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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
Silver buckles on his knee.
He'll come back and he'll marry me,
He's my Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe.
Bobby Shaftoe went to sea,
Silver buckles on his knee.
He'll come back and he'll marry me,
He's my Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe.
Bobby Shaftoe's bright and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair,
He's my ain for evermair,
He's my Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
Bobby Shaftoe is one of those nursery rhymes with a genuine historical figure at its centre. The most widely accepted candidate is Robert Shafto (1732–1797), a Northumberland landowner and Member of Parliament for County Durham. Shafto was celebrated for his remarkable physical beauty — he was known locally as "Bonny Bobby Shafto" — and the song is thought to have been written by a young woman who loved him.
The woman most often identified as the author is Bridget Bellasyse of Brancepeth Castle, who is said to have pined for Shafto during his absences and eventually died of a broken heart when he married another woman, Anne Duncombe, in 1774.
The "silver buckles at his knee" is a detail that speaks to Shafto's wealth and fashionable dress — knee breeches with silver buckles were a mark of gentility in the eighteenth century. The repeated assurance "he'll come back and marry me" reads with touching poignancy given that, historically, he did not.
The song exists in both English and Scots versions, and has been collected across Northumberland and Lowland Scotland. It is one of the clearest examples of a nursery rhyme that began as an adult love song — or lament — and gradually migrated into the repertoire of children's songs through the broadside ballad tradition.
Our recording brings a wry humour to the piece, with spoken interjections suggesting the increasingly exasperated perspective of the woman left behind.
