A bawbee was a Scottish
halfpenny. The word
means, properly, a
debased copper coin,
equal in value to a
half-penny, issued in
the reign of James V of
It was metaphorically used for a fortune by Sir Alexander Boswell, the son of the more famous James Boswell, the biographer of Dr. Johnson. It occurs in the song of Jennie’s Bawbee
Quoth he, "My goddess,
nymph, and queen,
Your beauty dazzles
baith my e'en",
But deil a beauty had he
seen
But Jennie’s bawbee
Sir Alexander took the hint of his song from a much older one:-
A' that e'er my Jeanie
had,
My Jeanie had, my Jeanie
had,
A' that e'er my Jeanie
had
Was ae bawbie
There's your plack, and
my plack,
And your plack, and my
plack,
And Jeanie's bawbie.
Brewer's
lists "Jenny's Bawbee"
as meaning a "marriage
portion".
The term
"bawbee" was still being
used in Lowland Scots in
the 20th Century, and
may still be in minor
use somewhere.