Bluegrass Messengers

Recordings & Info: Gil Brenton

CONTENTS:
 
 1) Alternative Titles
 2) Traditional Ballad Index
 3) Folk Index
 4) Child Collection Index
 5) Wiki
  
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
 1) Roud No. 22: Gil Brenton (28 Listings)

Alternative Titles

Gilbrenton
Cospatrick
Lord Bangwell's Adventure
Lord Dingwall
Chil' Brenton
Bothwell
Lord Benwall
Lord Brangwill
The Miraculous Harvest
Aye the Birks A-Bowing
The Little Page Boy

Traditional Ballad Index: Gil Brenton [Child 5]

DESCRIPTION: A lord is preparing to wed. His bride seeks to conceal the fact that she is not a virgin, but the truth -- that she had once slept with a lord in a wood -- comes out. It is then revealed that the man she slept with was her husband-to-be.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1882 (Child)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction trick disguise
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 5, "Gil Brenton" (8 texts)
Bronson 5, Gil Brenton" (3 versions)
Randolph 13, "The Little Page Boy" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune, which Randolph places with "Child Waters" though it also has lines from the "Cospatrick" version of "Gil Brenton" and is so short it might go with something else)
Leach, pp. 59-63, "Gil Brenton" (1 text)
OBB 5, "Cospatrick" (1 text)
PBB 42, "Gil Brenton" (1 text)
DBuchan 1, "Gil Brenton" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
DT, GILBRENT*
Roud #22
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie's Lady" [Child 6] (lyrics)
NOTES: Sir Walter Scott's version of this (Child's B) names the hero "Cospatrick," which Scott lists as the name of the Earl of Dunbar around the time of Edward I of England. The name was still used in Child's time for members of the Dunbar line.
The name, however, is older; there were at least two significant figures named Cospatrick (the spelling of Mitchison, p. 16, Oram, p. 58) or Gospatrick (so Barlow-Edward, p. 137, etc.; Barlow-Rufus, p. 295; Swanton, pp. 202-203) around the time of the Norman Conquest.
The first Cospatrick seems to have been an Anglo-Saxon thegn (thane); he was killed at the court of Edward the Confessor in 1064, although probably not at that king's command (Barlow-Edward, p. 235).
The other Cospatricks were northern Earls; it's not clear how many of them there were. According to Barlow-Edward, p. 235n., an Earl Utrecht of "Northumbria" was murdered in 1016, leaving several sons, Cospatrick being the third. Barlow doubts that this is the same as the preceding, although it is just chronologically possible. The same note mentions another Cospatrick who was with Tostig, the brother of the future King Harold II Godwinson, when Tostig visited Rome in 1061.
There was also a Cospatrick who was Lord of Allerdale and Dalston in the time of Edward the Confessor (Barlow-Edward, p. 137n.). Barlow speculates that this might have been the Cospatrick who was murdered at Edward's court.
Finally, in 1067-1068, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions a Jarl (Earl) Cospatrick who was active in the north of England (Swanton, pp. 202, 204). But, theoretically, the earl of Northumbria at this time was supposed to be Morcar (Morkere), who had been appointed late in the reign of Edward the Confessor.
Northumbria and Cumbria and Lothian were at this time rather debatable properties (England in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest had largely lost control of the north, because William the Conqueror didn't have enough Normans to colonize and control the north; Barlow-William, p. 297). Both Malcolm III King of Scots and the king of England had some claims to these terrotories (the simplest explanation being that Malcolm was their direct overlord but held them as a vassal of the King of England. But Malcolm, who was always fighting the English, probably would not have seen it that way). If this Earl Cospatrick was the same as the preceding, he should perhaps be regarded as Earl of Cumbria rather than Northumberland. Or maybe he was Malcolm's earl, or maybe he ruled the area north of the Tweed. Obviously it is all pretty vague.
Mitchison, p. 16, for instance, mentions a Cospatrick who was apparently a Saxon claimant to one or another northern English earldom in 1069, and whose son held Cumberland until William II of England conquered it in 1092. It was presumably this Cospatrick whose daughter Octreda married Duncan (II), the oldest son of Malcolm III of Scotland (Barlow-Rufus, p. 295; Oram, p. 58). When Malcolm died, he was succeeded by his brother Donald Ban. Duncan in 1094 invaded Scotland and took the throne, but was killed later that year; Octreda and her son William fled to England (Oram, p. 58), where William and descendants later put in an unsuccessful claim to the Scottish throne (the "FitzWilliam" claim).
It seems unlikely that any of this has a genuine connection to the ballad; I mention it mostly to demonstrate the point that there really were a lot of Cospatricks/Gospatricks. It is interesting to note, however, that Cospatrick is said in Child B brought his wife from over the sea. Might this be a sign of the Saxon earl marrying a Norman wife?
Of course, the "Cospatrick" text is Walter Scott's, and seems to be almost unknown in other forms of the ballad. Might this have been Scott's insertion to memorialize a famous local lord?
Again, several instances of the ballad mention violence by the groom against the bride on their wedding night; this sounds much like the Thousand and One Nights, but there is unlikely to be a direct connection. - RBW
---------------------------------------------

