Such a Parcel of Rogues: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation" is a bitter Scottish protest against the Union of 1707, accusing the members of Scotland's parliament of trading the nation away for English money.[1] Its words and melody appeared together in the fourth volume of James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, published in Edinburgh in 1792.[2] William Stenhouse's notes on the Museum, issued as a separate book in 1853, count the song among Burns's "unclaimed" pieces and add that Burns had sent in the tune with a note suggesting that verses by Dr Blacklock could be sung to it as well, though Johnson dropped them for want of room on the plate.[3] The air itself is older: under the title "A Parcel of Rogues in the Nation" it turns up in the mid-eighteenth-century tune collections of William McGibbon and James Oswald, and the scholar Samuel Bayard heard in it a version of "The Boyne Water."[3][4] Burns never acknowledged the song himself, and Robert Chambers went so far as to place it in his Scottish Songs Prior to Burns.[1] A copy of the text is held in the National Trust for Scotland's collections, catalogued with Burns as its author, and James Hogg reprinted the song in his Jacobite Relics of Scotland.[5][6]

Silver coin showing the profile of Queen Anne with the inscription ANNA DEI GRATIA

John Croker, Queen Anne proof shilling, silver, 1707. A silver shilling of Queen Anne struck in 1707, the year of the Union the song protests; the coin has no connection to the song.

The bribery charge at its heart was long hard to prove; Chambers noted that no firm evidence of payments was known in his day, though details of money paid at the time of the Union have since come to light.[1] In the folk revival, Ewan MacColl sang it on The Jacobite Rebellions, a 1962 Topic Records album with Peggy Seeger accompanying him.[7] A more recent recording is by Fiona Forbes of the Sangsters, on the Greentrax album Sharp and Sweet (2000).[1]

Dulcimer players can find it in From Ditties To Dirges by Janene Millen and Shawn McCurdy, a download of 31 tunes, most at intermediate level, with 30 of its arrangements in DAD tuning and one in DAC; it includes historical notes and playing tips, a separate PDF of each song and MP3 demo tracks.[8]

Our book that contains the song "Such a Parcel of Rogues"

Sources

  1. Scots Language Centre: "Sic a Parcel of Rogues".
  2. Internet Archive: "The Scots Musical Museum, Volume 4 (James Johnson, 1792)".
  3. Internet Archive: "William Stenhouse, Illustrations of the Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland (1853)".
  4. Traditional Tune Archive: "Parcel of Rogues (1)".
  5. National Trust for Scotland Collections: "Such a parcel of rogues in a nation - A Song".
  6. National Library of Scotland: "Jacobite Relics of Scotland, Page 56: Such a parcel of rogues in a nation".
  7. Mainly Norfolk: "Ewan MacColl: The Jacobite Rebellions".
  8. Janene Millen And Shawn McCurdy: "From Ditties To Dirges".
  9. Image: John Croker, Queen Anne proof shilling, silver, 1707. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song