The Boston Smuggler

The Boston Smuggler

On Springthyme SPRCD 1038
Jane Turriff - Singin is Ma Life

Sung by Jane Turriff:

The Boston Smuggler is, of course, American in origin, but as Gavin Greig noted, it “has got quite naturalised in this country” (GD 260n). Jane’s version comes from her mother Christina and none of the three versions in the Greig-Duncan collection has Jane’s third line “and brought up in genteel”, and indeed Jane herself repeats the second line, « the truth to you I'll tell” in all the other recorded versions | have. Most versions have a ‘come-all-ye’ verse in which other young lads are warned against the wicked life. Jane does not, but knows that “he gaed awa drinkin an gamblin.” ‘Charles Jail’ in verse two probably refers to the jail in Charlestown, now part of greater Boston. Many traditional versions refer to the song as the Boston Burgler and the place as Charlstown.

The Boston Smuggler

1: As I was born in Boston, O a place ye as ken weel
Brought up with honest parents, the truth to you I will tell;
Brought up with honest parents, an brought up in genteel,
When I became a pris'ner at the age of twenty-one.

2: To see my old age father standing in the bar,
An to see my old age mother with her grey locks hung down;
The rears came gently to her eyes, and the tears they did as fa',
Crying. "Son, my son, whit's this you have done, to be sent to Charles Jail?"

3: My photograph wis taken and I was sent to jail;
My parents tried, but all in vain, to get me out in bail,
And the jury found me guilty and the clerk he wrote it down,
And I became a pris'ner at the age of twenty-one.

4: But I've got a girl in Boston and she's worrying about me,
But when my time is over with her I mean to dwell;
I will tell her of companions and of drinkin wine
When I became a pris'ner at the age of twenty-one.

Recorded by Thomas McKean, Mintiaw, 1996 and Peter Cooke at the Kinross Festival, 1971.