Lord Lovel- Farthing (NC) c.1780 Brown E
[From the Brown Collection of NC Folklore; Vol. 2, 1953. The editors' notes follow. I'll accept the date of "Revolutionary times" as c.1780. Unfortunately the Brown editors did not give the complete texts of several important versions.
R. Matteson 2015]
Lord Lovel (Child 75)
Possibly it is the very simplicity of the sentiment that has made this ballad so persistent a favorite; certainly it has little else (unless, perhaps, the tune) to commend it. For its range since Child's time, both in the old country and in America, see BSM 52. To the texts there listed should be added Kentucky (BTFLS iii 92), Tennessee (SFLQ xi 124-5), North Carolina (FSRA 27-8), Florida (SFLQ viii 150-2), Missouri (OFS i 113-15). Ohio (BSO 39-45), Indiana (BSI 79-91), and Michigan (BSSM 27-8). The texts vary but little, going back, perhaps in all cases, to a London broadside of a hundred years ago, Child's H. To the variations in the name of the church whose bells announce the death of the lady, some of which are listed in BSM, North Carolina adds one more, "St. Banner's" (version B below). For the most part the church is not named in the North Carolina texts; Lord Lovel returns to "Cruel Clark's" (A), to "London Tower" (C), to "London town" (D F G) and hears the bells, but the church is not named. For an adaptation to the purposes of political satire during the Civil War, see volume 111, section ix.
The texts are so much alike that only a few are given in extenso.
E. 'Lord Lovel.' Another text of Mrs. Sutton's finding, sung this time by Mrs. Farthing of Beech Creek, Watauga county, who traced it back as a family memory to Revolutionary times. Upon Lord Lovel's query as to why Lady Nancy died, Mrs. Farthing commented : "He knew why she died. He just axed that to fool people. I bet he married somebody else in three months." This version lacks the closing stanzas, ending with Lord Lovel's query and the people's answer. One stanza is perhaps worth quoting:
Lord Lovel he stayed one year and a day,
One year and a day stayed he,
When tired and worn, with a broke down steed,
He came to his native countree.