Sean Donnelly delves into the early nineteenth century verse of Samuel Thomson and postulates that ‘Jamie's Drone’ refers to the notorious Jimmy Allen.

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw a renaissance of poetry in the Scots dialect in Ulster. Several of the collections then produced have been republished in a series called “The Folk Poets of Ulster”. Volume III in this series is The country rhymes of Samuel Thompson, the bard of Carngranny 1766-1816 (Bangor 1992), introduced by Ernest McA Scott and Philip Robinson. Carngranny is close to Templepatrick, co Antrim, and Thomson, a schoolmaster, published three collections of verse, in 1793, 1799 and 1806. In the last, Simple poems of a few subjects, he included a poem praising a piper, “Jamie’s Drone”, the subject of which was not, as we might expect, Irish or Scottish, but English. The following is the text from Country rhymes, pp 16-17. JAMIE’S DRONE

1
ATTENTION lend, ye rural train,
Whilst I endeavour to rehearse
The praises o’ a piper swain,
In jingling hame-spun, knotty verse.
3
His melting sounds, his heavenly airs
Wou’d meliorate a heart of stone
‘Twould make a priest forget his prayers;
The inchanting lilt o’ Jamie’s drone.
5
Gude faith sic tours might weel be spar’d,
The silly springs - ’tis easy known,
Are anti-melody compar’d
To the dainty dint o’ Jamie’s drone.
7
Auld I___ n(3) sleepy, slavering coof,
May ever after now sing dumb,
Nor ever mair for wee! creesh’d loof
And drink to fairs and markets come.
9
Had umqu’hile Spence(5) a listener been,
Tho’ weel he knew baith stap and tone,
He’d own’d himsel’ fair dung I ween,
By the lilt o’ modern Jamie’s drone.
2
Nae mair ye bards exulting cra’
‘Bout Orpheus, and Eolian harps,
This chiel can easy ding them a’
At either charming flats or sharps.
4
Then why to Italy ye gents?
‘Tis barefac’d like, and e’en a shame
‘Mang beardless loons to waste our rents,
When better music’s had at hame.
6
M’Laughlin(1) now may spare his brags
An’ that he’s cow’d may frankly own:
M’Donell(2) too, may slit his bags,
And bring sou-la to Jamie’s drone.
8
M’C___b(4) too wi’ tawny buff,
May gae to bed and take his nap;
Ori’ the peet-neuk lie and snuff,
But never mair erect his tap.
10
In short, ye Fidlers, Pipers a’,
Or Highland bred or Irish fellows,
Maun never dare to cheep or bla’
But break your bows and burn your bellows.

11
To deck this charming minstrels brow,
This British Pan(6) o’ modern days,
Gae rustics haste and quickly pou
A never-fading wreath o’ bays.
12
And let it gracefully be plait,
As well he might the samen claim;
And syne we’ll hae the Callan yet
Enlisted wi’ the sons o’ Fame.

For a’ the minstrels far an’ near,
If set in case were joined in one,
Cou’d ne’er pretend I vow and swear,
To the airy screed o’ Jamie’s drone

(1) A well known Scotch Fidler
(2) An eminent Highland Piper
(3) A drowsy Fidler, well known in neighbourhood of T____e P_k
(4) Another snuff-consuming Musician of K___d
(5) An Irish Piper of the last century
(6) The Hero of the Poem was an Englishman.
The reference to “an Irish Piper of the last century” dates the poem to later than 1800.
James Spence, born in Mallow, co Cork, probably in the late 1750s, died in Dublin in 1793.
He is associated in his obituaries with Walker Jackson, the piper-composer of Lisduan,
Balligarry, co Limerick and, more intriguingly, with John Geoghegan, who is claimed to
have regularly visited Jackson. Spence’s fame as an outstanding piper, though an
uncongenial person (to say the least!), lasted into the nineteenth century in his native
Munster. It is interesting to find he was known as far north as Templepatrick.
The Highland piper and the Scottish fiddler mentioned are also likely to have been actual
people. Thomson, though, spelled their surnames in Irish rather than Scottish fashion:
“M’Don[n]ell” for “M’Donald” - Donald MacDonald? - and “M’Laughlin” for
“M’Lachlan”. Thomson could have heard both these musicians when he travelled to
Dumfries in 1794 to meet Robbie Burns, to whom he had dedicated his first book the
previous year (p.xii). Indeed, if the well-known Donald MacDonald was the piper in
question, Thomson could have heard him in Ireland. Keith Sanger mentioned to me that
MacDonald served in Ireland during the 1790s with the Reay Fencibles. Thomson’s
using initials for the two local musicians he disparaged also suggests that they were real
people and alive in 1806.
“Jamie”, then, is likely to have been an actual person; had Thomson to invent a fictional
piper he would almost certainly have made him either Irish or Scottish. Like many Ulster
Scots of his time, he was proud of the two strands running through his heritage, saying of
himself, “... Yet tho’ I’m IRISH all WITHOUT, I’m every item SCOTCH WITHIN” (p.xiv).

