Annotation:Unfortunate Jock

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UNFORTUNATE JOCK. AKA - "Unfortunate Joak." Scottish, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The melody appears in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle), inscribed “A Collection of Country Dances for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734;” it also appears in the 1768 Gillespie Manuscript of Perth with the same title (Unfortunate Jock). English publications such as John Johnson's A Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (London, 1744), John Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing-Master. Volume the Fifth (London, 1754), and David Rutherford's Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1756), give the title as "Unfortunate Joak."

"Unfortunate Joak" was included in an American musical manuscript written by Samuel W. Watkins [1], born in the Mississippi Territory ca. 1794, who was a soldier in the U.S. Army Military Corps in the War of 1812. It is possible that Watkins participated in the Battle of New Orleans, as there is reference to both General Jackson and to New Orleans in the ms., which contains mostly British dance tunes.

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