Ballad of Ben Hall, The

DESCRIPTION: Ben Hall was "a peaceful, quiet man until he met Sir Fred." Then, with his homestead burnt and his cattle dead, he turned outlaw. The song describes the reward for Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben, and exhorts the listeners to toast their memories
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (revised edition of Paterson's Old Bush Songs)
KEYWORDS: abuse outlaw police Australia
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 5, 1865 - Ben Hall is ambushed and killed by police near Forbes, Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 88-89, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 55-57, "Ballad of Ben Hall's Gang" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 75-79, "Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben Hall" (1 text)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 130-132,"Dunn, GIlbert, and Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 29-32, "Ballad of Ben Hall's Gang" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 15-17, "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (1 text)
A. K. MacDougall, _An Anthology of Classic Australian Lore_ (earlier published as _The Big Treasury of Australian Foiklore_), The Five Mile Press, 1990, 2002, pp. 124-125, "Dunn, Gilbert and Ben Hall" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (plot, subject) and references there
NOTES [364 words]: On the basis of internal references (see below), this song might be a variant of "Ben Hall." However, the metre is slightly different and there are few similarities of texts beyond the names of the robbers.
Ben Hall is widely regarded as "the noblest of the bushrangers." This song tells the common story that he was hounded from his home by the police, and only then turned to crime. Even as a bushranger, he attacked only the rich and never shed blood.
The truth is not quite so pretty, although Hall really does seem to have tried to avoid bloodshed and to have been framed; for background, see the notes to "Ben Hall."
Dunn and Gilbert, like Hall, were associated with Frank Gardiner's outlaw band, and remained with Hall when that gang went its separate ways. John Gilbert brought the full force of the law down on the gang when he shot a policeman, and he died along with Johnny Dunn in 1866. Johnny O'Meally, also mentioned in the song, was a member of the gang killed in 1863. (Gardiner was eventually taken, but was paroled after ten years and allowed to emigrate to the U.S., where he opened a saloon and, it is said, was shot in a poker fight in 1903.)
"Sir Fred" is Sir Frederick Pottinger, a "monumentally inept" officer of the crown who bungled the whole case -- and eventually managed to accidentally kill himself -- again see "Ben Hall" for background.
To tell this song from the other Ben Hall songs, consider this first stanza:
Come all you sons of liberty and listen to my tale;
A story of bushranging days I will to you unveil.
It's of those gallant heroes, God bless them one and all!
So let us sit and sing: 'God save the King, Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben Hall.'"
John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, p. 61, makes an interesting point: At the time Ben Hall was a bushranger, Victoria was Queen of Britain and Australia, with no King (indeed, her husband Albert was dead by then). So there is no "King" for this song to refer to. Manifold contends that the King is Frank Gardiner. I'm not absolutely sure I buy that, but Manifold is probably right in contending that the statement is political. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: FaE088

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