Quote or Proverb: My boys trust in the Lord, and keep your powder dry (antedating 1832 February 28)

[Garson O'Toole]

Yesterday, Jonathan Lighter mentioned the phrase "In God we trust -
everybody else cash." The phrase below resonated in my memory:

Put your trust in God, and keep your powder dry.

This expression appears in the Proverbs section of the Oxford
Dictionary of Quotations, and the entry points to a quotation from the
ballad ‘Oliver's Advice’ by Valentine Blacker:

Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.

ODQ specifies a date of 1856. The Yale Book of Quotations also has
this quotation and traces it back to 1834. Both references note that
the phrase is attributed to Oliver Cromwell.

OED (August 2010) contains a pertinent phrase under the headword powder (noun):

Phrases P1. e. to keep one's powder dry: to adopt a practical or
realistic policy; to act prudently or cautiously; to be on the alert.
[With allusion to words attributed (apparently originally in quot.
1834) to Oliver Cromwell:

1834    W. Blacker Oliver's Advice in E. Hayes Ballads of Ireland
(1855) I. 192   The Pow'r that led great William, Boyne's reddening
torrent thro',—In his protecting aid confide, and every foe defy—Then
put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.


Here are selected citations for the saying starting in 1832.

Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
Date 1832 February 28
Topic: Education-Ireland
Speaking: The Earl of Radnor

On that occasion, Mr. Archdal concluded his speech by saying, "My
friends, I will now only add the words used by Oliver Cromwell to his
army, when marching through a ford—"My boys trust in the Lord, and
keep your powder dry."


Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
Date 1832 April 16
Topic: Affray at Newtownbarry-Captain Graham
Speaking: The Marquis of Clanricarde

As a sample of the spirit in which persons belonging to those
Associations conducted themselves, he need only refer to an address
delivered lately at a great conservative meeting by a Mr. Archdale, a
clergyman too, he believed. The Christian spirit of this address might
be judged of when he informed the House that the speaker exhorted his
hearers "to put their trust in God and keep their powder dry."


Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
Date 1832 July 26
Topic: Parliamentary Reform-Bill for Ireland-Committee
Speaking: The Duke of Richmond

Why, at one of the meetings in the north of Ireland, he understood
this was the language used:—" My boys, keep the Bible safe in your
hands, and take care that your powder is dry."


Switching focus to the colonies in 1833, here is a quotation
attributed to Cromwell that refers to an older form of weaponry,
pikes. This excerpt also includes a version using gunpowder instead of
powder:

Cite: 1833 May 27, Adams Sentinel, Cromwell's Oratory, Page 3,
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (NewspaperArchive)

Cromwell's Oratory -- "Trust in the Lord, and rely on your pikes," was
on one occasion Cromwell's address to his soldiers on going into
battle. On another occasion his general address was, "Trust in the
Lord, and keep your gunpowder dry."


Switching focus to Dublin, here is an instance of "Oliver's Advice"
published in 1834:
Cite: 1834 December, The Dublin University magazine, Oliver's Advice,
Page 700, Number XXIV, Volume IV, Dublin, Ireland, William Curry, Jun.
and Company. (Google Books full view)

OLIVER'S ADVICE
ADAPTED TO "THE TIMES THAT BE."

The night is gathering gloomily, the day is closing fast—
The tempest flaps his raven wing in loud and angry blast;
The thunder clouds are driving athwart the lurid sky—
But, "put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry."*

* There is a well-authenticated anecdote of Cromwell. On a certain
occasion when his troops were about crossing a river to attack the
enemy, he concluded an address, couched in the usual fanatic terms in
use among them, with these words—"put your trust in God; but mind to
keep your powder dry."

(The above footnote is from the 1834 publication.)

Garson

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