The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170494   Message #4185461
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
07-Nov-23 - 06:23 AM
Thread Name: Any November Songs?
Subject: RE: Any November Songs?
7 November; on this day in 1783, the last public hanging in England took place at Tyburn (now Marble Arch in London) – forger John Austin was the last to die there.

Jack or John Hall...was born of poor parents who lived in a court off Grays Inn Road, London, and who sold him for a guinea at the age of 7 to be a climbing boy...Finally, having been taken in the act of burgling a house in Stepney, he was hanged at Tyburn on 17 December 1707. The Sound of History by Roy Palmer

A broadsheet of his Gallows Confessional was put to the melody of Captain Kidd, previously executed for piracy in 1701. Jack Hall's song was made popular in the 1850s with the adaptation Sam Hall by English comic minstrel, C.W. Ross. everything.explained.today

Ross’s ‘dismal Psalm-tune’ - also used by Walter [Pardon] - has been on the go for at least three hundred years and has done service for such songs as William Kidd, The Praties They Grow Small, Aikendrum and the hymn Wonderous Love. Reg Hall Voice of the People - Volume 17.

They drove me up Tyburn hill in a cart, in a cart,
They drove me up Tyburn hill in a cart,
They drove me up Tyburn hill, that’s where I made my will.
The best of friends must part; fare you well, fare you well,
The best of friends must part; fare you well.
Jack Hall sung by Walter Pardon, Knapton, Norfolk, 1976.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM3S6wwn4_o Sam Hall



SAM HALL    Various recordings on YouTube     https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sam+hall+folk+song
JACK HALL    Various recordings on YouTube    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jack+hall+folk+song
Jack Hall sung by Walter Pardon     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glz3ThJjnbY