279. Says Frohock to Fanning

277-280. Regulator Songs


279

Says Frohock to Fanning

Three Frohocks figure in the history of the Regulation. Thomas
Frohock was clerk of the superior court for the district of Salis-
bury. He produced his commission March 7, 1769.2*' In March
1771 he signed an agreement to return to a committee of Regulators
fees "taken through inadvertency or otherwise over and above what
we severally ought to have taken." John Frohock, as county clerk,
signed the same document. ^^ There is record of a charge of ex-
tortion against William Frohock, sub-sheriff of Rowan county, in
1769.28 Thomas is probably the one referred to in the following
song.

The text below is from Julian P. Boyd, as cited in his note on
'When Fanning First to Orange Came,' with the additional note:
". . . Rednap Howell was a schoolmaster from the North, it is be-
lieved, N. Jersey. He acquired his importance in these troubles
solely from his ability as a writer. He composed the songs which
to the amount of perhaps 40 (for his muse seems to have been
prolific) were sung or rather roared by the Regulators at their
meetings. It is believed those which have already been inserted
were from his pen, and of the others, the following is the only
one I have been able to rescue from oblivion."

1 Says Frohock to Fanning, 'To tell the plain truth,
When I came to this country, I was but a youth.
My father sent for me, I want worth a cross ;
And then my first study was to cheat for a boss.

2 'I quickly got credit and straight ran away
And haven't paid for bim to this very day.'
Says Fanning to Frohock, ' 'Tis a folly to lie ;
I rode an old mare that was blind in one eye.

3 'Five shillings in money I bad in my purse.

My coat it was patched but not much the worse.
But now we've got rich and it's very well known
That we'll do well enough if they'll let us alone.'

Caruthers, writing of events of about 1769, states: "In default
of the payment of taxes, the sheriffs had been going over the coun-

" Colonial Records, viii, 19.
" Ibid., VIII, 521-2.
** Ibid., VIII, 69.

 

NORTH CAROLINA BALLADS 653

try, distraining the goods of the citizens, seizing furniture, cattle,
pewter vessels, or any thing else they chose to lay their hands on,
thereby causing a great deal of distress." He adds in a footnote :
"The following undoubted specimen of Rednap Howel's poetry is
so graphic and contains such a frank expression of the prevailing
sentiments respecting the individuals named in it, that we presume
it will not be unacceptable to the reader."^^ (His text is almost
identical with Boyd's.)

Of the same song, "Regulator," in the Raleigh Register and
North-Carolina Gazette, June 2, 1826, writes: "Having given above
one of the songs ['From Hillsborough Town . . .'] with which the
Regulators used to animate their courage when they were assembled
for business or war, I shall subjoin two others^" — being all that
I have been able to rescue from these devouring jaws of time — of
which their brothers, to the number of twenty or more — the lovely
offspring of the same prolific muse, and their equals in delicacy of
sentiment and grace of diction, were the victims. It is only neces-
sary for me to remark, by way of explanation, that Fanning was
Recorder at Hillsborough, and Frohawk at Salisbury." (He prints
the song as "Canzone I," in two stanzas labeled "Strophe" and
"Antistrophe.")