DERRICK -- A Note

[Robin Hamilton]

On April 17, 1753, at the Tuesday Club in Annapolis, John Wollaston
performed a song which began (as transcribed by Alexander Hamilton), “As I
derrik’d along to dorse on my kin, young Polly the froe-ful I trouted …”

[John Barry Talley, _Secular Music in Colonial Annapolis:  The Tuesday Club,
1745-56_ (University of Illinois Press, 1988), p. 100.]

While the OED has an entry for DERRICK v., in the sense of ‘to hang’, with
one citation from 1600:

ˈderrick, v. -- Etymology:  < derrick n. -- Obs. rare. --   trans. To hang.
1600    W. Kemp Nine Daies Wonder sig. D4,   One that … would Pol his
father, Derick his dad: doe aniething.

{“Derrick” was the surname of the Tyburn Hangman in the early 17th century.}

… there is no entry for the word in the sense used in the song.

GDS is more useful:

derrick v. [DERRICK n1.] 1 to leave; to go.
        1747 Life and Character of Moll King 12: You must tip me your Clout
before I derrick, for my Blos has nailed me of mine.
        1754 G. STEVENS ‘A Cant Song’ Muses Delight 177: As I derick’d along
to doss on my kin / Young Molly the fro-file I touted.

[‘You must give me your handkerchief before I go off, as my woman has taken
mine’ : ‘As I went off to sleep at my place, I saw young Molly, the female
pickpocket’ -- RH]

Both items cited in GDS, from 1747 and 1754, are found together earlier in
_A New flash song-book or the Bowman Priggs delight_, undated, but
conjectured as [c.1710] in the Oxford University Library Catalogue, and
[1725?] in National Library of Australia's online catalogue.

{The date of this text must be at least after 1725, since the final poem in
the 8 page pamphlet is an already-transformed version of “John Sheppard’s
Last Epistle”, published on the front page of The Daily Journal, Monday
November 16th, 1724, the very day Jack Sheppard was hanged.}

BPD, p.5:  “The Bowman Prigg’s Delight.”
            As I derrick’d one darky to dorse in my Pad,
            Young Molly the Fro file I touted …

BPD, p.6:  “A Flash Dialogue between a Fro-file Buttock and a Bowman Prigg.”
           …but hold Moll you must tip me your C[l]out before I derrick for
my Mot has nail’d me of mine …

“Derrick” isn’t included in the “Key to the Flash Dialogue” (p.6), but is
glossed at the end (p. 24) of the _Life and Character of Moll King_ –
“Derrick, to go away”.

So:

post-1725: “derrick” found twice, once in a song, and once in a snatch of
dialogue,  in the _Bowman Priggs delight_.

1747:  The Dialogue is repeated, with an expanded glossary, in the _Life and
Character of Moll King_

1753:  The Song is sung in Annapolis

1754: The Song is found in the _Muses Delight_ (Liverpool)

1756:  _Muses Delight_ is reprinted as _Apollo’s Cabinet_ (Liverpool)

        Any further sightings of Derrick would be gratefully appreciated.

Robin Hamilton

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