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> Martyn Wyndham-Read > Songs > The Île de France

The Isle of France / Île de France

[ Roud 1575 ; Master title: The Isle of France ; Ballad Index PASB024 ; VWML HAM/2/8/17 ; Bodleian Roud 1575 ; GlosTrad Roud 1575 ; Wiltshire 139 , 1087 ; trad.]

Alan Helsdon: Vaughan Williams in Norfolk Vaughan Williams in Norfolk Volume 2 Katie Howson: Blyth Voices Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger: Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

Isle of France (i.e. Mauritius) is a ballad about a convict being shipwrecked on the way back home from his transportation sentence.

Nic Jones recorded Isle of France for his 1977 album The Noah’s Ark Trap. A live performance from the late 1970s was included in 2006 on his Topic CD Game Set Match.

In 1981, Martyn Wyndham-Read sang this song as The Île de France on his album Emu Plains—on which he was accompanied by Nic Jones playing the fiddle, but not on this song. A.L. Lloyd noted:

One of the many songs of the transportation of convicts to the penal settlements of New South Wales or Tasmania in the earlier years of the nineteenth century. This one is different from most in that the convicted man has finished his sentence and is shipwrecked on his way home. The song has every appearance of being made in Ireland rather than in Australia, and was known on this side of the world, appearing in W. Percy Merrick’s Folk-Songs From Sussex (1912), Other versions have turned up in Somerset and Yorkshire (Leeds). This set—or the tune and the opening verse—was collected by Ron Edwards in Cairne, Queensland. Martyn got it from Edwards’ Big Book of Australian Folksong, a grand book published in 1976.

John Wesley Harding also sang this song in 1999 on his Nic Jones tribute album, Trad Arr Jones.

Rachael McShane sang The Isle of France on her and Damien O’Kane’s 2003 EP Old Man in the Moon. They noted:

Rachael learnt this song from the singing of one of her favourite performers, Nic Jones. It tells the story of an unruly Irishman who is transported and ends up washed ashore on the Isle of France. We put this song with a traditional tune called The Orphan which Damien learnt many, years ago from a great fiddle player and ex-member of North Irish band Deanta, Rosie Mulholland.

Susan McKeown sang Shamrock Green in 2004 on her album Sweet Liberty. She noted:

This is a song Nic Jones recorded as Isle of France. Don Meade, who has run be best Irish music series in Manhattan for longer than I’ve lived here, gave me some insight into the title: The ‘Isle of France’ referred to in the song would appear neither a rescuing ship nor the mainland of France but an old name for Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean ceded to Britain by France in the early 19^th century.

Jack Crawford sang The Isle of France in 2008 on his WildGoose CD Pride of the Season. He noted:

This song was collected by Percy Merrick from Henry Hills of Lodsworth, Sussex, in 1900 and published in the Journal of the Folk Song Society the following year. I have augmented Mr Hills’ text with lines taken from broadside examples dated around 1850 that I found in the Bodleian Library’s ballad collections.

‘The Isle of France’ refers to Mauritius, one of the Mascarene Islands that lie in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. In 1598 the Dutch Second Fleet to the Spice Islands, blown off course, discovered the island and named it in honour of Prince Maurits van Nassau, then Stadtholder of the Netherlands. France seized Mauritius in 1715 and later renamed it Île de France. British forces occupied the island in 1810 and it was ceded to Britain after the defeat of Napoleon.

Jackie Oates recorded Isle of France in 2009 for her album Hyperboreans.

Ian King sang Isle of France in 2010 on his Fledg’ling CD Panic Grass & Fever Few.

Magpie Lane sang Isle of France in 2011 on their CD The Robber Bird. A live recording at the Red Lion Folk Club in Birmingham in 2013 was included as Andy Turner’s 28 June 2014 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Kris Drever sang Isle of France in 2013 on his and Éamonn Coyne’s album Storymap.

Tom Brown sang The Isle of France in 2014 on his and Barbara Brown’s WildGoose album of songs collected by Cecil Sharp from retired sea captains Lewis and Vickers in Minehead, Somerset, Just Another Day. He noted:

This song seems to have been a favourite with the broadside printers—it was published regularly, all over the country from the 1840s to the 1880s and has been collected many times. Cpt. Lewis’s version has a particularly haunting tune. The Isle of France was the old name for Mauritius which was ceded to the English by France in post-Napoleonic treaty of 1815. England did a lot of trade with Mauritius because of the sugar plantations, but it was also en route to the penal colonies in Australia. As far as we know the story does not have a basis in fact.

