr Bert Levy and his theatre - he was actually Barnett Levy and he had just received the licence of Governor Bourke to perform in his saloon in the Royal Hotel, George Street (where Dymock's now stands) which he had fitted up as a theatre, "such pieces only, as had been licensed in England by the Lord Chamberlain".
The two ladies mentioned with long dashes in their names sound like Mrs Fulton and Mrs Rossi, two members of the Committee of the Institution. Cooper was Sir Daniel Cooper.

* Further note from me:

Female Factory: This was a large prison / workhouse at Parramatta, specifically to house female convicts not assigned as servants to some free settler. A variety of craft work, clothmaking and clothing manufacture took place at the Factory (and my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition 1933 / rev. 1973, lists:

"Paramata, 1834. [Paramata (prop. Parramatta in New South Wales,] A light dress fabric having a weft of combed merino wool and a warp formerly of silk, but now usu. cotton.")

The Factory was also a holding prison for "3rd class female convicts" – those returned to custody for offences or intransigence … a rather fearsome lot by all accounts!

Regards,

Bob Bolton