Botany Bay (song)
"Botany Bay" is a song from the musical burlesque, Little Jack Sheppard, a comedy staged in London, England, in 1885 and Melbourne, Australia, in 1886. The show was written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, though the music for "Botany Bay" was written by Florian Pascal,[1] a pseudonym for Joseph Williams, Jr. (1847–1923), a music publisher and composer.[2] The song shares two verses with Farewell to Judges and Juries which had been performed in 1820.[3]
Botany Bay was the designated settlement for the first fleet when it arrived in Australia in the eighteenth century. It was a settlement intended for the transport of convicts to Australia. The song describes the period in the late 18th and 19th centuries, when British convicts were deported to the various Australian penal colonies by the British government for seven-year terms as an alternative to incarceration in Britain.[4] The second verse is about life on the convict ships, and the last verse is directed to English girls and boys as warning not to steal.
After the production of Little Jack Sheppard, the song became a popular folk song and has been sung and recorded by Burl Ives[5] and many others. It is played as a children's song on compilations, particularly in Australia.[6]
The song is referenced in various documentaries researching the transport of convicts to Australia, although that practice in New South Wales had ended in 1840, 45 years before the song was written.[7]
Lyrics
Farewell to old England forever,
Farewell to my old pals as well,
Farewell to the well–known Old Bailey
Where once I used to look such a swell.
Chorus:
Singing too-ral, li-ooral, li-addity,
Singing too-ral, li-ooral, li-ay,
Singing too-ral, li-ooral, li-addity,
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
There's the captain as is our commander,
There's the bo'son and all the ship's crew,
There's the first– and the second–class passengers,
Knows what we poor convicts go through.
'Taint leaving old England we cares about,
'Taint cos we mis-spells what we knows,
But because all we light–fingered gentry
Hops around with a log on our toes.
These seven long years I've been serving now
And seven long more have to stay,
All for bashing a bloke down our alley
And taking his ticker away.
Oh had I the wings of a turtle–dove,
I'd soar on my pinions so high,
Slap bang to the arms of my Polly love,
And in her sweet presence I'd die.
Now all my young Dookies and Dutchesses,
Take warning from what I've to say:
Mind all is your own as you toucheses
Or you'll find us in Botany Bay.
Cover
The song "Toorali", on the 2008 album Summerland from Australian band The Herd uses an adapted excerpt from the song "Botany Bay" for its chorus and main verse.
References
- ^ "Botany Bay" catalogue information
- ^ See Florian Pascal profile at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive and "A Thirty-ninth Garland of British Light Music Composers" at MusicWeb International
- ^ Liner notes on Australian Folk Songs.
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2002. ISBN 0-19-860575-7.
- ^ Decca Recording at The National Library of Australia
- ^ "Children's Songs and Nursery Rhymes" Mama Lisa's World (Australia)
- ^ "The end of transportation", Tocal Homestead