Jamie Raeburn (Caledonia)

DESCRIPTION: "My name is (Jamie Raeburn), in Glasgow I was born." Convicted (of a crime he did not commit), he has been sentenced to transportation. He bids farewell to family, sweetheart, and his beloved home in Caledonia. He hopes to return when free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1866 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.14(19))
KEYWORDS: transportation separation farewell Scotland
FOUND IN: Australia Ireland Britain(England(Lond),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(MW)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "JAMIE RAEBURN"
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 243-244, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan8 1535, "Jamie Raeburn" (17 texts, 12 tunes)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #36, pp. 1-2, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 357-358, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #62, "John Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 85-86, "Caledonia"; 245-246, "Caledonio" (2 texts, 2 tunea)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H151, p. 124, "Jamie Raeburn's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 43, "Jimmy Leeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
McMorland/Scott-HerdLaddieOTheGlen, pp. 47-48, 150, "Jimmy Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 94, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 90-91,"Farewell to Caledonia" (1 text)
DT, JIMRAEBN
ADDITIONAL: Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," article in Edward J. Cowan, editor, _The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History_ 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), pp. 160-161, "(Jamie Raeburn)" (1 text)
Willie Scott, "Jamie Raeburn," School of Scottish Studies Archive SA1970.179,Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches accessed 14 September 2013 from http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/89112/1
Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, pp. 476-477, "Jamie Raeburn" (1 text, with a tune on p. 607)
Roud #600
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "Jimmy Raeburn" (on SCDChapman01)
Tom Scott, "Jimmy Raeburn" (on Borders1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(19), "James Raeburn," unknown, n.d.
Murray, Mu23-y1:106, "Jamie Raeburn" James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(75a), "Jamie Raeburn," unknown, c.1875; also RB.m.143(121) "Jamie Raeburn," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plains of Waterloo" (tune, per Greig/Duncan8)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Farewell Ye Hills and Glens o' Caledonia
Mary Hepburn
The Convict's Farewell
NOTES [269 words]: Ford claims that this is based on an actual incident c. 1840, though the details he offers are scant. - RBW
Charters says this has been traced to "a penny broadsheet published in the 1840s," but offers no further details. - PJS
It [may be] possible to date broadside Bodleian 2806 c.14(19) from its note to the ballad shared on the broadside with "James Raeburn." Specifically, for "The Lament of Andrew Brown," there is a note that Brown "is at present lying under Sentence of Death in Forfar Jail for the Murder of Captain Greig [Creig?], on board the Nymph [illegible; perhaps "while"?] on her passage from Montrose to London"; the broadside itself dates the crime as September 6 and the execution January 31.
[Therefore we can conclude that the date of the broadside] is January 1866 based on the note for "The Lament of Andrew Brown." Specifically, Brown was tried January 8, 1866 in Edinburgh, and sentenced January 10 to be executed January 31. ["Murder at Sea," The Times of London, Tuesday, Jan 11, 1866; pg. 12; Issue 25392; Start column: D. (Copyright 2002 The Gale Group)] - BS
On the other hand, Norman Buchan, "Folk and Protest," published in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), says on p. 160, "We know that an early nineteenth-century (approximately 1820) broadsheet ballad, 'Jamie Raeburn,' sold a hundred thousand copies!" (Buchan also adds the snide comment that "Incidentally the normal sign of a bad song is that it calls Scotland 'Caledonia.' 'Jame Raeburn' is the exception that proves the rule!") - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: MA085

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