Bessie Bell and Mary Gray- MacPherson (OK) pre1895 Moores
[My date. From the Moore's Ballads and Folk-Songs from the Southwest, 1964. Their notes follow. MacPherson was born in Iverness, Scotland c. 1862 and moved to Ohio in 1867. He surely knew the ballad before he came to Tulsa in 1895 where he died in 1949.
Unfortunately MacPherson only give 3 stanzas of the nine he claimed his mother knew. Since Child had only four, we'll never know if a fuller ballad was sung.
R. Matteson 2016]
39. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray (Child, No. 201) was in circulation the last part of the seventeenth century, and that the two young ladies of the ballad really lived seems established. They very likely died of the plague between the years 1645 and 1647 and were buried near Lednock House in Scotland in a spot called Burnbraes (see Child, IV, 75). For additional references, see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, 278-79; Cox, 134; Davis, 432-34; and Scarborough, Song Catcher, 190-91.
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, sung by James McPherson of Tulsa. Here is his account of the story about the song: "The house was a playhouse built by two small girls. When the young man fell in love with both the young ladies, they were transported to Ireland so [that] the two poor, little, pretty girls would be taken away from the young man, who was of royal blood. There are two hills in Ireland named after them. They have a monument there today on the brae side of Streath Don in Cincaidshire. My mother knew nine verses of the song." This is the only tune Mr. McPherson would sing for transcription- "so that my mother's tune may be preserved." Frank G. Couper of Tulsa has recorded a very similar tune.
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They were two bonny lassies.
They beekit a house on bonny brae side,
And theekit it o'er with rashes.
They theekit it o'er with rashes,
They theekit it o'er with heather;
But the pest came frae the burrows-town
And slew tham both together.
They thought to lie in their own kirkyard,
Among their noble kin,
But they maun lie in Burnie-brae
In one lone grave they lie in.
Yes, Bessie Bell and Mary Gray
They were two bonny lassies.
They beekit a house on bonny brae side,
And theekit it o'er with rashes.