Origins: Gilderoy

Subject: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 12:57 PM

Gilderoy, as sung by Shirley Collins among others, seems to be a remnant of an older and longer ballad, and as such it doesn't make much sense. It's very sad that he's hanged, but what do they hang him for? The only thing he seems to do wrong is anticipate his wedding day a bit. (And it can't have been that - if premarital sex had been a capital offence none of us would be here now, if the English tradition is anything to go by.)

There was a thread on this song a few years back in which the learned opinion seemed to be that Gilderoy was a freebooter and generally a bit of a wrong 'un. A long version of the ballad was quoted, in which... er... I'm not totally sure what happened - my Scots gave out on me. There seems to be a reference to stealing cattle, but also to being honest and trading legitimately; people seem to be paying their taxes to Gilderoy at one point (I may have got this wrong).

So: what did Gilderoy actually do?

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 01:20 PM

He was a MacGregor. That was enough.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 02:30 PM

Percy says:
"Gilderoy, the Robin Hood of Scottish Minstrelsy, was a noted robber who infested the highlands of Perthshire with his gang, of whom seven, being captured by the Stewarts of Atholl, were executed February 1638. In revenge, Gilderoy burned several homes belonging to the Stewarts; but the offer of a large reward (£1000) for his apprehension caused him to be pursued from place to place; and at length, with five of his companions, he suffered for his crimes at Gallowlee, between Leith and Edinburgh, July 1638."

I do not know how trustworthy an authority Bishop Percy is, but I recall other sources that also give the ballad a C17th origin, predating the Hanoverian proscription of the MacGregors by at least half a century.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 02:42 PM

Oops - sorry - the Macgregors were proscribed from the early C17th till the late C18th - silly me!

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 03:19 PM

The MacGregors had a long-running feud with their neighbours (like the Macfarlanes) and the Stuarts - probably the ultimate reason was that they were occupying a piece of real estate that more powerful people wanted. It was only under the Hanoverians that they became tolerated, but by then they'd been dispossessed of nearly all their land.

Think of Gilderoy as Geronimo or a Hamas fighter.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 05:31 PM

The version from the Ritson collection seems to have him as a robber:

My Gilderoy baith far and near
Was fear'd in every toun,
And bauldly bare away the gear
Of many a lawland loun:
Nane eir durst meet him man to man,
He was sae brave a boy,
At length wi' numbers he was tane,
My winsome Gilderoy.

But then there's this verse:

The Queen of Scots possesséd nought
That my love let me want;
For cow and ew he to me brought,
And een whan they were skant:
All these did honestly possess
He never did annoy,
Who never fail'd to pay their cess
To my love Gilderoy.

I don't understand the last four lines - is the ballad saying he only stole from people who didn't "honestly possess", i.e. the idle rich? And what's "cess" in this context?

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 06:05 PM

He obtained the stock honestly and he didn't harrass those who paid their local taxes to him, which needs interpreting very loosely in this case, perhaps the equivalent of the modern day 'protection racket'.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 06:29 PM

Ah - "all these [he] did honestly possess". A bit hard to take at face value, considering we've only just heard about him boldly bearing away the gear of lowland loons.

Looking again at the Ritson ballad, it's one long set of special pleas - it goes something like

"He was a bold youth who had bold adventures which involved robbing people"
"He robbed people, but only people who deserved it"
"He always earned an honest living, mostly."
"Everyone loved him. Well, everyone paid him money, anyway."
"They hung him just for being a robber! Call that justice?"

Are there any texts in the form of the English ballad but with some of the robbing and taxing left in?

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 06:56 PM

The ballad is in a similar manner to a lot of Gaelic laments - very unspecific about what the person did that might have been worth lamenting. There are very few pieces in Scots or English like it, which kinda suggests it might have been a translation or imitation. But there doesn't seem to be any trace of a Gaelic original.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: michaelr
Date: 23 Jul 12 - 07:22 PM

"Cess" is likely the noun of "to cede".

