Bushranger Jack Power

DESCRIPTION: "On the eighth day of August In the year sixty-nine," Jack Power, "an aspirant for the gallows," comes to Beechworth and begins robbing Cobb and Co coaches. He holds up an armed trooper. He is declared to surpass even Ben Hall and his gang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1950 (_Argus_, according to AndersonStory)
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 133-135, "Bushranger Jack Power" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 269-270, "Jack Power" (1 text)
Roud #9116
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Erin-go-Bragh" (tune, according to Beatty)
cf. "Erin's Lovely Home" (tune, according to AndersonStory)
NOTES [335 words]: This is a curious song. I find no mention of a bushranger named Jack Power in any of the following:
George Boxall, The Story of the Australian Bushrangers, Swan Sonnenschein & Co, 1899 (I use the 1974 Penguin facsimile edition)
Manning Clark, A Short History of Australia, Penguin, 1963; fourth edition, 1995
Andrew and Nancy Learmonth, Encyclopedia of Australia, 2nd edition, Warfne & Co, 1973
Harry Nunn, Bushrangers: A Pictorial History, Ure Smith Press, 1979, 1992
Boxall and Nunn both mention a "Harry Power" who also used the name "Johnson"; I have no idea if he provided part of the inspiration. But the version of this song in Beatty, at least, looks rather literary; I initially suspected some anonymous poet wanted to create an ideal outlaw. The notes in Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, however, say he was real; he committing his cries in 1869, was captured, released from fifteen years' servitude in 1885, and died in 1893. His main claim to fame was that he worked with a young Edward Kelly.
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 67, referring I presume to this ballad, writes, "Harry Power was a polite and jovial highwayman, at least for a time; but his second gaol sentence seems to have soured him. In his middle age -- for he was old as bushrangers reckon age -- he sank to bullying women for meals. He hardly deserves his one ballad, feeble as it is. It is a slightly odd ballad both in diction and in sentiment, and possibly ought to be classed as 'new-chum Irish' rather than as Australian."
I did at least get it right in assuming that this is literary; one copy is signed "Isaac Hall."
I'll give a wild speculation about how "Harry Power" became "Jack Power"; it is said that Harry Power's real name was Harry Johnson. If Johnson were heard as "John," it might produce the nickname "Jack," which might then be substituted for Power's first name rather than his last. But that's a loooong stretch.... - RBW
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File: Beat269

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