The Digital Tradition says its version is from Joanna Colcord's Songs of American Sailorman. I checked Colcord, and I'd say the DT transcription is a good one. The DT does put phonetic spellings of some words in the last two or three verses, and explains the phonetic spellings in the notes. The DT tune is exactly the one used in Colcord (but the tune I know for "Boney" is much closer to the one for "Jean-Francois de Nantes" at Robokopp.
-Joe Offer-
There's not much in the entry at the Traditional Ballad Index:Boney
DESCRIPTION: Napoleon's story in the space of a shanty: "Boney was a warrior, Way up! A warrior and a tarrier, John Francois!" He fights the Russians, comes to Waterloo, is defeated, goes to Saint Helena, and dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Reeves-Circle)
KEYWORDS: shanty Napoleon exile battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1812- Napoleon's Russian campaign
1815- Battle of Waterloo
1821- Death of Napoleon on Saint Helena
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(MA,MW)
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Reeves-Circle 13, "Boney" (1 text)
Doerflinger, pp. 6-7, "Boney" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 78-79, "Boney" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Bone, p. 42, "Boney" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, p. 29, "Boney" (1 text, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 40-41, "Boney" (1 text, 1 tune plus 1 fragment of "Jean Francois")
Harlow, pp. 27-28, "John Francois (Boney Was a Warrior)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 445-446, 448 "Boney," "Hilonday" (2 English and 1 French text, 2 tune) [AbrEd, pp. 333-335]
Sharp-EFC, XLIX, p. 54, "Bonny Was a Warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Terry-Shanty1, #26, "Boney was a warrior" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, p. 310, "Boney" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 88, "Boney Was A Warrior" (1 text)
DT, BONEYNAP*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919)." Boney was a Warrior" is in Part 4, 8/4/1917.
Roud #485
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bud Francois" (parody)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
John Francois
Jean Francois de Nantes
File: Doe006Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song ListGo to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or DiscographyThe Ballad Index Copyright 2018 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
There are two versions in Doerflinger, but I didn't see significant differences from what's been posted already. The version in Darling's New American Songster is a five-verse version transcribed from a Folkways recording by Sam Eskin.
Nothing really unusual in Silber & Silber's Folksinger's Wordbook, either.