Here are the Digital Tradition Lyrics:
MCCASSERY
Kind friends take warning by my sad tale
As I lay here in Strangeways Gaol
My thoughts, my feelings, no tongue can tell
As I am listening to the prison bell.
When I was seventeen year of age
Into the army I did engage.
I did enlist with a good intent
To join the Forty Second Regiment.
To Fullwood Barracks I did go
To serve some time at that depot.
From trouble there I necer (never) was free
Because my captain took a dislike to me.
When I was stationed on guard one day
Some children came near me to play,
My officer from his quarters came
And ordered me to take their parents' name.
My officer's orders I did fulfill
I took their name against my will.
I took one name instead of three
"Neglect of Duty" was the charge against me.
In the orderly-room next morning I did appear
My C.O. refused my plea to hear,
Anf (And) quickly he had signed my crime
And to Fullwood Barracks I was then confined.
With a loaded rifle I did prepare
To shoot my captain on the barrack square;
It was Captain Neill that I meant to kill,
But I shot my colonel against my will.
I done the deed, I shed his blood,
And at Liverpool Assizes my trial stood;
The judge he says, "McCassery
Prepare yourself for the gallows-tree."
I have no father to take my part
I have no mother to break her heart,
I have one friend, and a girl is she
Would lay down her life for McCassery.
In Liverpool City this young man was tried
In Strangeways, Manchester, his body lies.
And all you young soldiers who pass his grave,
Pray: Lord have mercy on McCassery.
From Lloyd, Folk Song in England. Sometimes called McCafferty.
See also CROPPY2
@soldier @jail
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RG
- Except for the corrections shown in italics, the DT lyrics and melody are a correct transcription of the song on pages 263-264 of A.L. Lloyd's Folk Song In England.
-Joe Offer-
Here are Lloyd's notes:
- In period and to some extent in flavour “The rambling Royal” resembles the most famous, most persistent and best-loved of all our army songs of disaffection, the ballad variously called “McCassery”, “McCaffery”, “McCafferty”, though it must be said that James Cronin’s snuffy temper offers strong contrast to the whingeing self-pity of the barrack-square assassin. We may take it that “McCafferty” was composed very early in the second half of the nineteenth century; if so, the mention of Strangeways crept in later, for that bleak prison was not built until the 1870s (some versions more feasibly refer to Walton Gaol, Liverpool). Again, the author was presumably an Irishman, to go by the ballad’s atmosphere, its hero’s name, and the fact that its tune is a variant of that favourite Irish air for unruly texts such as “The rambling boy”, “Charlie Reilly the robber”, and the Wexford insurgent song of 1798 called “The croppy boy” (from which the ‘I have no father’ motif is lifted). “McCafferty” has seldom appeared in print but there is hardly a regular soldier who does not know a version of it, and during World War II it was adopted as the anthem of a parachute commando regiment, the 2nd Special Air Service. It is said of “McCafferty”, as of other dissident songs, that it was a punishable offence to sing it in the army; but that is legend. The ballad’s peculiar importance has been recognized by country singers, and in the early days of the Second World War, during the Saturday night sing-song in the little pub of Eastbridge, Suffolk, with the bar-parlour crowded with soldiers stationed nearby, the good ballad-singer Jumbo Brightwell prefaced his performance with the remark: ‘I will now sing “McCassery” because that’s a song that’ll mean a lot to these boys here.” Mr. Brightwell’s version ran like this: (the DT lyrics)
Here is the Traditional Ballad Index listing for this song:
McCaffery (McCassery)
DESCRIPTION: A young man enlists in the 42nd Regiment; mistreated by his captain and confined to barracks for a trivial offense, he decides to kill the captain. He accidentally shoots his colonel instead, and is tried (at Liverpool Assizes) and hanged.AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 or 1966 (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: army violence crime execution homicide punishment revenge death soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(West)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
MacSeegTrav 86, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dallas-CruelWars, pp. 170-172, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-Green, pp. 47-48, "McCaffery" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MCASSERY
Roud #1148
RECORDINGS:
May Bradley, "Calvery" (on Voice08)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Gallant Forty-Twa" (subject: 42nd Highlanders or Black Watch) and references there
cf. "The Croppy Boy (I)" [Laws J14] (tune for Voice08)
NOTES [173 words]: Hall, notes to Voice08, re "Calvery": "The story in the ballad is true in all its essentials. Patrick McCafferty was born in Mullingar, Co. West Meath, and in October 1860 enlisted at the age of seventeen in the 32nd Regiment.... McCafferty was tried at Liverpool Assizes and was hanged in Liverpool in front of Kirkdale gaol on January 11th, 1862. [ref. Roy Palmer, ed., The Rambling Soldier (Alan Sutton, 1985).]" Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 8" - 1.3.03 has a more detailed account. - BS
When I met this song, I was surprised to find a soldier from the 42nd Regiment (the famous Black Watch) being tried in Liverpool; their base is in Perth. The likeliest explanation is that several sources confused the obscure 32nd regiment (which was, improbably enough, the Cornwall Regiment) with the famous 42nd, for which see songs such as "Wha Saw the Forty-Second." - RBW, (PJS)
(In the May Bradley version, which is on Voice08 and transcribed in Hamer-Green, it's the Royal Artillery anyway.) - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: McCST086
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