• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Justices and Old Bailey [song, circa 1780-1812]

22 December 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A broadsheet song about the transportation of convicts to Australia. Published by J. Evans of London, between 1780 and 1812.]

Justices and Old Bailey.

Evans, Printer, Long lane, London

Here’s adieu to your judges and juries,
Justices and Old Bailey also;
Seven years they’ve transported my true love,
Seven years he’s transported, you know.

To go to a strange country don’t grieve me,
Nor leaving old England behind,
It’s all for the sake of my Polly,
And the leaving my parents I mind.

There’s the Captain that is our commander,
The boatswain and all our ship’s crew;
There’s married men too and there’s single,
Who knows what we transports go thro’?

Dear Polly, I’m going to leave you,
For seven long years, love, and more,
But that time will seem but a moment,
When return’d to the girl I adore.

If ever I return from the ocean,
Stores of riches I’ll bring for my dear;
It’s all the sake of my Polly love,
I’ll cross the salt seas for my dear.

How hard is the place of confinement,
That keeps me from my heart’s delight;
Cold chains and irons surround me,
And a plank for my pillow at night!

How often I wish that the eagle
Would lend me her pinions to fly;
Then I’d fly to the arms of my Polly,
And on her soft bosom I’d lie.



Source:
“Justices and Old Bailey” [broadsheet], London: J. Evans [“Evans, Printer, Long lane, London”], [undated, published between 1780 and 1812]
Note: Held in the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford [shelfmark: Harding B 25(1015)]

Editor’s notes:
Old Bailey = the Central Criminal Court of England, commonly known as the “Old Bailey” after the name of the street (“Old Bailey”) in which it is located

Filed Under: songs Tagged With: @ yearTBA, Botany Bay (NSW), Botany Bay song, convict song, song, SourceBodleianLibrary

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [29 January 1951]
  • Australia Day [28 January 1950]
  • Danger-signals from Australia [2 January 1942]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in