Who Would Have Tho't Harmon

DESCRIPTION: "Who would have tho't Harmon, that hum drum old fox, Who looks so bemeaning with his tousled locks, Would have had resolution to stand to the tack?" The speakers (Ned [Fanning] and Frank [Nash] ?) lament the troubles the regulators cause
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 280, "Who Would Have Tho't Harmon" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "From Hillsborough Town the First of May" (subject)
cf. "When Fanning First to Orange Came" (subject)
cf. "Said Frohock to Fanning" (subject)
NOTES [541 words]: One of four "regulator" songs in Brown. The regulators were a group of protesters against high taxes and fees, found mostly in North Carolina though some also were active in South Carolina. For more on the Regulators, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came."
The "Ned" of this song is probably Edmund Fanning; again, see the notes to "When Fanning First to Orange Came" for background. He is a logical one to complain about the Regulators, since "in 1770... a mob seized a county officer against whom it held grievances -- the much-despised Edmund Fanning, a corrupt multi-office holder in Orange County -- grabbed his heels, and pulled him down the stairs, banging his head on each step. The home of another official was entered and his personal possessions were thrown out the window" (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 958).
The editors of Brown think "Frank" is probably Francis Nash, the county clerk; I have no reason to think otherwise. He certainly knew Fanning; he was a militia officer in Fanning's unit (Haywood, p. 82) and was at one time called out against the Regulators (Haywood, p. 89). He was killed in the American Revolution, at Germantown; Nash County, North Carolina, is named for him (EncycNorthCarolina, p. 776).
Haywood, p. 105, has even more details on this raid, which took place on September 24, 1770: "Edmund Fanning, whom the Regulators considered the chief author of their troubles, was dragged by his heels out of the court-room, over rough cobblestones, suffered a severe inury to one of his eyes, and would probably have been murdered had he not broken loose from the mob and taken refuge in a near-by house. The Regulators next turned their attention fo Fanning's residence which was torn to pieces by them, after which they whipped Alexander Martin (at a later time Governor), Captain Michael Holt, Captain Thomas Hart, and other prominent citizens -- while Francis Nash, ... Tyree Harris, High Sheriff of Orange, and many others had to take to the woods to escape like treatment. Later the rioters swarmed through the streets of Hillsborough and amused themselves by breaking the windows of residences."
Cameron, p. 21, says of the rioting, ""Windows were broken in private homes, stores of rum and brandy were seized in the taverns, and many citizens were whipped and beaten as the Regulators rioted through the streets of Hillsborough. They mob concentrated on Fanning's fine house, of course. His furniture was destroyed and his papers burned... Finally, his house was cut from its sills."
Harmon, if he existed at all, seems to have been a far lesser character, significant mostly for the company he kept; my books on the Regulators don't seem to mention him. According to Haywood, p. 104, the raiders included Hermon Husband, Robinson York, William Butler, Rednap Howell (the author os most of these Regulator poems), Jeremiah Field, James Hunter, Samuel Devinney, and others. "Harmon" is not mentioned. I suspect "Harmon" is an error for "Hermon (or Harmon) Husband," the leading thinker of the Regulators, for whom see also "From Hillsborough Town the First of May." Alternately, "Harmon" might be Harmon Cox, who after the Battle of Alamance was condemned to death but pardoned (Cameron, p. 30). - RBW
Bibliography

Cameron: Annie Sutton Cameron, Hillsborough and the Regulators, Orange County Historical Museum, 1964
EncycNorthCarolina: William S. Powell, editor, Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, 2006
Haywood: Marshall DeLancey Haywood, Governor William Tryon and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina, 1765-1771, 1903 (I use the 1958 Edwards & Broughton reprint with a dust jacket that reads "Governor Tryon of North Carolina" although the interior uses the original title)

Last updated in version 6.3
File: BrII280

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