George William Hunt (1838-1904) was sometimes known as Jingo Hunt as a result of him writing the infamous “Jingo Song” which gave us the word “jingoism“. He was a prolific songwriter, claiming to have written over 7000 songs, and is reputed to be the 1st person to make their living entirely from selling songs to others.
Hunt was more than once involved in court action over song copyright, which involved legislation so complex that it was almost impossible to enforce. American publishers routinely illegally sold music written in Britain, and Hunt claimed in the 1870s: My songs have been republished in the United States for the last 12 years under anybody’s name but mine.
Hunt wrote for all the major stars of the 19th century music Hall, including Arthur Lloyd, GH MacDermott, Henri Clark, George Leybourne….
A thorough search of the Roud indexes, based on a list of 191 songs attributed to GW Hunt listed on the WorldCat website and in Kilgariff’s book, revealed 12 songs collected from the singing of traditional singers:
- Billy Johnson’s Ball (2139)
- Blighted gardener, The or, Cabbages and turnip tops (7966)
- Dear old pals (24785)
- Fellow that looks like me (2187)
- Frenchman, The or Tra la la bon (21879)
- Goodbye John; The Lass That Loves A Sailor; Chickabiddy (24344)
- It’s funny when you feel this way (3693)
- Martha, the Milkman’s Daughter. (31150)
- Mother says I mustn’t (21505)
- Old Brown’s daughter (1426 )
- Rolling on the Grass (1768)
- Sarah’s Young Man (1957)
- Up in a Balloon (4882 )
O Would I Were a Bird (13799) is listed in the repertoire of Henry Burstow, a traditional singer active in the late 19th century – this is likely to be the same song but GW Hunt wrote, but we only have the title so we can’t be sure.
Turn the Mangle Joe was sung by Fred Coyne and published as sheet music – the cover is reproduced in Willson Disher’s book Victorian Song. It’s possible that this is the same as a song collected by Alfred Williams which he calls Turn The Mangle (RN13639).
An additional 5 songs listed in the Roud folksong index were not collected directly from a singer, but featured in “Sprite’s article” in the Eastern Evening News (England) in the 1920s, a series of articles in which readers request and contribute the words of “old songs”:
- Awfully awful (24435)
- Down among the Coals (24459)
- Fie for shame!, or, What would Mamma say? (24492)
- It’s very aggravating. (24514?)
- That’s where you make the mistake (24447)
GW Hunt is occasionally given composer credits for the song made famous by the Christy Minstrels Nobody’s darling but mine (21528). This is usually listed as composed by HP Danks with words by John T Rutledge, and as far as I can tell this attribution is correct. The earliest records in UK newspapers, for example in The London Standard May 22 1876, support this attribution.
- Burstow, Reminiscences of Horsham (1911) from The Whiting Society of Ringers
Last Updated on April 14, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: August 6, 2020
