How monkey murder brought British coastal towns together
A less publicised monkey association, if one no less well known in the North-east of Scotland, stems from a folk song called The Boddamers hung the Monkey-O.
It describes how a monkey survived a shipwreck off the village of Boddam near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The villagers could only claim salvage rights if there were no survivors from the wreck, so they allegedly hung the monkey.
Fiona-Jane Brown, a folklorist at the University of Aberdeen's Elphinstone Institute, is carrying out research on the areas of belief and identity in North-east Scotland, the Outer Hebrides and mainland Shetland.
Aware of the link between the Aberdeenshire village and Hartlepool's own monkey-hanging myth, she decided to delve deeper into how each legend grew.
"The historical and cultural journey of the song is absolutely fascinating," she said. "The first mention of the Boddam legend can be dated back to 1772 when a shipweck of the Annie is said to have taken place on the Buchan coast, which is recalled in one version of The Boddamers Hung the Monkey-O song."
"That was followed by the Scottish ballad The Monkey Barber, which was published in 1825 in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The story centers on a barber's pet monkey who is mistaken by an Irish farmer for the barber himself and demands to be shaved."
The core of the song appeared to travel south, as just two years later a similar tale appeared in Allan's Tyneside Songs. Called The Sandhill Monkey, it tells of how a labourer mistakes a monkey for a local shopkeeper. That same year, a song about a baboon appeared in Thomas Armstrong's Newcastle Song Book.
And it is this ditty which is thought to have spawned the Hartlepool song, thus embedding the monkey myth in the local culture.
Fiona-Jane explained: "According to the urban legend, the Tyneside baboon was a pet of some Russian Cossacks who had visited the area during the Napoleonic Wars. They dressed the beast in uniform but it escaped and caused confusion among the locals."
Historians have suggested that the tale inspired Tyneside music hall star Ned Corvan to pen The Hartlepool Monkey song as part of his act around 1854.
But according to Fiona-Jane, Corvan's song also retained whole lines from the original Boddam version and used the same tune, The Tinkers' Waddin'.
She said: "The Baboon song was still very popular at the time, but it's likely that Corvan may have also toured in Scotland and heard the Boddam Monkey song, which was probably well-known amongst fishermen on both coasts.