Ballad published in: Holroyd’s Collection of Yorkshire Ballads, edited by Chas F. Forshaw, 1892, pp.86-87.

Lyrics as posted by Reinhard above.

Abraham Holroyd (1815-1888), writer, editor, publisher, and collector of ballads mainly from Yorkshire authors.

Holroyd’s Collection of Yorkshire Ballads footnotes include an excerpt from E. Lamplough, "The Press-gang in Yorkshire", in Yorkshire Tragedy and Romance.
"During the closing years of last century, when George the Third was king, the press-gang was a fearful reality. — not a memory of the past, as it is with us to-day, — and many brave-hearted mariners were torn from home and friends, and exposed to the dangers of homicidal strife, perhaps in many instances in violation of their own honest principles, and to the prejudice of their interests.
The north-east coast of Yorkshire, with its hardy mariners, was a rich field from which to gather fresh victims for those bloody French wars, and we can easily imagine the deep alarm that spread through village and town when the press-gang came rushing up; great bludgeons in the hands of officers and sailors, and cutlasses by their sides. The hunted men vainly attempted escape by concealment or flight; or sometimes turning upon their ruffianly assailants made a fierce struggle for dear liberty, only to be dragged away, bruised and bleeding, and subject to tyrannical discipline that ruled in his Majesty’s fleet.”


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