I and Betty Martin

DESCRIPTION: Singer shipped on a whaling bark but he got "tall" fit out at Seabery's shop before he left. That was the most of his debt against his advance. "When I get back" I will "smash old rascal Seabury"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1870 (source: Frank-JollySailorsBold)
KEYWORDS: accusation revenge clothes commerce sea ship sailor whaler
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Frank-JollySailorsBold 155, "I and Betty Martin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #31410
NOTES [317 words]: The chorus passes for Yorkshire dialect: "Oke Walker Done me up for sartin Does your mither know you are out Sure I and Betty Martin." The chorus and song name seem to have nothing to do with the verses about a novice sailor cheated before he even sets sail. If the following note is close to the mark then maybe the non sequitur is the point. Or, maybe the only link is the supposed Yorkshire dialect. - BS
My Eye and Betty Martin
My guess is that "I and Betty Martin" is a misspelled takeoff on the song "'My eye and Betty Martin' as sung by Mr Sloman, at the New-York Theatres." It is a Yorkshire dialect song beginning,
In Yorkshire I wur born and bred,
And knows a thing or two, sir,
Nay, what be more, my father said,
My wit would bring me trough, sir.
At single stick or kiss the maids,
I wur the boy vor sartin,
Zays I, push on, to be afraid's,
My eye and Betty Martin.
Chorus: Ri tol de rol, &c.
United States Songster (Cincinnati: U.P. James, 1836 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 108-109
Each verse ends "My eye and Betty Martin" where "my eye" is a slang expression that means "nonsense." I used "my eye" that way on the streets of Brooklyn in the 1940s. (See "English language and usage" @ https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/294089/what-does-the-slang-my-eye-mean ). This song might even be the source of this expression, on the one hand, and of the "Hey Betty Martin" song on the other.
From University of Kentucky W. Hugh Peal Manuscript Collection album of broadside ballads, Vol. 3
@ https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7qjq0stw34%5F4357#page/45/mode/1up
is an undated broadside, "The New Marriage Act Outwitted" with the same sense.
For example,
Come listen unto me,
And quickly you will see,
How they are striving young lovers to be parting O,
But if my true-love has a mind,
Then quickly he shall find,
We'll prove its all my eye & Betty Martin O.
- BS
Last updated in version 7.0
File: FJSB155

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography