Sam Hall (song)

"Sam Hall" (Roud 369) is an English folk song about an unrepentant criminal condemned to death for robbing the rich to feed the poor. Prior to the mid-19th century it was called "Jack Hall", after Jack Hall, a thief who was hanged at Tyburn in 1707. Jack Hall's parents sold him as a climbing boy for one guinea, which is why most versions of the song identify Sam or Jack Hall as a chimney sweep.[1]

  1. ^ Roy Palmer: The Sound of History (1988)