Molly Vaunder- George Gregg (WV) 1917 Cox B
[From Folk Songs of the South, 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
102. MOLLIE VAUGHN
Three fairly good copies of this song have been found in West Virginia under the titles, "Mollie Vaunders," "Molly Vaunder," and "Mollie Vaughn."
The earliest known record of this ballad is Jamieson's printed circular letter of 1799. The piece was published, in an incomplete text, in his Popular Ballads, 1806, 1, 194 ("Peggy Baun"). A variant ("Molly Whan") was issued by Pitts as a slip-song very early in the nineteenth century. An American broadside ("Polly Wand") is among the ballads purchased "from a Ballad Printer and
Seller in Boston" by Isaiah Thomas in 1813 (11, 122, American Antiquarian Society). Barry prints a four-stanza medley from Maine which contains four lines of the ballad {Journal, XXII, 387). Kittredge prints three versions (Journal, xxx, 358), one from a very old lady in Massachusetts, the others from Wyman's MS. Kentucky collection. Pound, No. 22, reprints the third of these.
Campbell and Sharp, No. 40, give a text from North Carolina and a fragment from Tennessee. For British and American references see Journal, xxx, 358. Add Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 11, 59; VII, 17; Journal of the Irish Folk-Song Society, III, 25.
B. "Molly Vaunder." Communicated by Professor Walter Barnes, Fairmont, Marion County, February, 1917; obtained from Mr. George Gregg, Pocahontas County, who learned it from his mother.
1. Come all you jolly sportsmen who delight in a gun,
But beware of late hunting, after down-setting sun.
Molly Vaunders was walking, when a shower came on;
She ran to yonder leech[1] tree, the shower to shun.
2 Jimmy Randall was hunting, was hunting near dark;
He shot at his true love and missed not his mark.
With a white apron pinned round her, he took her to be a swan;
But Providence being against him, he shot Molly Vaun.
3 He ran up to her and found that she was dead;
A fountain of tears on her bosom he shed.
Then he picked up his rifle, to his uncle he did run,
Saying, "Uncle, dearest uncle, I have shot Molly Vaun!"
4 "She's the fairest young damsel, and the joy of my life,
And I always intended to make her my wife."
Up stepped Jimmy's father, whose locks were turning gray,
Saying, "Jimmy, dearest Jimmy, don't you run away!"
5 "Stay here for your trial, your trial to attend,
And you shall be cleared by the laws of our land."
On the day of Jimmy's trial, Molly's ghost did appear,
And it said to the judge and jurymen, "Jimmy Randall goes
clear."
1 For beech.