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Jack's Listed i' the Ninety-Ite
Last updated: 22.01.22
This is a fine Geordie song written by Joe Wilson and published in his Tyneside Songs and Drolleries about a scoundrel, Jack by name, who was a disgrace to himself, his friends and his relations. A measure of the man was that although he knew he could not keep a wife, he married one anyway or as the song goes he took one oot of spite. After marriage both his wife's mother and his wife herself had to keep him! Despite the weakness of his character, he appears to have been well liked indeed loved. On enlisting in the "Ninety-Ite" (the Geordie expression for the 98th (Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot which was in existence from 1824 to 1881), his long-suffering Meg Dawson wept for him and his friends and relations would have bought him out were they not so poor. And as the song goes they wish that But bad as he is they may dee him good 'n' mek a man i' the ninety ite. A great song indeed.
It is quite possible that the old time music hall performer Charles Ernest Catcheside-Warrington performed this song as he published it in his Tyneside Songs Volume 2.
Jack's Listed i' the Ninety-Ite is sung to the tune of Doran's Ass or Finnegan's Wake.
This song may be found in the Tyneside Maritime Chorus songbook