Folk Index: Gil Brenton [Ch 5]

At - Gilbrenton

Gilbrenton [Ch 5]

Us - Gil Brenton
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), P 58 [1793] (Gil Brenton)

The Child Collection

005 Cammi Vaughan Gil Brenton Lass of Roch Royal 2005  No
005 Raymond Crooke Gil Brenton <website> 2007 9:27 Yes
 

 ------------------------------

Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs - Page xxv
https://books.google.com/books?id=SbJHAAAAYAAJ
E. B. Lyle - 1975 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 1 The hhst of the two volumes in which Crawfurd's collection is to be published includes the songs from Mary Macqueen (Mrs Storie), the principal singer represented in it, and also those from three other singers who made a sizable contribution, Meg Walker (Mrs Caldwell), William Gemmel and John Smith. Most of the songs printed in this volume were written by Crawfurd himself (those in volume 1 of his collection in pencil and the rest in ink), but there

Andrew Crawfurd's collection of ballads and songs - Volume 2 - Page xvi
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1897976119
Andrew Crawfurd, ‎Emily B. Lyle, ‎Scottish Text Society - 1996 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
Although Mary's birth record has not yet been found, it can now be assumed with reasonable certainty that her mother was indeed Elizabeth Copeland, the wife of Osborn Macqueen, who gave birth to Janet Macqueen in Sorbie in the parish of Whithorn in 1809 or 1810, ' since this record confirms that Osborn Macqueen was married to Elizabeth Copeland not just at the period after he came to Kilbirnie, as was already known, but at an earlier period in Galloway where Mary Macqueen .

Acta Ethnographica Hungarica - Volume 47, Issues 1-2 - Page 158
https://books.google.com/books?id=pbC2AAAAIAAJ
2002 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
bom Mary Macqueen. Although she could read and write, she was - unlike Anna (Gordon) Brown - not particularly well educated. In his detailed account of Mary Macqueen, her family and her local circle, Andrew Crawfurd described her as coming from "a travelling or some such a tinklar family." She served as a maid in Boghead, in the parish of Lochwinnoch, before she married the weaver William Storie in the year 1821 and moved with him and their four children to Canada in 1828

Folk Music Journal - Volume 5, Issues 1-3 - Page 310
https://books.google.com/books?id=LZsJAQAAMAAJ
1985 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
Moreover, Crawfurd described his manuscript as prepared 'in aiding my friend Mr Motherwell for his Minstrelsy, 1827. '22 Harker says, 'The poet Thomas Macqueen . . . was sent by Crawfurd "to Ayr in quest of Ballads", with half a guinea for expenses'. He does not mention that the half guinea, another two guineas mentioned in the same paragraph, and the pound and eighteen shillings mentioned as given to Mary Macqueen all came from Motherwell, who was thus paying the

Fakesong: The Manufacture of British "folksong" 1700 to the Present Day
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0335150667
David Harker - 1985 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
As it happens, we know a little about the people from whom Crawfurd took songs.106 Mary Macqueen was the daughter of a 'travelling or some such tinkler family', and worked for a Boghill 'portioner', whose addresses she spurned in favour of a tailor called Willie Storie. Before the couple and their relatives emigrated to Canada in 1828, Crawfurd 'fished out of her' songs she had learned from her mother (and thus from her grandmother and great- grandmother), from her brothers

