"The Skipper’s Dream" is a

Geordie Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitut ...

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

written in the 19th century by T. Moor, in a style deriving from

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

. Even less is known about Moor than many of his counterparts. The only information available coming from a brief item in "Allan’s Tyneside Songs".
Mr Moor, not even his Christian name is known, was a shoemaker who had a business in Denton Chare,

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

Lyrics

T. Moor was a

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as published i ...

singer/songwriter. The only song attributed to his name is "The Skipper’s Dream".
The

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

in the early nineteenth century caused a shortage of labour, which in turn led to an influx of Irish families into

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. This caused a certain amount of resentment, particularly in many places due to the families being of

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. When this was coupled with the threat of invasion by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and the Roman Catholic French, it caused even more concern and led to a sudden and alarming increase in the number of

Orange Lodges The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots heritage. It als ...

. This forced the government to

legislate Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to a ...

against the Order in 1825.
The song is evidence of the Anti-Papish paranoia felt at the time on

where Orange lodges were particularly prevalent.
In this song, a

skipper, having fallen into a drunken sleep, is tempted to 'turn

Papist The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...

', with caustic comments about the forgiving of sins for money.

Comments on variations to the above version

NOTE – In the early 19th century, as today, there were cheap books and magazines.
Many of these " chapbooks" were on poor-quality paper to a poor standard and with poor-quality print. The works were copied with no thoughts of copyright, and the work required very little proofreading, and what was done was not required to a high standard. Consequently, the dialect words of songs varied between editions.
This particular song shows several variations between the various published versions, some very minor, mainly in the spelling of the words, and sometimes variations within the same edition. Some of the most common are listed below : * ' and ''about'' * ' and ''count'' * ''great'' and ''greet'' * ''hanging'' and ' * ' and ''hep'' * ' and ''keys'' * ' and ''now'' * ' and ''piece'' * ' and ''priest'' * ' and ''to'' * ' and ''told'' * ' and ''wakened''

References

External links

FARNE-Folk Archive Resource North East–The Skipper’s DreamAllan’s Illustrated Edition of Tyneside songs and readings 1891
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skipper's Dream English folk songs Songs related to Newcastle upon Tyne 1820s songs Northumbrian folklore

Lyrics

Comments on variations to the above version

See also

References

External links