> Folk Music > Songs > Jan Knuckey

Jan Knuckey

[trad.]

The Witches of Elswick sang Jan Knuckey in 2005 on their second and last album, Hell's Belles. They commented in their liner notes:

Bry learnt this from the singing of Brenda Wootton. It tells the tale of a Cornish miner who tries it on with a rather wealthy local lady, but she's not having any of it. He's hard, but she's harder.
Cornish lesson: Bal = a mine; Durns = doorposts.

Brenda Wootton's version can be found on her posthumous anthology Brenda Wootton (1996).

Lyrics

The Witches of Elswick sing Jan Knuckey

Chorus (after each verse):

Johnny will you come along now,
Oh, Johnny will you wait for a while;
Oh, come along John with your big boots on,
Johny will you wait for a while.

Jan Knuckey was a miner bold
That ever went to bal,
And surely could good wrestle too
And throw a tidy fall.

Now down along to Church-Town lived
A fine and spanking dame;
Oh, she was pure stout and so was her purse,
Aunt Gracey was her name.

Now Jan got his courage one day
To speak his mind to Grace,
But when he got inside the door
He did not have the face.

Then he said, “I do ye love,
When shall us be asked out?
Leave you and me keep company.”
But the answer was a clout!

“Oh let us have no fuss,” said Jan,
“And don't you take amiss,
I thought I ask before we part
You leave me of a kiss.”

Well, Gracey's dander now was up
She screeched and howled by turns
An she took poor Johnny by the neck
And she'd thrown him through the durns!

Links

For a much longer Cornish version, see the Mudcat Cafè thread Lyr/Tune Add: Jan Knuckey.