• A well known Scotch Fidler
• An eminent Highland Piper
• A drowsy Fidler, well known in neighbourhood of T____e P_k
• Another snuff-consuming Musician of K___d
• An Irish Piper of the last century
• The Hero of the Poem was an Englishman.

The reference to “an Irish Piper of the last century” dates the poem to later than 1800.

James Spence, born in Mallow, co Cork, probably in the late 1750s, died in Dublin in 1793.

He is associated in his obituaries with Walker Jackson, the piper-composer of Lisduan,                  Balligarry, co Limerick and, more intriguingly, with John Geoghegan, who is claimed to have regularly visited Jackson. Spence’s fame as an outstanding piper, though an                              uncongenial person (to say the least!), lasted into the nineteenth century in his native                     Munster. It is interesting to find he was known as far north as Templepatrick.

The Highland piper and the Scottish fiddler mentioned are also likely to have been actual people. Thomson, though, spelled their surnames in Irish rather than Scottish fashion: “M’Don[n]ell” for “M’Donald” - Donald MacDonald? - and “M’Laughlin” for

“M’Lachlan”. Thomson could have heard both these musicians when he travelled to Dumfries in 1794 to meet Robbie Burns, to whom he had dedicated his first book the previous year (p.xii). Indeed, if the well-known Donald MacDonald was the piper in question, Thomson could have heard him in Ireland. Keith Sanger mentioned to me that MacDonald served in Ireland during the 1790s with the Reay Fencibles. Thomson’s using initials for the two local musicians he disparaged also suggests that they were real people and alive in 1806.

“Jamie”, then, is likely to have been an actual person; had Thomson to invent a fictional piper he would almost certainly have made him either Irish or Scottish. Like many Ulster Scots of his time, he was proud of the two strands running through his heritage, saying of himself, “... Yet tho’ I’m IRISH all WITHOUT, I’m every item SCOTCH WITHIN” (p.xiv).

Given that the piper was an Englishman, and that the difference between “Jamie” and

“Jimmy/Jemmy” is so slight, the obvious candidate for being Thomson’s hero was the (in)famous Northumbrian piper Jimmy Allan. Thomson could have heard Allan on his home territory while visiting Scotland, but Jimmy was himself in Ireland at some point. Dublin, however, is the only place mentioned in The History of Jimmy Allan. He claimed to have earned up to 10 a week there, having been set up as a professional musician by a gentleman he met on the ship from Whitehaven. But Allan’s failure to mention any other place in Ireland does not automatically imply that he did not travel elsewhere in the country. In fact, having sailed from Whitehaven in Cumberland, he may have landed in the north of Ireland and travelled south to Dublin. (We may wonder if, on a previous visit to Whitehaven, Allan even met the subject of the following notice in the Dublin Evening Post, 2 January 1795; “MARRIAGE, - 29th ult. at Whitehaven, Mr O'Neill, Irish Linen dealer (and well known for his performance on the union bagpipes) to Mrs Martha Hartley, widow of that place. And on Monday morning, about two o’clock, the said Mr O’Neill died! his bride having been once a wife and twice a widow in the space of a week!)”.

While “Jamie’s Drone” was composed (or at least completed) after 1800, there is nothing to say that Thomson had not encountered Allan a number of years previously. But if they had met before 1800, Thomson would surely have included “Jamie’s Drone” in his 1799              collection. In any event the meeting must have been before 1803, when, as is well known, Allan stole one horse too many and was imprisoned in Durham Gaol. Subsequently he was transferred to the House of Correction, where a milder regime prevailed, but died there in               November 1810. His death was noticed in the Waterford Mirror, 1 December 1810: “Died Tuesday se’nnight, at Durham House of Correction, Jas. Allan, the Duke’s piper, etc”.

A bewildering number of wives and mistresses appear in the pages of The History of Jimmy Allan. But those names did not include the following, who, to judge from her reputed age, could have been Allan’s first wife. Her obituary appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine, April 1830, p.380:

DEATHS... NORTHUMBERLAND. - At Rothbury, aged 100 years, Tibby Allan, widow of the notorious Northumberland piper Jemmy Allan, who terminated a life of singular    adventure, vicissitude and crime, in Durham Gaol about twenty years ago.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. “Jamie’s Drone” is published by kind permission of Pretani Press. For help with this article I also wish to thank Anne Moore, the Bagpipe Museum, Morpeth Chantry, and Robbie Hannan, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, co.

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