The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington- Reade (VA) 1928 Davis B
[From Traditional Ballads of Virgina; Davis, 1929. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON
(Child, No. 105)
The solitary text of this ballad found in Virginia is Virginian by fairly recent adoption. The contributor, Mrs. Levin Joynes, of Richmond, Virginia writes, September 27, 1915 " 'The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington' was sung to me in my childish days by a cousin, who lived in England, and I understood from her that it was an old English ballad. No doubt it was brought to Virginia by
some of the early settlers. I have written it from memory, so no doubt it is very faulty." On the contrary, it is an excellent version, corresponding very closely with the Child text, the stanzas omitted or compressed being those which could best be spared or pared. Besides this text, Virginia tradition preserves a single stanza (B), with the tune.
The story is identical with that recorded by child. "A fond youth and a coy maid, a bailiff's daughter, having been parted seven years) the maid disguises. herself to go in quest of her lover, and meets him on her way. He asks her whether she knows the bailiff's daughter. The bailiff's daughter is dead long aqo, she replies. Then he will go into a far country. The maid assured of his faith, reveals herself, and is ready to be his bride."
The thirteen Child stanzas are represented by eight in the Virginia text, Child 3,4, and t are omitted, Child 8, 9,and 10 are compressed into Virginia 5 and 6, and child 13 is dropped from the Virginia copy. In spite of minor variations, the two represent single version.
During Professor Child's collecting days, Mr. F. H. Stoddard informed him that "'The Bailiff's Daughter' is still very much sung, and may be heard any day at a country cricket-match." It does not seem, however to be current in oral tradition in Virginia. The present editor happens to be familiar with a lovely old air, but it comes from a juvenile songbook he saw some years ago. The B melody is similar and is appropriate to this tender ballad with its
happy ending.
For American texts, see Bulletin, No. 4, p. 7 Hudson, No. 16 (and Journal, XXXIX, 106; Mississippi); Journal, XXIX, 201 Rawn and Peabody, Georgia. This survival, the author writes, is "similar" to the Child ballad XXX 321, (Kittredge, Missouri, Indiana, both fragments); Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 8. For additional references, see Journal, XXX, 321.
B. " The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington." Contributed by Professor Willoughby Reade, of Alexandrla, Va. From childhood recollection. Arlington (formerly Alexandria) County. November 16, 1928. With music. Mr. Reade writes: " My father used to sing it to us children and I learned it from him when I was perhaps seven years old. It may have been a year or two later - one does not remember exact dates so far away," Mr. Reade's father was an Englishman.
1 Oh, there was a youth, and a well-beloved youth,
And he was a Squire's son;
He loved the bailiff's daughter dear,
That lived at Islington.