The tune known as “Jefferson and Liberty” is thought to have evolved from the jig, ‘An Gobbi O’ (in Irish) or ‘The Gobby O’ translating roughly into ‘The Mouthy Boy’, which is #105 in O’Neill’s 1001: The Dance Music of Ireland. The lyrics were composed by ornithologist, painter, and poet, Alexander Wilson, in celebration of Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 inauguration as president, and in protest of the Alien and Sedition Acts signed into law by President John Adams in 1798. In Wilson’s notebook, the tune given is “Vive la souverain People” — not a tune we have been able to find any mention of elsewhere — and when it was published in the Aurora Magazine in January 1801, the suggested tune was “Willie Was a Wanton Wag“. It is not clear when the present melody picked up the title.

Other suggested etymologies for the “Gobby O” title include a corruption of “Gaberlunzie Boy” (gaberlunzie being a medieval Scots word for a licensed beggar) and a claim that “gobby-stick” is a term for a fife or flute.

Several versions of the lyrics have been published. Here is one version: