Johnny Barbour- Torp (VT) 1939 Flanders C2
[From Flanders, Ancient Ballads, version C2, 1963. Their (Coffin's) notes follow.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Willie o Winsbury
(Child 100)
"Willie o Winsbury" is to be found once in a while in the New World, but except in Newfoundland it enjoys little currency. Josiah Combs recorded an incomplete text from West Virginia in his Folk-Songs des Etats-Unis (Paris, 1926), 140. and Barry lists a questionable fragment lodged in Child 99 "Johnny Scot." Otherwise, one must go to the Flanders archives or to a book like Elisabeth B. Greenleaf and Grace Mansfield, Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland, (Cambridge, Mass., 1924), 28, for versions. The A and B texts below are somewhat different from the Newfoundland tradition, although the hero is named Barbour in both an English rather than a Scottish trait. Flanders B, where the hero is first down rather than last and where the King's version is unmotivated, is somewhat worn, but Flanders A is a particularly full example. Flanders C1 and C2 are much like Child D from the Percy Papers. Jean-Smith, 117 (English), and Greig and Keith, 75-77 English), give further listings for this ballad.
All three of the tunes for Child 100 are related. Analogues in other collections are rare and seem largely confined to Northeast of the continent. For melodic relationship to the entire group, see GN, 28, 30, 32.
C2. Johnny Barbour. The following fragment was sung by Mrs. Agnes Shepard Torp of Weathersfield, Vermont. She heard it sung in her home when a child. See C1, the version sung by in father. H. H. F., Collector
Johnny Barbour
"Will you marry my daughter?" the old man said,
"Will you take her by the hand?
Will you take my daughter?" the old man said,
"And be heir to all my lands?
And be heir to all my lands?"
"Yes, I'll marry your daughter," the young man said,
"And take hold of her by the hand;
Yes, I'll marry your daughter," the young man said,
"But a fig for all your lands!
But a fig for all your lands!"