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In Rochester City

Steve Turner sang In Rochester City in 2023 on his Tradition Bearers album Curious Times. He noted:

Nick Dow spent the lockdown editing two books of lesser-known songs from Hampshire and Dorset from the Hammond & Gardiner collection and this comes from the Southern Songster which brightened up my life during those dark days. This apparently unrecorded song comes from the singing of my heroine, the great Dorset singer Marina Russell in 1907. The earliest reference to it is in 1805 in the EFDSS archive.

Lyrics

Steve Turner sings In Rochester City

In Rochester City a fair maid did dwell,
For wit and for beauty none could her excel.
Admired she was, had many’s the sweetheart,
One youth above any, he loved her so well.
This gallant young lad he was a brisk sailor,
Many years he’d been sailing the watery main;
The enemy insulted our British flag royal,
The enemy insulted our British flag royal,
For some months to go, for some months to go,
For some months I must go for to face them again.

It’s early one morning as day it was dawning,
This sweet pretty fair one a message was sent.
Was writ in these words, “My love don’t you be grieving,
’Tis you and you only constant I’ll be.
There’s many a fair maid I’ll meet there’s no doubt of
While our ship she at Plymouth in harbour do lay.
No-one will entice me to think on another,
No-one will entice me to think on another,
When I am away, When I am away,
And I hope, my dear Sally, you’ll do so by me.

“Farewell, my dear Sally till next time I meet you,
Our ship’s bound for India and ready to sail.
It’s early tomorrow our ship she’s appointed,
All hands must be ready to go and set sail.
May the heavens protect you until our next meeting,
But I hope maybe soon when the wars are all o’er.
And then, my dear Sally, we will be united,
And then, my dear Sally, we will be united,
In sweet harmony, in sweet harmony,
And lead our lives happy and safe on the shore.”