Jimmy Randalls- Tom Test (NJ) 1936 Halpert B
[From: Some Ballads and Folk Songs from New Jersey by Herbert Halpert; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan. - Mar., 1939), pp. 52-69. His notes follow.
Cf. Halpert version A
R. Matteson 2016]
SHOOTING OF HIS DEAR
I have secured several variants of this interesting ballad. The two texts I include in full are obviously closely parallel. They show the amount of minor variation possible to the same song in a limited area. The melody and its variant come from members of the same family and exhibit a similar tendency in a more restricted sphere. For other versions and references see Sharp-Karpeles I, No. 50; add Hudson, Folksongs of Mississippi, No. 32; Scarborough, A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains, p. 117; BFSSNE No. 10, p. 12 (see also for an interesting discussion of the swan-fawn motifs.).
JIMMY RANDALLS- Sung by Tom Test, Brown's Mills, N. J., November 7, 1936. Learned from "Old Dixie" Archer, a Civil War veteran, uncle of the singer of the previous text. Mr. Test appends an "s" to many proper nouns.
1. Oh Jimmy Randalls went fowling one evening of late,
When he shot is own true love and her beauty was great.
2. Up to her run Jimmy when he found what he'd done,
Oh a fountain of tears in her apron he shun.
3. Home run Jimmy Randalls with his gun in his hand,
Saying, "Father, dearest father, I've shot Molly Banns.
4. "For she set under a green tree, Oh a shower for to shun,
With her apron pinned around her and I shot her for a swan."
5. Down come his poor old uncle with his hair all so grey,
Saying, "Stay at home, Jimmy Randalls, and do not run away.
6. "Stay at home, Jimmy Randalls, till your trial is at hand,
And you shall be cleared by the laws of our land."
7. So come all you young rovers that carries a gun,
Beware of your fowling by the setting of the sun.
.... (No more remembered).