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Jul 12 - 03:09 AM

First published in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719)
This is the note from Ford's Vagabond Songs and Ballads from Scotland 1899.
Jim Carroll

"This good old ballad, at one time a universal favourite, is still distinctly popular in many country districts of Scotland. The hero whose exploits it celebrates, and whose death it pathetically deplores, was a man named Patrick Macgregor, but more familiarly Gilderoy (Gillie Boy—the red-haired lad), whose life and morals, like those of his more illustrious namesake and kinsman, were framed on
"The good old rule, the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can."
Gilderoy was, in fact, a noted freebooter, or cattle-lifter, who flourished in the seventeenth century, and was the leader of a gang of caterans who practised stouthrief and robbery with violence far and wide, but chiefly in the Highlands of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. In February, 1636, seven of his accomplices were taken, tried, condemned, and executed at Edinburgh. They were apprehended chiefly through the exertions of the Stewarts of Athole; and, in revenge, Gilderoy burned several houses belonging to the Stewarts, which act proved his speedy ruin. A reward of a thousand pounds was offered for his apprehension, and he was soon taken, along with five more accomplices (some accounts say ten), and the whole gang were executed at the Cross of Edinburgh on the 27th July, 1636, the leader, as a mark of unenviable distinction, receiving a higher gibbet than the others—a circumstance which is alluded to in the ballad. Some wonderful stories are told of this wild cateran (most of which, however, should be taken with a grain of salt), such as his having picked the pocket of Cardinal Richelieu while he was celebrating high mass in the Church of St. Dennis, Paris; his having carried off, with consummate assurance, a trunk of plate from the house of the Duke Medina-Celi, at Madrid; and his having attacked Oliver Cromwell and two servants while travelling from Portpatrick to Glasgow, and shooting the Protector's horse, which fell upon him and broke his leg, whereupon he placed Oliver on an ass, tied his legs under its belly, and dismissed the pair to seek their fortune. Cromwell first visited Scotland in 1648, and Gilderoy was executed in 1636. The dates disprove the story.
The ballad is said to have been originally composed by the hero's mistress, a young woman belonging to the higher ranks of life, who had become attached to the noted cateran, and was induced to live with him. It is to be found in black letter broadsides as far back as 1650. The foregoing improved version— and the one always sung—was first printed in Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, Volume V., 1790, and is thought to have been re-set by Lady Wardlaw, authoress of the well-known ballad of " Hardyknute." The original, according to Percy, contained "some indecent luxuriances that required the pruning-hook."
Gilderoy, it may be mentioned, has been the subject of more than one prose romance that have been written within the present century, but, such is the power of words which move in rhythmic order, the simple ballad story can never be overlaid by them. This, which has lived through many vicissitudes, will still survive."

Subject: ADD: Gilderoy
From: Mary Humphreys
Date: 24 Jul 12 - 04:04 AM

For information, in case readers have not seen any of the English versions, here is the text from Henry Burstow, Sussex collected by Lucy Broadwood in 1903 and published in the Folk Song Journal. His only crime, as far as I can see was for anticipating his wedding as the original poster mentioned, unless his stealing "other women" means he was unfaithful to his fiancee. And even then, the punishment hardly fits the crime.


GILDEROY

Now Gilderoy was a bonny boy and he would not soft ribbons wear.
He's pulled off his scarlet coat, he gartered below his knee.
He was beloved by the ladies so gay and he was such a rakish boy;
He is my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome bold young Gilderoy.

Young Gilderoy and I was born all in one town together
And at the age of seventeen years we courted one each other.
Our dads and our mums they both did agree and crowned with mirth and joy
To think that I should marry with my handsome bold young Gilderoy.

Now Gilderoy and I walked out all in the fields together;
He took me round the waist so small and down we went together.
And when he had done all a man could do, he rose and kissed his joy,
He is my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome bold young Gilderoy.

What a pity it is a man should hang for stealing other women, where
He had neither robbed a house nor land and he stole neither horse nor deer.
For he was beloved by the old and the young and he was such a rakish boy,
He was my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome bold young Gilderoy.

Now Gilderoy they've hung him high and a funeral for him we shall have;
With a sword and a pistol by my side I'll guard my true love to his grave.
For he was beloved by the young and the old and he was such a rakish boy,
He was my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome bold young Gilderoy.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Jim McLean
Date: 24 Jul 12 - 04:13 AM

In this context, cess means tax.

Subject: ADD Version: Gilderoy
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 24 Jul 12 - 04:39 AM

Thanks, Jim, for the pointer to Durfey. Here's his text:

GILDEROY

Gilderoy was a bonny Boy,
Had Roses tull his shun,
His Stockings were made of the finest Silk,
His Garters hanging down:
It was a comely sight to see,
He was so trim a Boy;
He was my Joy and Heart's Delight,
My Handsom Gilderoy.

