Workhouse Boy, The

AKAThe Vorkhouse Boy
First Published1837

Writer/composerunknownRoudRN29495

Music Hall PerformersSam Cowell
Folk performancesSource Singers
unknown 1900 England 1900
Modern performances
The Halliard
As published in The Champion, March 1837

The cloth was laid in the Workhouse hall,
The great-coats hung 'gainst the white-washed wall,
The paupers all were blythe and gay,
Keeping their Christmas holiday.
When the master he cried with a roguish leer,
You'll all get fat on your Christmas cheer;
When, by his looks, one seemed to say,
I'll have some more soup on this Christmas day.
                          Oh! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.

At length all of us, to bed were sent,
The boy was missing, in search we went:
We sought him above, we sought him below,
We sought him in fear, we sought him in woe;
Ye sought him that hour, we sought him that night
We sought him in fear, and we sought him in fright,
When a young pauper cried, I know we shall,
Get jolly well wopt for loosing our pal.
                          Oh ! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.

We sought him in each corner, each crevice we knew,
We sought down the yard, & we sought him up the flue
We sought him in each saucepan, each kettle and pot,
In the water butt look'd but found him not.
And weeks roll'd on, we were all of us told,
That somebody said he'd been burk'd and sold,
When our master goes out the Parishioners wild,
Cry, there goes the cove that burk'd the poor child.
                          Oh! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.

At length the soup coppers, repairs did need,
The coppersmith came, and there he seed
A dollop of bones lay grizzling there,
In the leg of the breeches the boy did wear.
To gain his fill, the Boy did stoop,
And dreadful to tell he wos boil'd in the soup,
And we all of us say it, and say it with sneers,
That he wos push'd in by the Overseers.
                          Oh! the poor Workhouse boy, &c.

The Mistletoe Bough or The Fatal Chest (Roud 2336) was a ballad written in 1834 by Thomas Haynes Bayley, a dramatist and songwriter, set to music by Sir Henry Bishop. It retells an earlier story of a macabre Christmas game of hide and seek in which a young woman hides in a wooden box but gets locked in and dies alone, her body only being discovered many years later. It was extremely popular ballad, sold widely in cheap Street literature. It’s still sung regularly by traditional singers.

This parody of The Mistletoe Bough, designed to be sung to the same tune, was written very soon after the original’s first appearance in the 1830s. The Vaughn Williams Memorial Library suggests that versions printed in 1836 exist, but the earliest version of The Workhouse Boy that I can confirm the date of, was published in the short-lived radical newspaper The Champion and Weekly Herald (London) in March 1837. The Champion was run by JP and RBB Cobbett, sons of the radical newspaper editor, William Cobbett. It seems unlikely that anyone associated with the paper wrote the song, rather they were probably just republishing a popular satirical song of the time. The song appears without comment, but other articles on the page attack the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) which stipulated that the “able-bodied”should not receive any monies from their parish unless they were in a workhouse. The workhouses were deliberately made to be so awful as to discourage the poor from claiming. Novelists like Charles Dickens and Frances Trollope campaigned for reform and the song itself is not too dissimilar to the story of Oliver Twist…

It’s difficult to determine who wrote this parody – one broadside listed in the Vaughan Williams Memorial library suggests that it was written by “Mr Flint”, but these publications are not always reliable sources for details like authorship. Several other contemporary sources suggest it was written by “A Parochial Authority”, so unless further evidence emerges, I will stick with author: unknown.

It was sung by Sam Cowell, in the 1850s. Sam Cowell specialised in drawing humour out of what now feel like tragic ballads. Contemporary printed versions tend to exchange all the W’s in the song for V’s – this was a standard way of suggesting it should be sung in a broadly comic Cockney accent. For ease of singing and reading I have changed them back, but if you want to search for it elsewhere, look for The Vorkhouse Boy. Here is a review of Cowell singing it in the Dunfermlin Music Hall in 1853:

Fife Herald – Thursday 15 September 1853

The Seven Dials Band sings it:

The Halliard sing it to their own tune:

Sources:

Last Updated on November 26, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: December 8, 2020

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