SONGLINES: THE ROAD TO BONNYMUIR

AN ANTHOLOGY OF

LATE 18TH

/EARLY 19TH

CENTURY POLITICAL SONG

SONGS IN SCOTS AND ENGLISH WITH SONGWRITER

BIOGRAPHIES AND USEFUL NOTES ON EACH SONG

Compiled, arranged & edited by Alan Dickson

ROWTH PUBLISHING

SONGLINES: THE ROAD TO BONNYMUIR

An Anthology of Late 18th

/Early 19th

Century Political Song

COMPILED, ARRANGED AND EDITED BY

ALAN DICKSON

ROWTH

rave on rhyme

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe thanks to the Third Age Trust and the Alastair Hulett Memorial Trust for

providing funding towards the cost of this publication. Also I wish to thank the

Janey Buchan Political Song Collection at Glasgow University, particularly John

Powles and Kate Lynch; Carole McCallum from Special Archives at Glasgow

Caledonian University, and members of Glasgow West-End and Paisley and

District’s University of the Third Age (U3A), 1820 Research Group, particularly

Irene Scullion, Helen Glassford and John Revie, which has helped to inform this

anthology. Thanks also to Susan Kirkwood (Dunfermline U3A) for suggesting

‘The Reformer.’ This anthology is part of Glasgow West-End and Paisley and

District U3As joint local history research project. Thanks also for permission to

Freddie Anderson’s family to include ‘Glasgow’s Radical Rising of 1820.’ Other

sources are acknowledged in the notes section. I also found Shaun Kavanagh’s

essay (from www.academia.edu) ‘Scottish Society and the Radical War of 1820’

and Gordon Pentland’s essay ‘Radical Returns in an Age of Revolutions’

particularly valuable. Images of the Radical Road on inside front cover (from The

Hawes end) and inside back cover (from St Margaret’s Well end) are by Auld

Angus. All other images are under license from Shutterstock. Any opinions

expressed in the anthology are the personal opinions of the author (or those

contained in works cited), and cannot be taken to represent the views of those who

have contributed funding towards the publication of this anthology. I would be

glad to correct any oversights in acknowledgements, permissions or any errors, if

they are brought to my attention, in any future reprints of this collection.

Alan Dickson

First published in 2020 by Rowth Publishing, Glasgow

www.rowth.com

Email: admin@rowth.com

Copyright © Alan J Dickson 2020, including cover design

All rights reserved. Permission for use or otherwise, should be obtained from the

copyright owner. Copyright is retained by Freddie Anderson’s family for

‘Glasgow’s Radical Rising of 1820.’

ISBN 978-0-9564655-1-1

Printed and bound by Doxdirect

In memory of the Radicals and my great grandmother,

Marion Forsyth (b.1870),

a worsted winder at Ladhope Mill,

Galashiels.

CONTENTS

Preface 9

Runnamede 15

William Ogilvie 15

As O’er the Highland Hills I Hied 16

Scots Wha Hae/Democracy 18

A Man’s a Man 19

Judases All 20

The Downfall of Feudal Tyranny 21

James Kennedy 22

Swinish Gruntings 23

Thomas Muir’s Farewell 25

William Skirving’s Farewell 26

Fletcher of Saltoun’s Lament 27

The Condorrat Sodger 27

The Battle of Vitoria 29

The Plains o’ Waterloo 30

Fair Liberty’s Tree 32

The Wailings of Corruption 32

The Spinning O’t 33

Bannocks o’ Barley Meal 34

Jenny Dang the Weaver 35

Freedom 36

Song for William Cobbett 37

Freedom, Or a Grave O’t 38

The Covenanter’s Lament 38

Bonnymuir 39

Dark Bonnymuir 40

Glasgow’s Radical Rising of 1820 41

The Radical Martyrs 43

Radical Bodies, Gae Hame 44

Sharp Pikes and Radical Clegs 45

Rifle Meeting Song 46

The Reformer 48

The Mucking o’ Geordie’s Byre 50

Sawney, Now the King’s Come 52

The Shuttle Rins 54

The Spinners’ Song 55

The Ballad of Mary McLauchlane 56

The Reformer’s Pocket-piece 57

The Auld Radical 59

The Wark o’ the Weavers 60

Songwriter Biographies 61

Notes 69

Glossary

9

PREFACE

“Round and round the radical road the radical rascal ran … if you can tell me

how many r's are in that you can catch me if you can.” And so the nursery

rhyme goes! Of course, the radical road refers to the path that skirts Salisbury

Crags in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park, originally an old track that was paved by

unemployed weavers from the west of Scotland who had been involved in the

week of civil unrest in April 1820. More on the radical road later, but first a

little background on why civil unrest came about.

