“Jeremiah of Bartibogue”

Description

Jeremiah from Bartibogue gets a job at Billy Muirhead's saw-mill in Chatham. He dresses "to the tip of fashion" He takes up politics, unsuccessfully. He is "forced to leave Chatham" and falls "to this low station, Cooking for Casey on Sprigman's Hill"

Supplemental text

Jeremiah of Bartibogue
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Louise Manny and James Reginald Wilson, Songs of Miramichi,
#24, pp. 118-119. From the singing of Donald MacDonald of Black
River Bridge in 1948.

My given name it is Jeremiah
  I was bred and born down in Bartibogue,
Where I spent all of my days of boyhood
  And I was counted a cunning rogue.

Until I arrived at the age of manhood
  For to seek my fortune I did go try,
Then I steered my course for the town of Chatham,
  And with Billy Muirhead I got employ.

(7 additional stanzas)

Notes

Manny/Wilson: "The official spelling of this river and settlement is Bartibog, but the old inhabitants spell it Bartibogue, and it is so pronounced." - BS

Manny/Wilson also note that, while the author of this is unknown, it "resembled Martin Sullivan's productions." Sullivan also wrote "The Bluebird."

The song lists Jeremiah as supporting Peter Mitchell. Mitchell was a New Brunswick legislator who became a Father of Confederation, so presumably the song was written in the second half of the nineteenth century. Manny/Wilson, p. 35, claims that the following jingle comes from the period 1880-1890:

Michael Adams tall and thin,

He's the man you can't put in.

Peter Mitchell short and stout,

He's the man you can't put out. - RBW

References

1. Manny/Wilson 24, "Jeremiah of Bartibogue" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. ST MaWi024 (Partial)
3. Roud #9190
4. BI, MaWi024