Sweet Fanny Adams

DESCRIPTION: Fanny Adams, her sister, and another girl go to play, but meet a clerk named Frederick Baker. He sends the younger children off with money for sweets, then murders Fanny. The singer grieves for her daughter, but notes that her murderer is now dead as well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867? (broadside announcing execution of Baker)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer's eight-year-old daughter Fanny Adams and her sister go to play with another girl, but they meet a young clerk named Frederick Baker. He offers the younger children money for sweets; when they have gone, he drags Fanny to the hollow. She is missed, and the searchers find her body, murdered and horribly dismembered. The mother grieves for her daughter, but notes that her murderer is now dead as well
KEYWORDS: grief rape violence abduction crime execution homicide punishment death mourning children mother
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 27, 1867 -- Murder and dismemberment of eight-year-old Fanny Adams by Frederick Baker. Baker was hanged later in the year.
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 333, "Sweet Fanny Adams" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2152
RECORDINGS:
Vashti Vincent, "Sweet Fanny Adams" (on FSB7)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Execution of Frederick Baker" (subject)
NOTES [102 words]: The murder took place at Alton, in Hampshire. Cruel to relate, the expression "Sweet Fanny Adams" became part of British vernacular; in the Royal Navy it was used to refer to any dubious meat dish. [According to Ernle Bradford, The Mighty Hood, 1959 (I use the 1977 Coronet paperback), p. 51, it was also the Royal Navy habit to call any sailor named Adams by the nickname "Fanny." - RBW]
In more recent popular usage, it means "nothing"; if one doesn't get paid for a job, for example, one says one got "Sweet Fanny Adams" or "Sweet F. A." In this context, of course, it is a euphemism for "sweet fuck-all.' - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: K333

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