In early nineteenth century Scotland trouble had been brewing for some time,

particularly in the west of Scotland which was experiencing massive levels of

immigration, fuelled by the Scottish Clearances and impoverished Irish

families seeking work. Housing was in short supply and ordinary people had

hoped for better times to come. In addition, following the Napoleonic Wars

and the British victory at Waterloo, pay and working conditions worsened and

food prices were high. Ex-soldiers found little or no work, or extremely low

wages. Trade unions were banned, but despite this, workers continued to press

for better pay and conditions, the right to vote and parliamentary reform. This

gave rise to the first sustained mass-political movement in our history since

the Jacobite uprisings, the significance of which has been downplayed ever

since, being relegated to a footnote in Scottish history.

In ‘The Real Foundations: Literature and Social Change’ David Craig reminds

us (Chapter 4, ‘Militant Culture’) that in the early 1800s, working class people

were more knowledgeable and aware of their situation and the circumstances

that gave rise to their difficulties. In 1801 the first national Census had been

undertaken. As a result, workers were able to enquire systematically as to how

the system exploited them. No longer were they in the dark, about levels of

population, what the national income was and how unequally it was

distributed. Cheap lending-libraries were also being established and by the

early 1820s Glasgow workers had set up an institute and engaged their own

teachers of science and technology. And so, armed with this knowledge, a

10

strike of some 60,000 workers took place in April 1820, mainly in West and

Central Scotland. Some not only went on strike but armed themselves as well,

which resulted in a series of small armed uprisings with a "provisional

government" being declared in Glasgow. The authorities moved to quell the

uprising and to smear the campaign for reform. This resulted in protest leaders

across the country being arrested and some executed or transported to the

colonies for their actions.

Following the failed uprising, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), the man who

single-handedly changed the course of Scottish literature, for better or worse,

and whose monument towers over the east end of Princes Street, Edinburgh,

had the bright idea of using the weavers to improve the path around Salisbury

Crags. This was seen as a form of work relief, intended to rid these handloom

weavers of any further ideas of insurrection through hard labour. Back in the

day, to add insult to injury, Edinburgh children grew up chanting the radical

rascal nursery rhyme as a way of mocking the weavers, a tradition that has

spanned the generations, and I’m sad to say it was still alive and well when I

was growing up in Leith. I was none the wiser as to its origins, or what it

meant, and I’m sure my brothers and sisters or any of my friends were equally

in the dark. At least we learnt to roll our r’s! As for the Scott Monument,

that’s something I’ve still to climb! Scott’s novels never really interested me

either. I was encouraged to read Robert Louis Stevenson novels by my

mother.

I first became aware of the 1820 Radical Rising, in the 1970s as a student in

Dundee. George Kinloch’s statue stands there in Albert Square, a leading

political figure who was involved with mass meetings in 1817 and 1819

agitating for parliamentary reform. I often passed his statue on my way down

to the Tay Road Bridge, with guitar in hand, to hitch a lift back to Edinburgh.

But it was not until a review of the political song project ‘Songs from Under

the Bed,’ which I had been involved in, appeared in the magazine ‘Radical

Scotland’ in May 1990 that I was made more aware of events. Sitting

alongside was a review of Peter Berresford-Ellis and Seumas Mac A'

Ghobhainn’s book ‘The Radical Rising: The Scottish Insurrection of 1820.’

When I finally got around to releasing my first CD in 2015 ‘This Land is Our

Land,’ bolstered by debates around the Scottish Referendum, it was natural to

include a song about the Radical Rising, and Dark Bonnymuir came to mind.

Tom Johnson had referred to the song in his book ‘The History of the

Working Classes.’ After digging about a bit I sourced the lyrics and added a

11

tune. As far as I know it was first time that it had ever been recorded. Adam

McNaughtan has since made a recording, as part of the University of

Glasgow’s ‘The People’s Voice’ project.