Oh sike a charming Eye he had,
A Breath as sweet as a Rose,
He never wore a Hiland plad,
But costly silken Cloaths:
He gain'd the Love of Ladies gay,
There's none to him was Coy;
Ah, wa's me, Ise mourn this Day,
For my Dear Gilderoy.

My Gilderoy and I was born,
Both in one Town together;
Not past Seven years of Age,
Since one did Love each other:
Our Daddies and our Mammies both,
Were cloath'd with mickle Joy,
To think upon the Bridal Day,
Betwixt I and my Gilderoy.

For Gilderoy, that Love of mine,
Geud faith Ise freely bought:
A Wedding-sark of Holland fine,
With Silk in Flowers wrought:
And he gave me a Wedding Ring,
Which I receiv'd with Joy;
No Lads or Lasses e'er could Sing,
Like my sweet Gilderoy.

In mickle Joy we spent our time,
Till we was both Fifteen;
Then gently he did lay me down,
Amongst the leaves so green:
When he had done what he could do,
He rose and he gang'd his way;
But ever since I lov'd the Man,
My Handsome Gilderoy.

While we did both together play,
He kiss'd me o'er and o'er;
Geud faith it was as blith a Day,
As e'er I saw before:
He fill'd my Heart in every Vein,
With Love and mickle Joy;
Who was my Love and Hearts delight,
Mine own sweet Gilderoy.

Oh never, never shall I see,
The cause of past Delight;
Or sike a lovely Lad as he,
Transport my Ravish'd sight:
The Law forbids what Love enjoyns,
And does prevent our Joy;
Though just and fair were the Designs,
Of me and Gilderoy.

'Cause Gilderoy had done amiss,
Must he be punish'd then;
What kind of Cruelty is this
To hang such Handsom Men?
The Flower of the Scotish land,
A sweet and lovely Boy;
He likewise had a Lady's Hand,
My Handsom Gilderoy.

At Leith they took my Gilderoy,
And there God wot they bang'd him:
Carry'd him to fair Edenburgh,
And there God wot they hang'd him:
They hang'd him up above the rest,
He was so trim a Boy;
My only Love and Heart's Delight,
My Handsom Gilderoy.

Thus having yielded up his Breath,
In Cypress he was laid;
Then for my dearest, after Death,
A Funeral I made:
Over his Grave a Marble-stone,
I fixed for my Joy;
Now I am left to weep alone,
For my dear Gilderoy.


So that's all about the pre-marital sex (possibly under-age, as well, although I don't know what the view on the age of consent was in 1719).

But there must have been other versions still in circulation; there are broadsides in the Bodleian collection, dating from a century later than Durfey, which include a "What pity 'tis a man should hang" verse. The interesting thing is that some of them acknowledge that Gilderoy was a thief, following the Ritson text. Also, unless I'm imagining it, the broadsides seem to suggest that he was hanged for wearing a kilt.

Durfey (1719)

'Cause Gilderoy had done amiss,
Must he be punish'd then;
What kind of Cruelty is this
To hang such Handsom Men?

Ritson (1794)

Wae worth the loun that made the laws
To hang a man for gear!
To reave of life for ox or ass,
For sheep, or horse, or mare!
Had not their laws been made sae strick,
I neir had lost my joy,
Wi' sorrow neir had wat my cheek
For my dear Gilderoy.

Bodleian text (between 1790 and 1840)

Is it not a pity a man should die
For stealing women's wear
He never robbed house nor land
Nor yet stole horse nor mare
Had not the laws have been so strict
I never should have lost my joy
Oh! He was my soul and my heart's delight
And blooming Gilderoy.

Bodleian text (1860s)

'Tis a pity a man should e'er be hanged that takes up women's gear
Or for their pilfering sheep or calf, or stealing cows or mare
Had not our laws been made so strict I ne'er had lost my joy
Who was my joy and heart's delight, my handsome Gilderoy.

Then the version Lucy Broadwood collected:

What a pity it is a man should hang for stealing other women, where
He had neither robbed a house nor land and he stole neither horse nor deer.
For he was beloved by the old and the young and he was such a rakish boy,
He was my sovereign heart's delight, my handsome bold young Gilderoy.

