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Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries

[ Roud 300 ; Ballad Index FaE034 ; trad.]

Martin Carthy sang this transportation ballad on his 1971 album Landfall. He commented in the record's sleeve notes:

The Bold Poachers and Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries come from roughly the same time in history, being early 19th century transportation songs from Norfolk and Sussex respectively. They convey, along with O'er the Hills (which hails from the late 17th century), something within the simple factual almost journalistic framework of the writing, more than simple resentment at being forced to leave home, proving for me the truth of the maxim, that it's not what a song says, necessarily, but what it does that counts. Thousands of songs have very little apparent, but layers and layers underneath.

Shirley Collins recorded Adieu to All Judges and Juries in 1976 for her album Amaranth.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy sings
Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries		 Shirley Collins sings
Adieu to All Judges and Juries

Here's adieu to all judges and juries!
Justice and Old Bailey, too.
Seven years you've transported my true love,
Seven years he's transported, you know.

Here's adieu to all judges and juries,
Justice and Old Bailey too.
Seven years you have transported my true love,
Seven years he's transported, you know.

Oh, hard is the place of confinement
That leads me from my heart's delight.
Cold irons and chains all bound round me
And a plank for my pillow at night.

Oh, hard is the place of confinement
That keeps me from my heart's delight.
Cold irons and chains all bound round me
And a plank for my pillow at night.

Oh, if I had the wings of an eagle
High up on these pinions I'd fly.
I'd fly to the arms of my true love
And in her soft bosom I'd lie.

If I had the wings of an eagle
I would lend you my wings for to fly.
I would fly to the arms of my Polly
And it's in her soft bosom I'd lie.

Oh, my love she is dark and she's proper,
My love's like the linnet in spring.
Oh the nightingale sleeps in her bosom
And love do fly high on her wing.

Oh if e'er I return from the ocean,
Stores of riches I'll bring for my dear.
And it's all for the sake of my true love,
I will cross the salt seas without fear.

And if e'er I return from the ocean,
Stores of riches I'll bring to my dear.
And it's all for the sake of my Polly,
I will cross the salt seas without fear.

Here's adieu to all judges and juries!
Justice and Old Bailey, too.
Seven years you've transported my true love,
Seven years he's transported, you know.

So adieu to all judges and juries!
Justice and Old Bailey, too.
Seven years you have transported my true love,
Seven years he's transported, you know.

Acknowledgements and Links

Transcribed from the singing of Martin Carthy by Garry Gillard. See also the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Add: Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries.