In the context of Yankee Doodle, discuss the Early versions of the Origin.
The song was a pre-Revolutionary War song originally sung by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War. It was written at Fort Crailo around 1755 by British Army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh while campaigning in Rensselaer, New York. The British troops sang it to make fun of their stereotype of the American soldier as a Yankee simpleton who thought that he was stylish if he simply stuck a feather in his cap. It was also popular among the Americans as a song of defiance, and they added verses to it that mocked the British and hailed George Washington as the Commander of the Continental army. By 1781, "Yankee Doodle" had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride.According to one account, Shuckburgh wrote the original lyrics after seeing the appearance of Colonial troops under Colonel Thomas Fitch, the son of Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "the current version seems to have been written in 1776 by Edward Bangs, a Harvard sophomore who also was a Minuteman." He wrote a ballad with 15 verses which circulated in Boston and surrounding towns in 1775 or 1776.A bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on July 25, 1999, recognizing Billerica, Massachusetts, as "America's Yankee Doodle Town". After the Battle of Lexington and Concord, a Boston newspaper reported:Upon their return to Boston [pursued by the Minutemen], one [Briton] asked his brother officer how he liked the tune now, – "Dang them", returned he, "they made us dance it till we were tired" – since which Yankee Doodle sounds less sweet to their ears.
The earliest known version of the lyrics comes from 1755 or 1758 (the date of origin is disputed):The sheet music which accompanies these lyrics reads, "The Words to be Sung through the Nose, & in the West Country drawl & dialect." The tune also appeared in 1762 in one of America's first comic operas The Disappointment, with bawdy lyrics about the search for Blackbeard's buried treasure by a team from Philadelphia. An alternate verse that the British are said to have marched to is attributed to an incident involving Thomas Ditson of Billerica, Massachusetts. Ditson attempted to purchase a Brown Bess musket from a British soldier in the 47th Regiment of Foot in Boston in March 1775; after a group of the soldier's comrades spotted the transaction as it was occurring, they tarred and feathered Ditson in order to prevent any such illegal purchases from happening in the future. Ditson eventually managed to secure a musket and fought at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. For this reason, the town of Billerica is called the home of "Yankee Doodle":Another pro-British set of lyrics believed to have used the tune was published in June 1775 following the Battle of Bunker Hill:"Yankee Doodle" was played at the British surrender at Saratoga in 1777. A variant is preserved in the 1810 edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland: Or, The Nursery Parnassus, collected by Francis Douce, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford:
Rensselaer, New York Billerica, Massachusetts Minuteman Bodleian Library Saratoga Boston Battles of Lexington and Concord Connecticut Francis Douce Washington George Washington Gammer Gurton's Garland 47th Regiment of Foot British Army Minutemen French and Indian War Blackbeard The Disappointment West Country drawl & dialect Brown Bess tarred and feathered Thomas Fitch Battle of Lexington and Concord Battle of Bunker Hill Harvard Revolutionary War Fort Crailo Yankee