Polly Band- Lambertson (MI-OH-NJ) c1850 Gardiner B
[From a MS reprinted in Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan by Gardner and Chickering; 1939. Their notes follow. The point of origin of this version of the ballad is New Jersey, then it was brought to Ohio then around 1860 to Michigan.
R. Matteson 2016]
Notes: Mr. Charles Lambertson, Belding, has a composition book in which his mother, Mrs. Elsie Clark Lambertson, wrote the songs she knew and liked She was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1838 of Holland-Dutch parents and moved to Michigan in 1860 Her husband, Edward Lambertson, was born in Ohio of parents of English and Scotch descent, who had moved from New Jersey to Ohio. Many of Mrs. Lambertson's songs were learned in Ohio in her youth. Mr. John and Mr. Charles Lambertson remembered hearing their mother sing most of the songs which she had written in the notebook.
Mr. John Lambertson was born on a farm about six miles from Belding in 1874 and died there in 1935. He liked to sing and remembered some songs that his mother and others had sung in his childhood. See preceding note.
Mrs. John Lambertson was born in Montcalm County, Michigan, in 1873. Her father, of Dutch and Irish descent, was born in Pennsylvania, and her mother, of Scotch descent, was born in New York. She learned her songs, in her childhood, from her parents and uncles or from her schoolmates.
* * * *
For discussion and references see Cox, pp 339-341. See also Eddy, No 192 Hudson, pp. 35-37; Kittredge, JAFL, XXX, 358-360; Randolph, pp. 174-175, Scarborough, pp. 116-117; and Sharp, I, 328-332.
B. Polly Band- From the Lambertson manuscript. Mr. Charles Lambertson remembers hearing his mother sing this song.
1 Polly walked out at the setting of the sun;
She stepped under a green bush the shower for to shun.
2 Johnny being a-hunting, it was somewhat dark;
He shot at a swan, not missing his mark.
3 Johnny ran to her; when he found it was she,
His joints they grew feeble, and his eyes could not see.
4 He embraced her in his arms till he found she was dead;
Then a fountain of tears all around her Johnny shed.
5 Johnny ran home with his gun in his hand,
Crying, "Daddy, dear Daddy, I've shot Polly Band.
6 "Her apron was about her, I took her for a swan,
But O alas, it was my Polly Band."
7 His father being an old man, his head somewhat gray,
Said, "Stay at home, dear Johnny, and don't run away.
8 "Stay in your own country, let your trial come on,
For you shall not be hanged by the laws of the land."
9 A night or two after, to her uncle she appeared,
Crying, "Uncle, dear uncle, Johnny Randall is clear.
10 "My apron was about me, he took me for a swan,
But O alas, it was I, Polly Band."