Brigham Young

Brigham Young
From sheet music held in British Library (1870)

Old Brigham Young is a Mormon bold. 
And leader of the roaming rams; 
And shepherd of a heap 
Of pretty little sheep. 
And a nice fold of pretty little lambs. 
And he lives with his five and forty wives 
In the city of the great Salt Lake. 
Where they woo and they coo, 
As little doves do, 
And cackle like a ducks to a drake. 

Oh, Brigham. Brigham Young, 
It's a miracle how he survives, 
With his roaming rams and pretty little lambs, 
And his five and forty wives. 

Hi number forty-five is about sixteen, 
Number one is sixty and three; 
And they make such a riot -
How he ever keeps them quiet, 
Is a downright mystery to me. 
For they clatter and they claw, and jaw, jaw, jaw, 
And each has a different desire; 
It would aid the renown 
Of the best shop in town 
To supply them with half they require.

Old Brigham Young was a stout man once, 
Tho' now he's thin and old; 
And I grieve to state 
He is bald on his pate, 
Which once had a covering of gold. 
For his youngest wives won't have white wool. 
And his old ones won't have red; 
So with tearing it out, 
Taking turn and turn about, 
They have torn all the hair off his head.

Now his girls are singing psalms all day, 
And his boys they all sing songs; 
And among such a crowd 
He has it pretty loud. 
For they're musical as Chinese gongs. 
And when they advance for a Mormon dance. 
He's filled with the greatest surprise; 
For they're sure to end the night 
With a Tabernacle fight, 
And scratch out one another's eyes.

There never was a home like Brigham Young's, 
So curious and so queer,
If his joys are double; 
He's treble lot of trouble, 
And it gains on him year by year; 
Yet he sits in state and bears his fate, 
In a serve-me-very-right sort of way; 
If there's one wife to bury, 
There's another one to marry, 
And there's something going wrong every day.

Now if any body envies Brigham Young, 
Let them go to the Great Salt Lake; 
And if they have leisure 
To examine their pleasure, 
They will find it a great mistake. 
One wife at a time, so says my rhyme, 
Is enough for the proudest Don 
So ere you strive 
To be lord of forty-five, 
Live happy – if you can – with one.

This is a well-known traditional American song which seems to have originated on this side of the Atlantic. It appears in a number of collections collections of songs associated with the American West , including John Lomax’s Cowboy Songs (1919). In the UK it appears widely on several broadsides which cannot be dated easily, so the first date we can be confident about is when it was sung in the Halls as explained below. The earliest version I can find from American printed sources is from Henry de Marsan Singer’s Journal, which we can date around between January – July 1871. This is a 4-6 months after the first evidence of it being sung in London.

The British Library has this sheet music, which states that the song was written and composed by JB Geoghegan and sung by James Hillier. There is no publication date but the newspaper article below suggests September 1870.

The earliest reference to a song called Brigham Young being sung in the British Music Halls is in The Era in 1866, when it was sung by George Leybourne at Gatti’s in London. I have not found any other references to Leybourne singing this particular song and it’s more likely that it was actually My Wife Has joined The Mormons, which Kilgarriff lists in the repertoire of Leybourne.

We are on safer ground in September 1870, when the following advert appears in The Era:

Several related adverts and reviews linking Hillier to the song appear in The Era in October 1870 to March 1871, for example:

Mr James Hillier …. His laughable performance as a Mormonite, who sings of the matrimonial privileges and troubles of Brigham Young

The Era Dec 4 1870

Mr James Hillier … created roars of laughter by the quaint style in which he rendered the various phases of matrimonial life, especially when he described the difficulties Brigham Young has to contend against in supporting forty-five wives

The Era Mar 19 1871

NB According to Wikipedia by the end of his life Young had had 55 wives, so except for a short while, Brigham Young did not have 45 wives and we can assume Geoghegan was using poetic license.

James Hillier (1840-1874), was billed as The King of Musical Humourists and/or King James (The First) Hillier. He was a boy chorister in a Catholic church and as a young man was played “low comic” parts in various theatre and opera productions, before establishing himself as a comic in the early Music Hall. In early 1874 The London Entr’acte declared him one of the two best comic singers at present on the music Hall stage. Tragically just months later he died suddenly of heart disease aged 34, leaving his wife and five children without income.

An excellent modern version:

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Ballad Index
• Henry de Marsan’s Singer’s Journal, Vol1, No. 69, p517
• Digital copy of Sheet Music provided by British Library.
• Sudden death of Mr James Hillier, The Era – Sunday 09 August 1874, p4
• Popular Entertainers No VII : Mr James Hillier London and Provincial Entr’acte – Saturday 04 July 1874, p7

Last Updated on March 16, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: October 20, 2020