> The Halliard > Songs > The Last Farewell of Frost, Jones & Williams

The Last Farewell of Frost, Jones & Williams

[words trad., music Dave Moran]

This is a broadside song about the transportation of three men for their part in the Chartist Rebellion at Newport, Monmouthshire in 1839. It is from the Halliard’s album The Halliard : Jon Raven; originally published in 1968 and reissued on CD in 1997. Later, this recording was also included in the Halliard’s CD Broadside Songs.

Lyrics

As I walked through the town of Portsmouth
I heard three wretchd men to say:
“Farewell our dearest wives and children;
We can with you no longer stay.

At Monmouth we were tried for treason
Where we was condemned to die.
And rich and poor thrughout the nation
All to save our lives did try.

That fatal day we’ll long remember,
It cause distress in every mind.
It was the third of last November
Eighteen hundred and thirty-nine.

We anxiously each hour expected that we
Some messengers would see.
All to our dismal cells approaching
With the sound of liberty.

But oh, alas, we was mistaken
All our hopes have proved in vain.
And we are banished forwver,
Never to return again.”

They sadly left the town of Portsmouth
To be chained through dreadful gales.
Leaving England far behind them,
Ending their days in New South Wales.