In Seaport Town- Mrs. Hester House (NC) 1916 Sharp MS
[My title. Single stanza with music from Sharp's MS. The 1932 notes English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 48. In Seaport Town.
Texts without tunes :—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 259; xxix 168. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 305 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 160; ii. 42; v. 123. Miss Broadwood's Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 28. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 12 (also published in English Folk-Songs, Selected Edition, i. 4, and One Hundred
English Folk-Songs, p. 4). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxv. 359.
Sharp diary 1916 page 277. Thursday 14 September 1916 - Hot Springs
On the ferry en route to Silver Mining Creek the ferryman told us his wife Mrs Roberts sang, so we called on her. She promised to stud up ready for us tomorrow morning. Then we went to a Mrs Hester House where we got quite a lot of good songs including Earl Brand etc. Then to Mrs Ellie Johnson. Directly after lunch we tackled Mrs Gentry and came home richly laden. So we made up for our blank day yesterday. Sat up late writing up books. Emma Hensley came to dinner with us at the hotel and behaved very nicely indeed. She is very homesick poor girl, but we bucked her up a bit I think.
In Seaport Town - Mrs. Hester House on 14 September, 1916; Hot Springs, N. Carolina. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp.
In Seaport Town there lived a merchant,
He had two sons and a dauhgter dear,
A prettiest [1] boy that lived around there,
He was his daugther's dearest dear.