Scottish Literary Journal: Supplement - Volumes 1-5 - Page 48
https://books.google.com/books?id=UT-sAAAAIAAJ
1975 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
Mrs Storie had a brother, Thomas Macqueen; and Dr Lyle notes that Motherwell's notebook contains the following item, 'To filling up Macqueen with a pack and dispatching him thro' Ayr and Galloway on the old quest (i.e. for ballads)'. But perhaps Crawfurd was using the term 'tinklar' vaguely, and the Macqueens were not so much travellers in the sense of twentieth-century Towns leys, Robertsons and Higgins'.as displaced artisans of the early capitalist period.

WE WERE SISTERS, WE WERE SEVEN.

This curious legend is one among a considerable number which were copied from the recital of a peasant woman of Galloway, upwards of ninety years of age. They were all evidently productions of a very remote date, and, whatever might be their poetical beauties, were so involved in obscurity as to render any attempt at illustration useless. This tale was preserved as a specimen of the rest, being not only the clearest in point of style, but possessing a character of originality which cannot fail to interest the reader. Though not strictly what may be called a fairy tale, it is narrated in a similar way. The transitions are abrupt, yet artfully managed, so as to omit no circumstance of the story which the imagination of the reader may not naturally supply. The singular character of Billie Blin' (the Scotch Brownie, and the lubbar fiend of Milton) gives the whole an air of the marvellous, independently of the mystic chair, on which the principal catastrophe of the story turns.

In the third volume of Mr. Scott's Border Minstrelsy there is a ballad called " Cospatrick," founded on three more imperfect readings of this ancient fragment, interspersed with some patches of modern imitation. The entire piece is not so long as the present copy, and the supplementary part but ill accords with the rude simplicity of the original. It is like the introduction of modern masonry to supply the dilapidations of a Gothic ruin; the style of architecture is uniform, but the freshness and polish of the materials destroy the effect of the ancient structure, and it can no longer be contemplated as a genuine relique of past ages.

There are many incongruities in Mr. Scott's copy, which it is strange that so able an antiquary could have let pass. For example :—

"When bells were rung, and mass was said,
 And a' men unto bed were gane."

In the Romish service we never heard of mass being said in the evening, but vespers, as in the original here given. Mr. Scott also omits that interesting personage the "Billie Blin," and awkwardly supplies the loss by making the bed, blanket, and sheets speak, which is an outrage on the consistency even of a fairy tale.

------------------------

COSPATRICK.
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

A copy of this Ballad, materially different from that which follows, appeared in "Scottish Songs," 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1792, under the title of Lord Bothwell. Some stanzas have been transferred from thence to the present copy, which is taken down from the recitation of a Lady, nearly related to the Editor. Some readings have been also adopted from a third copy, in Mrs Brown's MS., under the title of Child Brenton. Cospatrick (Comes Patricius) was the designation of the Earl of Dunbar, in the days of Wallace and Bruce.

[12] Carknet—A necklace. Thus:

    "She threw away her rings and carknet cleen."—Harrison's Translation of Orlando Furioso—Notes on book 37th.

MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER:
CONSISTING OF HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC BALLADS,
COLLECTED IN THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES OF SCOTLAND; WITH A FEW OF MODERN DATE, FOUNDED UPON LOCAL TRADITION. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. 1806.

-----------------

Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern by William Motherwell, 1827

Lord Bengwill. [Collected by Andrew Blaikie, Paisley.]

Is not printed in this collection. It is one of the numerous versions which
exist of the ballad known under the titles of Bothwell, Corspatrick, Gil
Brenton, &c. See Herd's Ballads and Border Minstrelsy.

Seven ladies liv'd in a bower,
Hey down and ho down,
And aye the youngest was the flower,
 Hey down and ho down.

-----------------
Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, Hitherto ..., Volume 1
By Peter Buchan, 1828

LORD DINGWALL.
       Page 204.

