Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
The Death of Queen Jane (Child No. 170) - Sung by Duncan Williamson, a Traveller of Furnace, Argyllshire, Scotland, later settled in Fife. He learned it from his grandmother Bett MacColl in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Kintyre. Recorded by John D. Niles in October 1987 at a rented house outside Ithaca, New York.
The original recording can be heard here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AB34LE2XNHS5FC8O
A biography of Duncan Williamson can be read here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/4292?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it's well worth your time if you're interested in Duncan Williamson's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Note by Kevin W.:
This song enjoyed some popularity among Scottish Travellers but always in a condensed form that leaves out much of the story.
Duncan was quite emotional about singing it, sometimes being unable to finish it without breaking down. Not because of the story but because he strongly associated this song with the singing of his mother.
Quite interestingly the mispronunciation of "immediately" was not limited to Duncan's version. Bertrand Harris Bronson printed a text sung by a Mrs. Alex Muir who learned it from a Lanarkshire source, 1845, that displays a similar distinction:
Her mither was sent for and immenjently came,
And she sat at the bedside along with Queen Jean;
'O mither, dear mither, if mither ye be,
O send for my faither to come and see me!'
Song transcription:
DW: Well, I thought you were going to talk about one I've never done for you, "Queen Jane." That was Henry's mother, that was the first Caesarean birth.
JN: Let's hear about Queen Jane.
DW: Well, she was, she was — [very short break in the recording] — of Henry, King Henry. Henry the Eighth, I think it was. And, eh, this is what she said:
She said, "Mother, dearest Mother,
Will you do one thing for me?
Will you send for my father
For to come and see me?
For my two sides are weary,
And my back it is sae sair.
For I never had a wink o sleep
For three weeks or mair."
So her father he was sent for,
And immediately he came.
Sitting down by her bedside—
"What ails you, my queen?"
"Oh, my two sides are sae weary,
And ma back it is sae sair.
And I never had a wink o sleep
For three weeks or mair.
Oh Father, dearest Father,
Will you do one thing for me?
Will you send for my doctor,
For to come and see me?"
So her doctor he was sent for,
And immediately he came.
Setting down by her bedside —
"What ails you, my queen?"
"Oh, my two sides are weary,
And my back it is sae sair.
And I never had a wink o sleep
For three weeks or mair.
Oh doctor, dearest doctor,
Will you do one thing for me?
Will you open my two sides
And free my baby?"
So her sides they were opened
And her baby was free.
But poor queen Jane —
Oh, she passed away.
DW: That was the first Caesarean birth that ever was. Doctor opened up her side — she couldn"t have the baby, so he opened up her side and took the baby out. But — the baby lived, but she died. That's a true story.
JN: That's true. That's true.
DW: Yeah.
JN: That's the way the song tells the story, but —
DW: My granny used to sing that.
JN: Oh, she—your granny sang that?
DW: My granny taught me that.
JN: Granny MacDonald?
DW: Ah, no, Granny McColl.
JN: Granny McColl.
DW: Right. No, Granny MacDonald never sang these songs. She told little stories and cracks, and wee things, you know. She never sung any. But Big Bett McColl sung all the time, yeah.
[In the recording from which this part is excerpted, Williamson goes on to tell how his father and mother used to stay with Bett MacColl and her estranged husband Willie Williamson outside the village of Tarbert, Kintyre, when his family first set out on the road each spring.]
The Death of Queen Jane (Child No. 170) - Sung by Duncan Williamson, a Traveller of Furnace, Argyllshire, Scotland, later settled in Fife. He learned it from his grandmother Bett MacColl in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Kintyre. Recorded by John D. Niles in October 1987 at a rented house outside Ithaca, New York.
The original recording can be heard here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AB34LE2XNHS5FC8O
A biography of Duncan Williamson can be read here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/4292?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it's well worth your time if you're interested in Duncan Williamson's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Note by Kevin W.:
This song enjoyed some popularity among Scottish Travellers but always in a condensed form that leaves out much of the story.
Duncan was quite emotional about singing it, sometimes being unable to finish it without breaking down. Not because of the story but because he strongly associated this song with the singing of his mother.
Quite interestingly the mispronunciation of "immediately" was not limited to Duncan's version. Bertrand Harris Bronson printed a text sung by a Mrs. Alex Muir who learned it from a Lanarkshire source, 1845, that displays a similar distinction:
Her mither was sent for and immenjently came,
And she sat at the bedside along with Queen Jean;
'O mither, dear mither, if mither ye be,
O send for my faither to come and see me!'
Song transcription:
DW: Well, I thought you were going to talk about one I've never done for you, "Queen Jane." That was Henry's mother, that was the first Caesarean birth.
JN: Let's hear about Queen Jane.
DW: Well, she was, she was — [very short break in the recording] — of Henry, King Henry. Henry the Eighth, I think it was. And, eh, this is what she said:
She said, "Mother, dearest Mother,
Will you do one thing for me?
Will you send for my father
For to come and see me?
For my two sides are weary,
And my back it is sae sair.
For I never had a wink o sleep
For three weeks or mair."
So her father he was sent for,
And immediately he came.
Sitting down by her bedside—
"What ails you, my queen?"
"Oh, my two sides are sae weary,
And ma back it is sae sair.
And I never had a wink o sleep
For three weeks or mair.
Oh Father, dearest Father,
Will you do one thing for me?
Will you send for my doctor,
For to come and see me?"
So her doctor he was sent for,
And immediately he came.
Setting down by her bedside —
"What ails you, my queen?"
"Oh, my two sides are weary,
And my back it is sae sair.
And I never had a wink o sleep
For three weeks or mair.
Oh doctor, dearest doctor,
Will you do one thing for me?
Will you open my two sides
And free my baby?"
So her sides they were opened
And her baby was free.
But poor queen Jane —
Oh, she passed away.
DW: That was the first Caesarean birth that ever was. Doctor opened up her side — she couldn"t have the baby, so he opened up her side and took the baby out. But — the baby lived, but she died. That's a true story.
JN: That's true. That's true.
DW: Yeah.
JN: That's the way the song tells the story, but —
DW: My granny used to sing that.
JN: Oh, she—your granny sang that?
DW: My granny taught me that.
JN: Granny MacDonald?
DW: Ah, no, Granny McColl.
JN: Granny McColl.
DW: Right. No, Granny MacDonald never sang these songs. She told little stories and cracks, and wee things, you know. She never sung any. But Big Bett McColl sung all the time, yeah.
[In the recording from which this part is excerpted, Williamson goes on to tell how his father and mother used to stay with Bett MacColl and her estranged husband Willie Williamson outside the village of Tarbert, Kintyre, when his family first set out on the road each spring.]