‘Dark Bonnymuir’ centres on a band of Scottish Radicals, mostly weavers,

that marched on the 5th April 1820 to take over the Carron Ironworks, near

Falkirk, the largest single ironworks in Europe that had supplied the guns to

defeat Napoleon. Their intention was to seize armaments to overthrow the

government. They were met by Scottish troops of the Stirlingshire Yeomanry,

and a battle took place at Bonnymuir, though it was more of a skirmish, but a

major one at that in the so-called Radical War. Of those captured, the ring

leaders, John Baird and Andrew Hardie, both weavers and ex-soldiers, were

tried and executed and nineteen others were subsequently transported to New

South Wales, Australia. Baird had been a rifleman in the 95th 2

nd Battalion and

had fought in Spain against Napoleon. I was surprised to learn that Baird was

a deserter from the British Army, failing to rejoin his unit in Spain after being

on leave in Scotland. An additional reason, perhaps, why he was hanged!

I was starting to realise that the road to Bonnymuir was a long and treacherous

one, with many twists and turns, and that Bonnymuir actually represented the

climax of unrest that had been simmering away ever since Thomas Paine’s

‘The Rights of Man’ was published in the 1790s. This sparked my interest and

I set about gathering songs that would help shed light on this forgotten chapter

in Scottish history, through to the 1830s when those who had been executed or

transported received a royal pardon.

I was in for a surprise! Scottish Radicalism of this period is not awash with

political song, in contrast to the many political songs associated with opposing

the union with England and supporting the Jacobite factions. It’s possible that

songs were lost, not collected or erased from history in the wake of the

Clearances, and at a time when Britain was a virtual police state. Thousands of

people were displaced and dispossessed; traumatised by industrialisation, with

the movement into towns and cities or emigration to the colonies. In the words

of Lorna Goodwin, Poet Laureate of Jamaica, reflecting on her own country’s

past (in her book ‘Redemption Ground’), she says you have to take what is

available even if much has been lost, and give it a presence, a reality through

your imagination. As an artist you have to write yourself into the story any

way you can.

This anthology is part of the University of the Third Age’s Glasgow West-End and Paisley and District joint local history research project. Publication of this anthology is supported by the Third Age Trust and the Alistair Hulett Memorial Trust. For more info. www.alandickson.net

SONGLINES: THE ROAD TO BONNYMUIR An Anthology of Late 18th/Early 19th Century Political Song

40 songs in Scots & English with 14 songwriter biographies & useful notes on each song

Compiled, arranged & edited by Alan Dickson Of the songs that we know about, songwriters relied on popular melodies of the day, often adapting Burns and traditional songs (some Jacobite in origin) to suit local circumstances for radical purposes. Rewriting lyrics was part of the folk process, with tunes acting as the bedrock to that tradition; not unlike the Aboriginal songlines, with songwriters ever consciously measuring themselves and their kinfolk into existence through the power of song, drawing on collective and individual memory. Around half of the radical songs in this anthology, were originally published anonymously, including Robert Burn’s ‘A Man’s A Man’ and ‘Scots Wha Hae’. A few writers were less careful and did put their head above the parapet, such as Thomas Spence, the English Radical of Scottish descent, and James Kennedy, Paisley’s forgotten radical weaver. Both served time in prison for their outspoken views and actions. Likewise, Alexander Rodger, the Bridgeton radical weaver would find himself in trouble with the law for his verse-making during the time of the Radical Rising. Anti-radical songs are also included in this anthology as loyalist and patriotic politics emerged as every bit as important as radicalism, in order to repress radical activity and maintain the status quo. Women’s voices also feature in such songs as ‘The Spinners’ Song’, sung by women workers from the Calton, and ‘The Ballad of Mary McLauchlane‘, a tragic story of infanticide. What shines through in this anthology, is that despite the difficult circumstances that people found themselves in, they had a clear vision of hope and aspired to bring about a better future. Bonnymuir was the catalyst for reform which started with the Great Reform Act of 1832. This not only gave more people the vote but for the first time it was not a treasonable offence to discuss the question of land. The Radical Rising was in effect a declaration of human rights – a right to the freedom of expression, a right to earn a living, a right to have a home, a right to coexist peacefully and a right to share in the wealth that they created. In this bicentenary year of the Radical Rising, despite all the advances in equality and human rights, democracy is under threat and half of Scotland’s land is still controlled by less than five hundred people. We owe it to the Radicals to uphold democratic values. The tradition of radicalism is what keeps the flames of hope and anger burning, in the quest for a more equal, sustainable future for Scotland and planet earth as a whole.