It looks as if the line "To hang a man for gear" (i.e. property) puzzled English ballad-makers, who thought it must be a reference to clothes and jumped to the conclusion that it was about wearing the wrong kind of clothes, i.e. the 'womanish' kilt. So "gear" becomes "women's gear", then "women's wear", and finally the word "where", making for a very un-ballad-like enjambement into a sub-clause.

It's a shame Henry Burstow or his source had forgotten "Had not the laws been made so strict" - that's a lovely line.

Any other versions around with more of the stealing left in?

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 24 Jul 12 - 05:09 AM

There's a reference to stealing in the version collected by Alfred Williams - Gilderoy from William King (v5):


  'Tis pity a man should e'er be hanged for taking women's gear,
  Of for pilfering a sheep or calf, or stealing cow or mare;
  Had not our laws been made so strict I ne'er had lost my joy,
  Who was my dearest heart's delight - my handsome Gilderoy.


This is more or less the Bodleian text quoted above.


Roud (No.1486) lists 59 entries for the song, though some are tune only and some catalogue references only. Most of the published texts were in Scottish books. There are also a handful of more recent American/Canadian texts and recordings.

Take 6 has 2 versions from the Baring-Gould collection and one from Gardiner, but they are a tune and two incomplete texts.


Mick

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 24 Jul 12 - 07:03 AM

There's an interesting suggestion here (scroll down) that Gilderoy was originally a parody of Geordie. Not quite sure I see the joke.

Otherwise, I think I may be barking up the wrong tree. The Folktrax index also notes:

"An early version was published as a broadside in 1636 and later on in Westminster Drollery, London 1671."

And, thanks to the miracle of teh Internets, here is the text from Westminster Drolleries [sic]:

Wo worth that man that made those Laws,
To hang a man for genee,
For neither stealing Ox nor Ass,
Or bony Horse or Meere :
Had not their Laws a bin so strict,
I might have got my joy :
And ne'r had need tull a wat my cheek
For my dear Gilderoy.

"Genee", according to the notes in the facsimile edition, is a misprint for "geare".

There seem to have been two different versions from quite early on. Also from the notes to the reprint of WD:

The subject of authorship and alteration is far too large to be entered on here : but Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw (nee Halket) deserves little credit for her small share in either; less than she gains in the North. We must be brief, but here are our conclusions : The Halkett purifying or cobbbling cannot have been long before 1719, at which date was published the sham-antique "Hardiknute," part I. But not only is the present " Was ever grief," original of Gilderoy, printed in W.D., 1671, but even the "Gilderoy was a bonny boy" version dates about 1685; as a copy exists in the Bagford Collection of Bds. Brit. Mus., vol. i. p. 102. It has ten verses, and is printed for C. Bates, at the Sun and Bible. It is entitled "The Scotch Lover's Lamentation ; or, Gilderoy's Last Farewell." The verses are

G. was a b. ; O sike ; My G. ; For G. ; In mickle ; While we; 'Tis pity; 'Cause G. ; At Leith; Thus loving, &c.

Stenhouse writes of a Black Letter copy "as early as 1650," but its existence is apocryphal. We have seen none before the Bagford and the W.D. ; but these two differ from one another. Music to " Gilderoy was," occurs in Pills to P.M., v. 29. Professor Child sums up: Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw revised " Gilderoy," omitted 2 and added 3 stanzas.
[endquote]

The reference to the 1685 version is tantalising; on inspection it seems to match the Durfey text with the sole exception of the "Tis pity" verse. (Presumably "Thus loving" is/was a misprint for "Thus having".)

The Wardlaw revision is presumably the Ritson text - which is attributed to "Alexander Halket", supposedly Elizabeth H's brother, although according to Chambers there was no such person.

"The subject of authorship and alteration" is rapidly becoming far too large to be entered on here, so I'll stop there. The main point is that the "Gilderoy was a nasty piece of work and everyone was scared of him except me and his old mum" bits of the Ritson text are actually brought in by Elizabeth Halket's revision - and they didn't catch on. "Nastier" doesn't necessarily mean "older" or "more authentic".

