Hi Wildlone,

It's a fine song. Some 20-odd years ago, I used it in workshop (entertainment) called 'Rebels All' at the 14th National Folk Festival in Australia. I cannot remember my source for the song, but it wasn't the Yetties. The version I had used your first stanza as the main chorus. I had the following intro for it but, once again, I cannot recall where I obtained the information on which it is based. However, it concurs basically with what you have provided:

'Some rebels are born and others are the creation of the balladeers. Sir Jonathon Trelawny, Bishop of Winchester and third baronet of Berry Pomeroy Devonshire, was immortalised in song far beyond his deserts. Certainly, along with several other bishops, he did oppose the second Declaration of Indulgence of James II in 1688. When the king mentioned the word 'rebellion' Trelawny fell on his knees and repudiated the suggestion that he and his brethren should be guilty of such an offence. Nevertheless, the Cornishmen identified themselves with Trelawney in his struggle with the king and made him out to be something of a 'nationalist' hero. The refrain - 'And shall Trelawney die/Then 20 000 Cornish men will know the reason why' - was first raised some 60 years earlier when Cornishmen feared for the life of Trelawney's grandfather, the first baronet, at the hands of the House of Commons. The 'Song of the Western Men', suggested by the old refrain, was actually composed by Robert Stephen Hawker in 1825 but it long passed as an original song dating from 1688. Despite its isrepresentations, the song deserves to survive for its own intrinsic merit'.

Cheers, Stewie.