Duke Willie

DESCRIPTION: "Mony a day hae I followed Duke Willie ... [and] followed the drum ... Frae Cullen o' Buchan to Cullen Aboyne." The singer wishes his Kattie were in his arms and thinks of his wine toasts to her and the fine gown, cloak, and cap he bought her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Hogg and Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: courting battle clothes drink Scotland soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1763, "Duke Willie" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Hogg and William Motherwell, editors, The Works of Robert Burns (Glasgow, 1839 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III, pp. 81-82, ("Mony a day hae I followed Duke Willie")
Roud #13011
NOTES [115 words]: Hogg and Motherwell: "[This is] a Jacobite ditty, for which we are indebted to Mr Buchan"; "Duke Willie" is the "Duke of Cumberland."
For some background on the Duke of Cumberland see "The Muir of Culloden." I would trust Motherwell -- it's his note -- to know "a Jacobite ditty." I expect Cumberland to be a villain in any Jacobite song. I don't see the connection here.
Buchan and Aboyne are in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. - BS
My first thought was that the Duke was not Cumberland but the Jacobite Duke of Perth, one of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Lieutenant Generals. But his name was James Drummond. James III did hand out some other empty titles of nobility; perhaps it was one of those? - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81763

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