BOB'S-A-DYING. A great row or racket is called a Bob's-a-dying. "What a Bob's-a-dying they made!" means "What a row they kicked up."
--from "Northumberland Words" By Richard Oliver Heslop, 1892.

She threatened to run away from him, and kicked up Bob's-a-dying, and I don't know what all; and being the woman, of course she was sure to beat in the long run.
--from "The Hand of Ethelberta" by Thomas Hardy, 1905.

Yes : you see her first husband was a young man who let her go too far; in fact she used to kick up Bob's-a-dying at the least thing in the world.
--from "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy, 1873.

'Man the haulyards [sic]—let go reef-tackles, cluelines, buntlines—light up in the top—hoist away!' Up they went to the tune of 'Bob's a dying.'
--from "Nights in the Galley," an article in The Monthly Magazine, 1833.