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 25 Jul 12 - 02:06 AM

"the Macgregors were proscribed from the early C17th"

Yes I think it was 1606 by James VI of Scotland and I of England. More than a century prior to the arrival of the Hanovarian monarchs.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Ged Fox
Date: 25 Jul 12 - 02:15 PM

Indeed - I own up to being the ignorant Guest above - I was thinking, of course, of Rob Roy, and did not realise that the Macgregors had been notorious as troublesome thieves since at least the sixteenth century.
James VI had been trying to suppress them for a decade or so before he became king of England (anniversary of his English coronation today, I believe) so persecuting Macgregors is a purely Scottish pastime in origin.

Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jul 12 - 08:47 PM

For the3 record, the version of "Gilderoy" in the Digital Tradition comes from Roy Palmer, Book of English Country Songs, 1979.

Here's the entry on this song from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Gilderoy

DESCRIPTION: "Gilderoy was as bonny a boy as e'er cam tae the glen." The singer describes his charms and how lovingly he once cared for her. He taken as an outlaw. He is convicted (falsely, in her mind) and hanged because the laws were so strict
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1725 (an isolated stanza appears in "Westminster Drollery," 1671)
KEYWORDS: love outlaw trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1636? - execution of "Gilderoy," aka Patrick McGregour, in Edinburgh
FOUND IN: US(So) Britain(England(South),Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 318-323, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 27-31, "Gilderoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 482, "Gilderoy" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 63, "Gilderoy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 40-41, "Gilderoy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, connected with the Scottish ballad more by the tune than the text)
BBI, ZN955, "Gilderoy was a bonny boy"; ZN1821, "My love he was as brave a man"
DT, GILDROY
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #87, "My Handsome Gilderoy" (1 text)
Roud #1486
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, S.302b.2(020), "Gilderoy," unknown, after 1700
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Salisbury Plain" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Blowed Her with My Horn
NOTES: Claude Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, pp. 252 ff., [notes that Gilderoy] seems to have been so glorified that he appears in historical legends not long after [his execution]. Simpson cites a broadside ballad printed "in the 1690s..." "probably written much earlier," entitled "The Scotch Lover's Lamentation: or, Gilderoy's Last Farewell... To an excellent new Tune, much in request." That ballad begins, "Gilderoy was a bonny boy." It is to be found in Pepys, Craford, Bagford and A Collection of Old Ballads, 1723-1725. - EC
William Rose Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia has this to say:
"Gilderoy. A famous cattle-stealer and highwayman of Perthshire, who is said to have robbed Cardinal Richelieu [died 1642] in the presence of the King, picked Oliver Cromwell's pocket [Cromwell, however, was not of any note in 1636, and had not yet led his armies into Scotland], and hanged a judge. He was hanged in 1636.... Some authorities say there were two robbers by this name."
David Brandon's Stand and Deliver: A History of Highway Robbery (p. 76) gives another version of this, but with a twist: the robber is named "Gilders Roy." Brandon reports that "when he stopped a judge... his gang stripped his two footmen, tied them up and threw them into a pond, whereupon they drowned. Roy himself smashed the judge's carriage, shot the horses, and then hanged his hapless victim." Right. Shoot valuable horses?
Much of this seems to be derived from Percy, but Wheatley adds a much less flattering commentary: "The subject of this ballad was a ruffian totally unworthy of the poetic honours given him.... [H]e was betrayed by his mistress Peg Cunningham, and captured after killing eight of the men sent against him, and stabbing the woman...
"He was one of the proscribed Clan Gregor, and a notorious lifter of cattle in the Highlands of Pethshire for some time before 1636. In February of that year seven of his accomplices were taken, tried, condemned, and executed at Edinburgh.... [I]n July, 1636, [he] was hanged with five accomplices at the Gallowlee."
The National Library of Scotland site, however, lists his death year as 1638.
Ford lists certain others of his exploits; he too is cautious about their veracity.
Sam Hinton notes the most likely source for the robber's name (cf. Ford): "Gilderoy" could be a corruption of Gaelic "Giolla Ruadh" ("Gillie Roy") -- "red-haired boy."
There is another piece called "Gilderoy" in the Scots Musical Museum (#66); this is probably a rewrite based on the traditional tune. I strongly doubt it ever went into tradition itself; it begins "Ah! Chloris, cou'd I now but sit As unconcern'd as when Your infant beauty could beget No happiness, nor pain!" - RBW
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Subject: RE: Origins: Gilderoy
From: Pete MacGregor
Date: 26 Jul 12 - 06:26 PM

Some of us are still trying to get away with it.

PM