"William Taylor" ( Roud 158, Laws N11) is a British folk song, often collected from traditional singers in England, less so in Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the USA. It tells the story of a young woman who adopts male dress and becomes a sailor (or sometimes a soldier) in order to search for her lover. Other names include ''Billy Taylor'', ''Brisk Young Seamen'', ''Bold William Taylor'', ''Down By the Seashore'', ''The False Lover'', ''The Female Lieutenant; Or, Faithless Lover Rewarded'', ''If You'll Get Up Early in the Morning'', ''The Life and Death of Billy Taylor'', ''My Love'', ''Poor William Taylor'', ''Sally Brown and William Taylor'', and ''Young Billy Taylor''.Roud Folk Song Index, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library https://www.vwml.org/roudnumber/158 Retrieved 2017/03/09

Music

One tune is as follows: \relative c'' \addlyrics

Story

Synopsis

Several versions exist, but the story of the song concerns a young couple due to be wed. On the morning of the wedding, the groom ''William Taylor'' (''Billy'' in some versions) is pressed into service. The bride searches for him, disguising herself as a man to become a soldier or sailor. When her true gender is revealed (usually in an incident involving accidental exposure of her breasts), the captain points her in the direction of her beloved, but mentions that he now has a new suitor. When she finds him, she shoots him and sometimes also his new bride. In some versions, she is then rewarded by the captain with command of her own ship.

Details

Many versions follow a line similar to this. William Taylor, a "brisk young sailor" is at church about to be married when he is taken by the press gang:

William Taylor was a brisk young sailor
He who courted a lady fair
Bells were ringing, sailors singing
As to church they did repair.

Now forty couple were at the wedding,
All were dressed in rich array.
Instead of William getting married
He was pressed and sent away.

(or sometimes he merely enlists in the army, or joins a ship, with no wedding arrangements). His bride-to-be, sometimes called Sarah Dunn or Sally Grey, but often nameless, dresses in sailor's (or soldier's) clothing and goes to look for him. In some versions her true gender is revealed in battle or in some other way:

One day as she were exercising,
Exercising one, two, three,
A silver chain hung down her waistcoat
And exposed her lily-white breast.

in others her ship arrives at a foreign port where she resumes her true gender. Her captain asks why she has come, she tells him she is looking for William Taylor:

“If his name be William Taylor,
William Taylor is not here;
He's lately married a rich young lady,
Worth ten thousand pound a year.”

“If you rise early in the morning,
Just before the break of day,
Why there you'll find bold William Taylor,
A-walking out with his lady fair.”

She gets up before the dawn, sees William and his wife as predicted, calls for a pistol or pistols and sometimes a sword, and shoots him "with his fair lady by his side".

She's called for a brace of pistols,
That were brought at her command;,
Fired and shot her false Willie,
And the bride at his right hand.

The captain is so impressed he marries her, or makes her the commander of a ship or two.

And then the captain stepped up to her,
Was well pleased at what she'd done.
He took her and made her a bold commander
Over a ship and all his men.

History

''William Taylor'' was often performed as a comic song, ''Billy Taylor'', in the 19th century, but seems to have originated as a serious ballad. Traditional singers seem to sing it straight.

Early Printed Examples

The earliest known version, as ''Billy Taylor'', is in a

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

, ''Four New Songs'', printed in 1792. The song was printed frequently by publishers of broadsides throughout England and in Scotland.Roud, S, and Bishop, J; The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs; London, 2012 pp180-1, 438-9

Collecting History

The Roud Folk song Index lists about 103 versions from traditional singers, 56 - more than half - from England, 11 from Scotland, 3 from Ireland, 9 from Canada and 24 from the USA.

Field Recordings

*At the suggestion of Percy Grainger the Gramophone Company recorded Lincolnshire singer Joseph Taylor singing this song on a wax cylinder in 1908. This recording has been re-released as part of the ''

Voice of the People ( )Vox Populi
. Oxford Diction ...

'' series''Tonight I'll Make You My Bride''; Voice of the People 6; Topic Records TSCD656; 1998 and is available online via the British Library Sound Archive. *

Hamish Henderson Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier. He was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk song collector and disc ...

recorded Aberdeenshire singer Willie Mathieson singing "Billy Taylor" in 1952. This recording is on the

Tobar an Dualchais Tobar (originally ''Tovar'') is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Spain, within the Castile and León region. It is 35 km northwest of Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of C ...

website. *Samuel Preston Bayard recorded Charles S Brink singing ''Willie Taylor'' in Smicksburg Pennsylvania in 1948.Samuel Preston Bayard Folklore Recordings (YouTube) Charles S. Brink #5 (at 3:12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhURGNBfYyU&t=1540s Retrieved 2017/03/10

Recordings by Revival Singers and Groups

Hedy West, John Faulkner and

Sandra Kerr Sandra Kerr (born 14 February 1942, Plaistow, Essex) is an English folk singer. Kerr sings and plays English concertina, guitar, Appalachian dulcimer and autoharp. She was a member of The Critics Group from 1963–1972. With John Faulkner, she ...

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and

Barry Dransfield Barry Dransfield (born 1947 in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire), is an English folk singer, fiddler, cellist and guitarist. He has appeared as a session musician on numerous albums by other artists, and has released his own albums as well. ' ...

Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such as ...

Frankie Armstrong Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to m ...

, June Tabor and Martin Simpson,

Swan Arcade Swan Arcade were a British folk music vocal group formed in 1970. "A leading light of the British folk revival" they sang a wide variety of songs, including blues, pop and rock and roll, as well as traditional folk music, mostly performed a cap ...

Jo Freya Jo Freya (born 4 December 1960) is an English saxophonist, clarinettist and singer. She was born Jo Fraser, but changed her name to Jo Freya as a condition of joining the actors' union Equity, which does not allow two of its members to share the s ...

, Bram Taylor, Hen Party,

Magpie Lane Magpie Lane is an English folk group, based in Oxford, England. The musicians of Magpie Lane first came together in the winter of 1992–93 to record ''The Oxford Ramble'', a collection of songs and tunes from, or about, Oxfordshire. Originally ...

, Malinky, Patterson Jordan Dipper, The Cecil Sharp Centenary Collective, Jim Moray,

Jon Boden Jon Boden (born 17 March 1977) is a singer, composer and musician, best known as lead singer and main arranger of Bellowhead. His first instrument is the fiddle and he is a proponent of "English traditional fiddle style" and also of "fiddle si ...

, Hannah James and Sam Sweeney, Iona Fyfe, Alex Cumming and Nicola Beazley, The Voice Squad,

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, and Rosie Hood have all recorded versions of the song.Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music https://mainlynorfolk.info/joseph.taylor/songs/boldwilliamtaylor.html Retrieved 2017/03/10

In other media

*A version is performed by Sean Dagher at the taverns in the video game '' Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag''.

References

English folk songs Songs about marriage Songs about sailors Songs about fictional male characters Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown Folk ballads Year of song missing Murder ballads 18th-century songs {{song-stub