Francy Devine sang Île de France on his 2014 album My Father Told Me. He noted:

I first heard The Isle of France sung by Jack Crawford during a weekend at Bradfield, Sheffield. He recorded it on Pride of the Season (WildGoose Records, 2008). Jack introduced me to the Nic Jones’s version on The Noah’s Ark Trap (1977). When I discovered that the Isle of France, now Mauritius, was a French colony as Île de France, it suggested that it be sung as such. It proved interesting to Breton audiences when sung there so here, piper Loïc Denis and guitarist Marc Jacquier of the band Gwir develop the idea further in a recording made by Marc in Lanester, Lorient.

A.L. Lloyd noted the song in W. Percy Merrick’s Folk-Songs From Sussex (1912) and knew of versions in Somerset and Leeds. The tune and opening verse were collected by Ron Edwards, Cairne, Queensland and published in his Big Book of Australian Folksong (1976).

David Cambridge sang Isle of France on his 2019 CD Songtales. He noted:

One of many transportation songs from the early 19^th century. Unusually the storyline works out quite well for a convict shipwrecked off the shore of [Mauritius] (aka the Isle of France) whilst on his way home from Australia, to complete his sentence. It seems very likely that this song originates from Ireland.

Patterson Dipper sang The Isle of France on their 2021 album Unearthing. They noted:

Transportation as punishment is a frequent topic in traditional song. The Isle of France presents a different perspective reminding us that there were some who came home despite the hardships of the voyage. Not having thought about or played it for a long time James [Patterson] was reminded of it by a question on University Challenge!

Graeme Armstrong sang Isle of France on his 2022 album You Are Free.

The Gigspanner Big Band sang The Isle of France on their 2022 album with Raynor Winn, Saltlines. They noted:

According to The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, this song was sung by Captain Lewis of Minehead, Somerset, although versions have been collected from several areas of England. But as the South West Coast Path starts in Minehead, it is an obvious choice. The Isle of France was an early name for Mauritius.

Lyrics

Nic Jones sings Isle of France

Oh the sky was dark and the night advanced
When a convict came to the Isle of France;
And round his leg was a ring and chain
And his country was of the Shamrock Green.

“I’m from the Shamrock,” this convict cried,
“That has been tossed on the ocean wide.
For being unruly, I do declare,
I was doomed to transport these seven long years.

“When six of them they were up and past
I was coming home to make up the last.
When the winds did blow and the seas did roar
They cast me here on this foreign shore.”

So then the coastguard he played a part
And with some brandy he cheered the convict’s heart:
“Although the night is far advanced
You shall find a friend on the Isle of France.”

So he sent a letter all to the Queen
Concerning the wreck of the Shamrock Green;
And his freedom came by a speedy post
For the absent convict they thought was lost.

“God bless the coastguard,” this convict cried,
“For he’s saved my life from the ocean wide.
And I’ll drink his health in a flowing glass,
And here’s success to the Isle of France.”

Francy Devine sings Île de France

Oh the night was dark and the clouds advanced
When a convict came to the Île de France;
Around his leg he wore a ring and chain
And his country was of the Shamrock Green.

“I am of the Shamrock,” the convict cried,
“Who has been tossed on the ocean wide.
For being unruly, I do declare,
I was doomed to transport for seven long years.”

“When six long years they were been and done,
I was sailing home to make up the one,
When the winds did blow and the seas did roar
And I was cast a stranger on this foreign shore.”

And then the coastguard he played a part
And with some brandy he cheered the convict’s heart.
“Although the night it is far advanced
You have found a friend on the Île de France.”

He wrote a letter all to the Queen
Concerning the wreck of the Shamrock Green;
His freedom came by a speedy post
For the absent convict they thought was lost.

“God bless the coastguard,” the convict cried,
“Who saved my life from the ocean wide.
I’ll drink his health in a flowing glass,
And here’s success to the Île de France.”