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A country dance and tune which was extremely popular both in England and in America.

In the latter country it appears, for example, on page 28 of a dance MS of the Pepperell, Massachusetts, maid Nancy Shepley, c. 1766, and in the music manuscript copybook of Henry Livingston, Jr. (as "Colledge Hornpipe," set for the German flute). Livingston purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery's invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Quebec from British control.

An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a poet and musician, and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly's dancing season of 1774–1775, along with his 3rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York.

Carr published in America the tune in Philadelphia publishers Benjamin and Samuel Carr's Evening Amusement (p. 15) about August, 1796, and a version was entered into the music manuscript copybook of musician M.E. Eames, frontispiece dated Aug. 22nd, 1859 (p. 39). Some fifty years following Eames, the tune was still popular for New England dances. Burchenal (1918) printed another contra dance of the same name to the tune, as Howe (c. 1867) did earlier. A variant is familiar to most modern people as the theme to the mid-20th century cartoon "Popeye the Sailor Man." See also note for "Annotation:Sailor's Hornpipe (1)."

In England, musicologist William Chappell's editor concluded that it could not date from earlier than the second half of the 18th century, however Hornby finds a version in the music manuscript collection of Edward Winder dated as 1746, where it appears as "Sailor's Hornpipe"^[1]. Chappell himself believed that the tune was an old sailor's song called "Jack's the Lad."

The melody became particularly associated with the nautical hornpipe type of dance which became popular solo step-dance on the stage at the end of the 18th century, and, in fact, it is popularly known as "The Sailor's Hornpipe" today. One of the earliest publications of the tune appears in a volume entitled Compleat Tutor for the German Flute, published by Jonathan Fentum, London, c. 1766, the same year as Nancy Shepley's American dance MS. Another early British printing appears (as "Colledge Hornpipe") in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 120 Favourite Hornpipes (London, Charles and Samuel Thompson c. 1764–1780.) and the title was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1798 by J. Dale, London, as "The College Hornpipe."

William Vickers included the tune in his music manuscript collection under the title "Old Lancashire Hornpipe," and the tune is contained in the 19th century Joseph Kershaw manuscript (it appears twice, as "Duke William's Hornpipe" and "Collidge Hornpipe"). Kershaw was a fiddle player who lived in the remote area of Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England, who compiled his manuscript from 1820 onwards, according to Jamie Knowles. Ken Perlman (1996) dates the tune to the 17th century or earlier and states that it was used by Henry Purcell (c. 1658–1695) in his opera Dido and Aeneas. Perlman does not cite any substantiating data, nor where he obtained this information, and at present his assumption seems unlikely.

There is, or was, an English country dance called College Hornpipe. Some years after novelist (and musician) Thomas Hardy's book Under the Greenwood Tree was published, a man wrote to Hardy about the country dances that Hardy used as a setting for his characters. Hardy replied (c. 1925):

I am interested to hear that you have been attracted by the old English dances, which gave me so much pleasure when I was a boy. The dance I was thinking of in "Under the Greenwood Tree" must have been "The College Hornpipe", as that is the only one I remember beginning with six-hands-round. I am sending you the figure as nearly as I can recall it sixty years after I last danced in it. This and other such figures have been revived on the stage here by 'The Hardy Players' (as they call themselves) since they began making plays out of my stories. Only very old country people remember the dances now. I have many such figures in old music books.

...more at: The College Hornpipe - full Score(s) and Annotations

↑ Hornby, The Winders of Wyresdale, p. 149.

[1] Hornby, The Winders of Wyresdale, p. 149.

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