White Cockade, The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes her handsome young love. He has taken the white cockade and joined Prince Charlie's armies. She promises to sell her possessions to equip him well. Some versions describe how Prince Charles was displaced
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #272)
KEYWORDS: love Jacobites separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1745-1746 - Jacobite rebellion of 1745
FOUND IN: US(Ap,NE,So) Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 41, "The White Cockade" (1 text)
Hogg-JacobiteRelicsOfScotlandVol2 18, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan1 124, "The White Cockade" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 120, "Prince Charles He Is King James's Son" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 144, p. 149, "Ranting Roving Lad" (1 text -- from West Virginia, but still with clear traces of Scots dialect)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 115-118, "Virginia Reel" [medley of "The Irish Washerwoman," "The White Cockade," and "Yankee Doodle"] (1 tune for each of the three melodies, plus dance instructions); p. 120, "The White Cockade" (1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown-FolkSongsOfAustraliaVol2, p. 88, "The White Cockade" (1 tune)
Cray-AshGrove, p. 26, "The White Cockade" (1 tune)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, "The White Cockade" (1 text, a "Prince Charles He Is King James's Son" tyoe)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 55, "The White Cockade" (1 text)
DT, WHTECOCK*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #306,, p. 423, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume III, #272, p. 281, "The White Cockade" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 181-182, "The White Cockade" (1 text, translated from the Gaelic with some lines surely inspired by "King William was King James's Son"; the rest is not the usual "White Cockade" though it has similarities; I rather suspect two-way translation)
Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 126, "The White Cockade" (1 tune, presumably this)
ST R120 (Full)
Roud #709
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, "The White Cockade" ("My love was born in Aberdeen"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3341), Harding B 11(4160), "The White Cockade"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King William is King James's Son" (lyrics)
cf. "The Old Settoo" (tune)
cf. "Fat'll Mak a Bonny Lassie Blythe an' Glad?" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5) and references there
SAME TUNE:
The Green Cockade (Healy-MercierBookOfOldIrishStreetBalladsVol2, pp. 40-41)
The Wind Blew the Bonnie Lass's Plaidie Awa' (File: RcWBTBLP)
The Old Settoo (File: OLcM026A)
Cairo (File: SCWF248)
The Fate of John Burgoyne (File: SBoA075)
NOTES [118 words]: The white cockade was, of course, a Jacobite emblem. Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart, 1720-1788) was the son of James (III), himself the son of James II, the English king deposed in 1689/90.
This piece is often found as a fiddle tune. It may be that it lost its words because people dared not sing a Jacobite song, but liked the melody. But this is probably beyond proof.
A few sources have a "White Cockade song beginning something like "Prince Charles he is King James's son, And from a royal line is sprung." This looks s if it derives from "King William was King James's Son." I'm far from convinced that they are the same song, but I'm listing them here because Roud seems to lump them.- RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R120

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