The 1820 Radical Rising was the first sustained mass-political movement since the Jacobite uprisings, the significance of which has been downplayed ever since, being relegated to a footnote in Scottish history. A chorus of voices, each claiming to tell the true story, has portrayed it as “a nationalist rising for independence, a potential revolution, a milestone on the road to universal suffrage, or an agent-provocateur-provoked plot as a cover for savage government repression”. This anthology takes a fresh approach. Seen largely through the eyes of the songwriters of the day, it reveals not just factual truth but people’s attitudes and reactions to circumstances and events. What emerges is a narrative of the extreme lengths that the landed oligarchy went to, from the trial of Thomas Muir to the trials of the Bonnymuir Radicals, to hold onto property and power.

ROBERT BURNS

In early 1800s, songwriters relied on popular melodies of the day, often adapting Burns and traditional songs (some Jacobite in origin) to suit local circumstances for radical (and anti-radical) purposes.

Poet Laureate of the Radical Enlightenment

In 1820 some may mind it I'm sure, For reasons well known we met at Bonny Muir; The country was in a sad state at that time, For to tell our grievance we thought it no crime. Some spies came amongst us without fear or dread. Who penned down what each politician had said, Then there on the Muir the cavalry did us assail. Like felons some of us were marched off to jail. The charge of high treason against us was brought, Our bloodthirsty foes our destruction they sought: James Wilson he suffered in Glasgow town. In Stirling, Brave Hardy and Baird were cut down. Anon

SCOTS WHA HAE

Wha for Scotland's King and Law, Freedom's sword will strongly draw,

FREE-MAN stand, or FREE-MAN fa', Let him follow me!

Robert Burns

‘Scots Wha Hae’ was written in 1793, partly as a protest song, in response to the trial of Thomas Muir of Huntershill, founder of the Scottish Friends of the People.

It was adopted as the anthem of the Radical Rising, and played at public meetings. It became Scotland’s national anthem. The song was also taken up by protesters in England, not so much for its patriotism but in the name of freedom.

James Kennedy, Paisley’s forgotten son, was born approximately 1763. A radical weaver and poet, he was exiled in London from 1794 -1797 and died in the early 1800s, reputably in North America. He was a mentor to Alexander Wilson, Paisley’s other, and better known, radical weaver. Kennedy moved to Edinburgh and became involved with various radical groups in the city, such as Friends of the People, the United Scotsmen and those involved in the Pike Plot in 1794. He was charged with sedition and fled to London. When Thomas Muir made it to France in December 1797 he had hoped to meet Kennedy in Paris but Muir died in early 1798.

The Roots of Radicalism

Sweet the birds around me sing, Fair flow’rs around me blow,

Conscience wears no guilty sting - Though the world is full of woe

Corruption still pervades the State Those images chain my heart Innocence is for those in wait,

Guilt for those who make us part

The above is from Kennedy’s long poem ‘The Exile‘s Reveries,’ written while there was a reward out for his arrest, he refers to Skirving, Muir, Margarot, Palmer and Gerald. It is likely Kennedy would have known them through his involvement with the Friends of the People. Also, in what is a clear reference to Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It,’ and an indication as to how he was feeling at being exiled, he refers to Arden, the forest, where Duke Senior was forced into exile to escape the corruption of city life:

Arden, wishing Mankind’s weal If a crime ye Britons judge

Placemen’s rage for this I feel – Homeless, nameless, friendless, trudge!

Thomas Spence (21 June 1750 - 8 September 1814), was a songwriter and one of the leading revolutionaries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. An English Radical, who was imprisoned a number of times, was born in poverty to Scottish parents in the Quayside area of Newcastle. Like Burns, he was schooled in the dissenting tradition of Scottish Presbyterianism, and influenced by the writings of William Ogilvie.

He established the Society of Spencean Philanthropists in 1801 to further promote his ideas. Three years after his death an Act of Parliament was passed banning ”all societies or clubs calling themselves Spencean or Spencean Philanthropists.” His influence, however, continued to be felt following his death, for example, in relation to the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820 (which sparked, a month later, the 1820 Radical Rising).

The Roots of Radicalism

JUDASES ALL

Ye children unborn attend to my song, We’ve found out the rogues who did us the wrong

Who shackled the world e’er since it began, And liv’d on the blood of poor suffering man.

Chorus: Judases all, Judases all Landholders are nothing but Judases all.

