Raggle Taggle Gypsies- Gregory (TN) 1949 Boswell
[Folk Songs of Middle Tennessee; Boswell, ed. Wolfe 1977, his notes follow.
This is one of the versions, probably based on Sharp's "Wraggle Taggle Gypsies O," or a derivative, that was popular in the US. See ref. Kittredge, 1917 and also Belsen, 1940.
R. Matteson 2015]
There is evidence that the elopement story is based on fact; eighteenth-century legends suggest that the lady was Lady Jean Hamilton, wife of the Earl of Cassilis. She had known and been courted by one "Sir John Faa,', or Dunbar, before her marriage, and one week while her husband was away, her old flame came to her castle disguised as a gypsy and accompanied by a small band of gypsies. He convinced her to elope, but they were pursued and overtaken by the earl; all the gypsies, including "Faa," were hanged, and the wife was imprisoned in a tower at Maypole. The tower was, in fact, built for that specific purpose and featured, carved below the turrets, effigies of the hanged gypsies.
For good surveys of the various American renditions of the song, see Brown (2:16 148) and Coffin and Renwick (119-22, 254-56). In addition to its appearance in various folk-song collections, it has been recorded numerous times: by radio singer Cliff Carlisle in the 1930s (Decca 5732, 1939); by folk singer Woody Guthrie in the 1950s; by another country singer, T. Texas Tyler (Four Star, 1945); and by Memphis rock-and-roll singer Warren Smith (Sun, 1956). Kirkland's "A Check List of the Titles of Tennessee Folksongs" lists fourteen versions of the song collected in the state before 1946; at least that many more have surfaced since. Boswell himself got three other versions, one under the title "Blackjack David."
The version here was transcribed on July 14, 1949, from the singing of Martha Corwin Gregory (Mrs. Thomas Gregory), the Brentwood high school teacher who used to sing old ballads to her students. She learned most of these songs from her mother.
1. There were three gypsies a-come to my door,
And downstairs ran my lady, o;
And one sang high and one sang low,
And one sang bonny, bonny Biscay, o.
2. She took off her silk woven gown,
And put on hose of leather, o;
The ragged rags were about her thrown;
She's off with the raggle-taggle gypsies, o.
3. It was late last night when my lord came home,
Inquiring for his lady, o;
The servants said on every hand,
"She's off with those raggle-taggle gypsies, o."
4. "Go saddle for me my milk-white steed,
Go and fetch my pony-o.
For I must ride and seek my bride,
Who's off with those raggle-taggle gypsies, o."
5. Oh he rode high and he rode low,
He rode o'er the woods and copses, o;
Until he came to an open field,
And there he spied his lady, o.
6. "'What makes you leave your house and lands?
What makes you leave your money o?
What makes you leave your newly-wedded lot,
To go with the raggle-taggle gypsies o?"
7. "Oh, what care I for my house and lands?
Oh, what care I for my money o?
Oh, what care I for my newly wedded lot?
I'm off with the raggle-taggle gypsies o."