Annotation:Lady Hope's Reel
X:1 T:Lady Hopes Reel M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Reel or March S:Thomas Nixon Jr./Joseph Long copybook (c. 1776-78, p. 73) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D d|DF Ad|A2 GF|Ef ed|eE E2|DF Ad|A2 GF| GEAF|D2D2::A|dA dA|de/f/ ed|edef|ef/g/ fe| dA dA|de/f/ ed|Ad ce|d2 d2| dA dA|de/f/ ed|edef|gfed| dB AG|F2 dB|AF GE|D2 D:|]
LADY HOPE'S REEL. AKA and see "Lady Harriet Hope (1)." English, American; Reel, March and Country Dance Tune. The melody was very popular on both sides of the Atlantic. The tune under the "Lady Hope's Reel" title is to be found in a number of American musicians' manuscript copy books of the War of Independence and Federalist periods. Among them are Giles Gibbs' (1760-1780) music manuscript collection of tunes made in Connecticut in 1777 (p. 13r), John (?) Treat's 1779 fife manuscript, William Morris's 1776 commonplace book (Hunterdon County, New Jersey), fifer Thomas Nixon (Danbury, Conn., 1776), and William Patten (1800). It also appears in the 1788 copybook of flute player Thomas Molyneaux of Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Dance instructions for the tune appear in Clement Weeks (Greenland, New Hampshire) manuscript of dance figures, dated 1783. "Lady Hope's Reel" was also entered into the c. 1776-1778 music copybook of fifer Thomas Nixon Jr. [1] (1762-1842), of Framingham, Connecticut. Nixon was a thirteen-year-old who accompanied his father to the battles of Lexington and Concord, and who served in the Continental army in engagements in and around New York until 1780, after which he returned home to build a house in Framingham. The copybook appears to have started by another musician, Joseph Long, and to have come into Nixon’s possession.