(Thomas Spence)

Following Peterloo, in a speech that addressed the women of Manchester ‘judas’s all’ was attributed to ‘the relentless hand of the Borough-Judases; for corruption, tyranny, and injustice.’ For Spence, Thomas Paine (who had no qualms about private property in land) had not grasped that the real rights of man needed to be grounded in economic power. Without that, any demand for political rights was empty rhetoric! He advocated the decentralisation of economic and political power through local and democratic ownership of the land.

SONG FOR WILLIAM OGILVIE

Ogilvie was the author of the historic land reform treatise, 'Essay on Rights of Property in Land' (1782). It was seen by some as more dangerous than Thomas Paine’s ‘Rights of Man.’

Welcome to the world of William Ogilvie, He gave his heart and soul so we could be free; He said “the land is our birthright, belongs to you and me, But ignorance of this was the cause of poverty.”

SONG FOR WILLIAM COBBETT

The English Radical William Cobbett was a champion of the working classes and the uncompromising advocate of Radicalism. The scourge of ‘Old Corruption,’ his ‘Weekly Political Register’ campaigned for social and economic reform in Britain.

Ye’ lang hae wielded tongue an’ pen Corruption’s brood to ga’, Willie Drag forth the imposters frae their den Expose their deeds an’ a’, Willie Up an waur’ them a’, Willie, Up an waur’ them a’, Just carry on an’ ye hae done An’ soon they’ll get a fa’, Willie. Anon

The question of land has a long history in Scotland. The Rising was primarily a conflict between those who owned the land and those who did not. In 1820, running alongside the campaign for parliamentary reform was anti-feudalist reforms favoured by Scotland’s agrarian improvers, which included a long-running campaign to reform succession law so that the eldest son did not automatically have a legal right to become the main inheritor of property. With the passing of the 1832 Reform Act the question of land could be discussed for the first time.

Today, landowners can still bequeath the land to the eldest son through their will, which works against the interests of women, children, the landless and Scottish society. In 2019 the Scottish Government began considering the findings of a consultation on succession law with a view to allowing land to be distributed more equitably across society. Half of Scotland’s land is still owned by less than 500 people.

THE RISING AND LAND REFORM

THE BALLAD OF MARY MCLAUCHLANE

A Handloom Heroine!

Mary was born 1801 into a Saltcoats weaving family. After experiencing the radical happenings in Saltcoats, she moved to Calton to work. Her life changed forever! A mother of two children, in dire poverty, she was found guilty of housebreaking and theft, which she denied, and was transported to Van Diemen’s Land for 14 years. On landing, she was assigned to Charles Ross Nairne, a merchant from Paisley, whom she became pregnant to. He denied it and abandoned her. Mary gave birth, the child was found dead and Mary was found guilty of infanticide - on flawed medical evidence, with no legal representation in front of an all-male military jury - for a crime that rarely received that punishment in Britain at that time. She was hanged and her body was dissected - a victim of the most patriarchal society in the British Empire, fearful of the power that a woman had over the life and death of a man’s offspring. She had been put to death to save a man’s reputation. Infanticide was the most powerful subversive political act a nineteenth - century woman could commit. Nairne was eventually named and his marriage never recovered from the scandal.

ALEXANDER RODGER

‘Poet Laureate’ of the Radical Rising

Alexander Rodger

Songwriter & Poet of the Radical Rising

Alexander Rodger (16 July 1784 – 26 Sept. 1846), is chiefly recognised for his popular radical literature and satirical broadsides. He was born at Mid-Calder, Midlothian, but moved to the weaving district of Bridgeton. Following Thomas Spence’s death he wrote: “Let equalization be still your chief subject, and converts to Spence's wild principles make.” He was sub-editor of ‘The Spirit of the Union,’ a local Glasgow newspaper that advocated radical political reform. This resulted in Rodger spending eleven days in prison.

Soon a’ oor rights suspend And fleece the land frae end to end; Oor liberty we maun attend Freedom, or a’ Grave o’t. Anon

Here's to the shuttle, the spade, and the plough, And here's to the wheel, and the spinning o't, May ilk ane wha lives by the sweat o' his brow, Hae plenty o' wealth for the winning o't; May want, discontent, and fell turbulence cease, - May nation with nation exchange its increase; And nature still yield a rich crop, and a fleece, To encourage the ploughing and spinning o't.

Alexander Rodger

Despite the hardship and toil, Rodger is celebrating the age-old tradition of handloom weaving. It was part of the dual economy. People were often involved in textile manufacturing, but also depended on land for farming. Before the repeal of the Corn Laws, many relied on their smallholdings for subsistence purposes.

The Dual Economy