JACK HALL (Trad arr Bliss) - as recorded by The Pipers Sons on Mixed Moss

Tom Bliss: voice, guitars, Tom Napper: voice, mandolin, Tony Taffinder: voice, bass, whistle, Chris Parkinson, accordion, voice.

This song dates from 1701 when the English chimney sweep Jack Hall was hanged at Tyburn. The comic minstrel CW Ross made a new tune in the 1850s and renamed it Sam Hall. This borrows from the words of both, but uses a third tune made famous in The Dubliners ‘Irishised’ version.

Oh my name it is Jack Hall, chimney sweep

And I've robbed both great and small

And my neck shall pay for all, when I die

 

I have twenty pounds in store, that's not all

And I'll rob for twenty more,

For the rich must feed the poor, so must I

 

I have candles lily white, hanging high,

And I robbed them all by night

And they’ll fill my cell with light, till I go

 

Well I rode to Tyburn Hill, in a cart

And I stopped to make my will

Saying the best of friends must part, so farewell

 

Up the ladder I did grope, that's no joke

And the hangman fixed the rope

Ah but never a word I spoke, tumbling down

 

Recorded by The Pipers Sons on Mixed Moss