Vaughan Williams’s Journey into Folk: 8 October 1904
‘Henry Martin’, Mr Verrall, Horsham, Sussex
Three Scottish brothers draw lots to see which of them should become a pirate to maintain the family. The responsibility falls upon the youngest, Henry Martin. Once at sea he attacks an English merchant ship and sinks it, drowning all on board.
This was Vaughan Williams’s second visit to the Verralls [see 24 May 1904]. Peter Verrall was a labourer; he and Harriet were both in their late forties, looking after three children and a grandchild. In the 1950s a local singer and writer, Tony Wales, spoke to the couple’s son, who recalled how his parents would sing to each other by the fire in the evenings, and teach him their songs. The three he remembered in particular were ‘Salisbury Plain’, ‘Covent Garden’ and ‘Streams of Lovely Nancy’. On this occasion, Harriet and Peter sang twelve songs between them including ‘The Red Barn’ (also known as ‘Maria Marten’) sung to the tune of ‘Lazarus’ [1 September 1904], and ‘As I walked out’ sung to the same melody as Williams Stacey’s version [28 May 1904].
Peter sang ‘Henry Martin’ which most experts believe to be a curtailed and much adapted version of an older ballad, ‘A true relation of the life and death of Sir Andrew Barton, a pirate and rover on the sea’ – usually known as ‘Sir Andrew Barton’. He was a real person, one of three sons of John Barton, a commander in the Scottish navy in the late 15th century. In 1506 the Scottish king, James IV, granted the Barton family permission to seize Portuguese goods at sea in reparation for earlier plundering of their own ship. Andrew Barton’s actions against the Portuguese disrupted trade with London and he was eventually pursued as a pirate by English ships and killed on 2 August 1511, causing a diplomatic spat between the Scottish king and England’s Henry VIII.
The oldest surviving print version of the Andrew Barton ballad dates from circa 1630; ballad sheets with the ‘Henry Martin’ version were circulating widely in the early 19th century. The name ‘Andrew Barton’ appears to have transformed into ‘Henry Martin’ in the later, shorter song, and Henry, who manages to escape death, has become a ruthless destroyer of English ships – but both songs are categorised as Roud No. 104.
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library link: https://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/2/160
Roud No.104
Next post: October 26