This ballad has all the insignia of antiquity stamped upon it; and records one of those romantic fashions said to exist in the Highlands of Scotland some hundred years ago. I am not inclined to think that the hero of the piece was any of the Lords Dingwall, although its name would imply as much; but rather a Highland chieftain, or Laird of Dingwall, a royal borough in Ross-shire; if such be the real name of the ballad; of which I am dubious, for Sir Richard Preston was created Lord Dingwall by King James, in 1607, by patent, to the heirs of his body. His only daughter and heir, Lady Elizabeth, married James, the great Duke of Ormond. His grandson, James, second and last Duke, claimed, in 1710, the Scotch honour of Dingwall; for which he was allowed to vote at the election of the sixteen peers the same year. This title was forfeited by his attainder, in 1715. From this we may see, that none of the Lords of Dingwall resided in the Highlands, but most part in England, which confirms my opinion.

In an imperfect copy of a ballad somewhat similar in incident to this one, the hero of the piece is called “Lord Bothwell;” but which of the two is the true title, I am not determined to say.

 __________________________

"Leaves of Lind.', perhaps because the misunderstood phrase. 45. "leas o Lyne" occurs in the version he collected . In this- ballad, the heroine explains to her mother-in-law how she lost her virginity: . '0 we were sisters,, sisters seven. We' was the fairest under heaven. ' Child 5 A sta. 43. This is reminiscent of the opening stanza of The Seven Virgins: '. All under the leaves, and the leaves

--------------

The Nation and Athenæum - Volume 20 - Page 658
https://books.google.com/books?id=jKgxAQAAMAAJ
1916 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
Not a single poem of Sir Thomas Wyatt's, whose “Penitential Psalms” show his poetic faculties at their noblest, most wealthy, and strongest. Only two anonymous poems, and not the most dewy and fragrant one of them all : – “All under the leaves and the leaves of life, I met with virgins seven, And one of them was Mary mild, Our Lord's mother of Heaven. “Oh ! what are you seeking, you seven fair maids, All under the leaves of life, Come tell, come tell, what seek you All under the leaves

--------------------

Jamieson's translation of Ingefred and Gudrune

Illustrations of northern antiquities, from the earlier Tentonie and. . .
edited by Robert Jamieson, Sir Walter Scott, Henry William Weber

{And it's sae fair i' the summertidc.)

1 The minstrel and physician here seem to be the same person; a very anrient union of professions.

1 In a publication (of no credit) which has just reached us, entitled " Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song," by R. H. Cromek, (which is executed in such a manner as, were it of sufficient importance, to bring the authenticity of all popular poetry in question,) there is a very poor and mutilated copy of " Gil Brenton," in a note upon which is the following passage: " There are many incongruities in Mr Scott's copy, which it is strange that so able an antiquary could have let pass. For example, we never hear of mass being said in the evening, but vespers, as in the original here given. Mr Scott also omits that interesting personage, the " Billie Blin," and axukaiardly supplies the loss by making the bed, blankets, and sheets, speak, which is an outrage on the consistency even of a fairy tale."

Now, in Mr Scott's copies, and the present writer's, where the hero is called Gil Brenton, the blankets and sheets are just as in the Minstrelsy; there is no word of " Billie Blin," and we doubt if ever any reciter of the ballad mentioned him; and as to vespers, neither the thing itself, nor the name, is known among the peasantry of Scotland; whereas the mass, having been the war-cry of the Reformers, and afterwards of the Covenanters, during the struggles between presbytery and episcopacy, is still familiar to every one.

_____________

Traditional Ballad Airs, Volume 2, W. Christie

This Air was arranged from the singing of the Editor's paternal grandfather, and was sung by him to "Aye the Birks a-bowing." It has a resemblance in some of its phases to the next two, and shows how some of the Buchan Airs mingle, and appear to be from the same original. The Ballad sung to the Air was somewhat like the one given by Mr Buchan, which is here epitomized with some alterations. See "Ballads of the North', Vol. 1. p. 204.

  ---------------------

Not a version:  1) The Little Page Boy- Calisle (Ark.) 1912 Randolph -- From Ozark Folksongs by Vance Randolph; 1946 Vol. 1. This three verse fragment was collected by Randolph in 1928 along with the tune.As sung by Irene Calisle, Arkansas, c.1912.