In Jefferson City- (NC) 1920 Sutton, Brown A
[From The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume 2, 1952 also music from Vol. 4. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Butcher Boy
The British antecedents and the currency in modern tradition of this ballad are given in some detail in BSM 201-3. To the references there given should be added Lincolnshire (ETSC 92-5), Essex (FSE 11 g-n), Massachusetts (FSONE 179-81), New York (NYFLQ III 29-30), Virginia (FSV 72-5; a trace of it in SharpK II 381), Kentucky (FSKM 30-1), Florida (FSF 334-6), Arkansas (OFS I 230), Missouri (OFS i 226-30), Ohio (BSO 129-31), Indiana (BSI 198-201), and Michigan (BSSM 117-19). Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. Not versions of 'The Butcher Boy' strictly speaking, but related to it are 'She's Like the Swallow,' reported from Newfoundland (FSN 112), 'The Auxville Love,' reported from Kentucky (FSMEU 205), 'Love Has Brought Me to Despair,' reported from West Virginia (FSS 428-9), and 'I Am a Rambling Rowdy Boy,' reported from North Carolina (SSSA 173-4). 'The Butcher Boy' was printed as a stall ballad by Partridge of Boston and by De Marsan and Wehman of New York, and Kittredge has noted (JAFL XXXV 361) that it is to be found in five American song-books published between 1869 and 1914. Its appearance in print is as likely to be the effect as the cause of its wide popularity. The scene is most often Jersey City, but it may be any one of a considerable number of cities or may be unspecified. A peculiarity of nearly all the texts reported is the illogical shift of grammatical person — it begins as a narrative by the girl and passes, at different places in different texts but generally about the middle of the story, to third-person narration about the girl. The texts in our collection, one is surprised to find, never locate the action in Jersey City; the scene is Boston town or Johnson City or New York City or Jefferson City or London City; and in only three of them is the faithless lover a butcher boy.
Elements of 'The Butcher Boy' enter into combination with elements of other ballads and songs. Some composites of this sort are given after the more normal 'Butcher Boy' texts. For some others, see 'The Sailor Boy' C, D, I, and J (no. 104, below), and 'Little Sparrow' F, in Vol. III.
A. 'In Jefferson City.' From Mrs. Sutton's manuscript book of ballads, where this item was entered probably about 1920. Mrs. Sutton comments: "The rather lugubrious lady that gave it to me had just lost her lover. ... He was a dope fiend and a college-trained doctor who was never to be licensed in North Carolina because he cheated on State Board exams. She said she'd heard he was a 'doper' and she turned him down for that reason."
1 In Jefferson City I used to dwell,
There lived a boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.
2 There lived another girl in that same town.
She took my love and set it down.
He took the stranger on his knee
And told her what he once told me.
3 And I can tell you the reason why:
She has more gold and silver than I;
Her gold will rise and her silver will fly,
And then she'll be as poor as I.
4 I went upstairs to make my bed,
Just one word to my mother I said.
'Go bring me a chair and I'll set down,
With pen and ink I'll write it down.
5 'On every line I'll drop a tear,'
Was saying, 'Sweet Willie, oh my dear!
On every line I'll drop a tear,'
Was saying, 'Sweet Willie, oh my dear!'
6 Her father came home, the door he broke;
He found her hanging by a rope.
He found a knife and he cut her down,
And on her breast these words he found :
7 'Oh, mother, oh, mother, you do not know
What sorrow this has brought to me;
Since first I gained some young man's life
And on this rope to end my life.
8 'Go dig my grave both wide and deep;
Place a marble stand at my head and feet
And at the foot plant a cedar tree
To show I died for love of thee.
9 'And on my grave plant a wilier[1] tree
That it may mourn and weep for me,
And in that tree set a turtle dove,
To show this world I died for love.'
1. willow
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Vol. 4: The Butcher Boy
'In Jefferson City.' Sung by anonymous singer. Recorded as ms score, probably about 1920; no place was given. The initial measures remind one of 'The Campbells Are Coming' ; they are also related to those of the 'Villiken and His Dinah' (204A) and 'Little Mohee' (no), and somewhat less to 'Orphan Girl,' (148) in our collection.
[music upcoming]
Scale : Hexachordal. Tonal Center : c. Structure : abed (2,2,2,2) ; the d is slightly related to a.