Jack in the Green
Jack-in-the-Green track 7
Joanne knew this from her time dancing with Minstrels Morris in Kent. When the song first entered the Magpie Lane repertoire, while it was clear it was a modern composed song, none of us knew who had written it. A little while later I discovered that it was in fact composed by Martin Graebe.
You can find the words and music on Martin's own site, at http://martingraebe.me.uk/onewebmedia/Jack.PDF
Martin writes:
This song was written when Cherri and I were living to the East of Exeter in the area that is marked on the Ordnance Survey map as 'Jack in the Green'. We were also drinking fairly often in the pub of the same name and the connection led to the above bit of fantasy based on traditional themes. A number of people have told me at different times that they have heard Jack in the Green described as a traditional song. It was the first of my songs to turn up on the Internet where it was described on the Digital Tradition database as a traditional song. Most recently someone told me about an American CD of pagan music that includes Jack as an example of a traditional pagan song from the British Isles.
Proof, in case any were needed, that you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.
There is a famous photograph of a Jack in the Green and party, taken by the professional photographer Henry Taunt on May Day 1886. Taunt had his shop at 9-10 Broad Street, Oxford, and the party was photographed standing in front of Balliol College, immediately opposite. You can view the photograph on the Oxfordshire History Centre website.
When this photograph was reproduced in the Oxford Mail on May Day 1969, Fred Taphouse, formerly a policeman in Oxford City, but by that date retired and living in Ipswich, identified the participants as:
...Bob Potter, the fiddler of Stanton Harcourt; A. Hathaway with shovel and poker; Tom Dane with money box; John Hathaway, Jnr., as Jack in the Green; Lewis Bensley, the lady with the ladle; Robert Bensley, the Lord of Misrule; H. Bensley, the Fool with the Bladder; and R. Hathaway with money box...
from a detailed article by Keith Chandler, on the Musical Traditions website.