Recordings & Info 221. Katharine Jaffray
[
A Garland of Ballads by Phillips Barry
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 23, No. 90 (Oct. - Dec., 1910), pp. 446-454
Yet it seems not to have been generally observed that themes known to ancient balladry reappear, sometimes almost unaltered, in later ballads. Nor are these later ballads, with the exception of "The Squire of Edinborough Town," - a broadside-disseminatedI rish version of "Katherine Jaffray,"[1] - actual versions of the ancient ballad, tricked out with the tawdry finery of Grub Street. Some connection they may have with the ancient ballad, however.
1 Broadside by Such (Brit. Mus., Bks. 3, g. 4, vol. iii, p. 39). Traditional versions, ultimately derived from the broadside, are still current. I have recorded two from Irish singers.
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
6) Kentucky Folk-Songs
7) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
8) From: Two English Ballads and their Greek Counterparts
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 93: Katharine Jaffray (97 Listings)
Alternate Titles
Lochingar
Lochnagar
Katherine Jeffreys
Katherine Jeffrys
A Scotch Ditty
Katherine Joffray
The Squire of Edinboroughtown
Green Wedding
The Squire of Edinburgh
The Squire
Traditional Ballad Index: Katharine Jaffray [Child 221]
DESCRIPTION: Squire courts farmer's daughter; father forbids her to see him. She is to be wed to another. He invades the wedding. The bride's brother challenges him; he says he comes in friendship and asks to kiss the bride. He takes her away from the hall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1802
KEYWORDS: wedding nobility trick elopement disguise clothes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland US(SE)
REFERENCES: (20 citations)
Child 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (12 texts)
Bronson 221, "Katharine Jaffray" (11 versions)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 31-35, "Lochinvar"; pp. 97-100, "Kathrine Jaffrey" (2 texts, in the first of which -- despite the title -- the hero is called Lochnavar)
Greig #104, pp. 1-2, "Katherine Jaffray"; Greig #156, pp. 1-2, "Katherine Jaffray"; Greig #105, p. 3, "Katherine Jaffray" (1 text plus 3 fragments)
GreigDuncan5 1024, "Katherine Jaffray" (4 texts plus 2 fragments on pp. 622-623, 1 tune)
Lyle-Crawfurd1 66, "Young Lochinvar's Courtship" (1 text)
Lyle-Crawfurd2 108, "The Edinburgh Lord and the Country Maid" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 400-406, "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" (2 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 261-268, "The Squire of Eninboroughtown" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
BrownII 39, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 79-83, "Katharine Jaffray" (2 texts plus 1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #4}
Creighton-NovaScotia 11, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Peacock, pp. 200-201, "Hembrick Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 20, "The Green Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 578-579, "Katherine Jaffray" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 271, "Katharine Jaffray" (2 texts)
OBB 88, "Katharine Johnstone" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 16, "The Green Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Gummere, pp. 263-264+357-358, "Katharine Jaffray" (1 text)
DT 221, LOCHNGAR* LOCHNGR2* (the latter listed in some versions as Child 211)
ST C221 (Full)
Roud #93
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Bennett, "Hembrick Town" (on PeacockCDROM)
Nora Cleary, "The Green Wedding" (on Voice06)
Cecilia Costello, "The Green Wedding (Catharine Jaffray)" (on FSBBAL2)
Thomas Moran, "The Green Wedding (Catharine Jaffray)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #11}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2364), "The Squire of Edinburgh!," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also 2806 c.11(72), "The Squire of Edinburgh!"; 2806 c.15(151), 2806 b.9(233), "The Squire of Edinburgh Town"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Lochingar
Lochnagar
Katherine Jeffreys
NOTES: This is the inspiration for Walter Scott's poem "Young Lochinvar." - PJS, RBW
For the latter poem widely-reprinted poem (24 citations in _Granger's Index to Poetry_ -- though most of the anthologies are the type which never contain anything else with folk roots), see e.g. Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 160-161. The poem, according to the Opies, was rewritten to fit into the book _Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field_, where he needed the hero to carry his bride north.
Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth place "The Squire of Edinburgh Town" among the secondary ballads -- those derived from but not identical to the Child Ballads. Child himself seems to have thought that "Squire" was a rewrite of "Katherine Jaffray." But Bronson (and Roud) lump them, and given the amount of common material and the lack of individual identity in "Squire," it seems to me proper to do the same. - RBW
GreigDuncan5 quoting Duncan: "Child printed twelve versions of this; yet our two chief ones have no close correspondence with any of them. [B] is on the whole nearest to Buchan's version; yet not only does it omit a good many of his stanzas and put things differently, but it includes details that he does not have.... [A], though briefer, is quite an independent form, complete in itself. Though it frequently recalls other versions, it does not coincide throughout, even in a general way, with any one, many of its points being quite distinct, even in whole stanzas...." - BS
Child Collection- Child Ballad 201: Katherine Jafray
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
221 Bell Duncan Katharine Jaffray The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
221 Ben Henneberry Katharine Jaffray The Helen Creighton Collection No
221 Ben Henneberry Katherine Jaffray (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
221 Ben Henneberry Katherine Jaffray (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
221 Cecelia Costello + Thomas Moran The Green Wedding (Catherine Jaffray) Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 3:50 Yes
221 Cecilia Costello The Green Wedding Jacky-Boy Master 1975 No
221 Cecilia Costello The Green Wedding BBC Recordings No
221 Cecilia Costello There Was a Squire in Edinboro' Lived Cecilia Costello 1975 No
221 Cecilia Costello + Thomas Moran The Squire of Edinburgh Town + The Green Wedding or Kathrine Jaffray The Green Wedding - The Classic Ballads 3 1976 No
221 Charles Finnemore Squire of Edinborough The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
221 Ewan MacColl Katherine Jaffray Poetry and Song, Vol. 5 1966 2:32 Yes
221 Joe Rae Katharine Johnston The Broom Blooms Bonny - Ballads, Songs and Stories from Ayrshire 2001 3:39 Yes
221 John Langstaff The Green Wedding The Water Is Wide: American and British Ballads and Folksongs 2002 4:01 Yes
221 John Langstaff The Green Wedding Sings American and English Folk Songs and Ballads 1956 3:59 Yes
221 John Langstaff The Green Wedding John Langstaff Sings - Archival Folk Collection 1949-1961 2004 4:01 No
221 LaRena Clark The Lord of Edinburgh The Edith Fowke Collection No
221 LaRena Clark There Was a Lord in Edinburgh The Edith Fowke Collection No
221 LaRena Clark There Was a Lord in Edinburgh A Canadian Garland - Folksongs from the Province of Ontario 1965 No
221 Laura Cortese The Green Wedding Hush 2004 3:26 Yes
221 Leo Spencer There Was a Lord in Edinburgh The Edith Fowke Collection No
221 Malinky The Green Wedding + Bill Harte's Jig Last Leaves 2000 5:05 Yes
221 Martin Carthy The Green Wedding The January Man - Live in Belfast 1978 2011 4:15 Yes
221 Mrs. Ellen M. Sullivan Squire of Edinborough Town The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
221 Nora Cleary The Green Wedding The Voice of the People, Vol. 6: Tonight I'll Make You my Bride - Ballads of True and False Lovers 1998 4:17 Yes
221 Paul Clayton Katharine Jaffray Folk Ballads of the English-Speaking World 1956 3:13 Yes
221 Rod Stradling The Green Wedding (Katharine Jaffray) Songs from the Golden Fleece - a Song Tradition Today 2005 No
221 The Gaugers Katherine Jaffrey Reg Hall Archive 1953-1977 2:57 Yes
221 Theodore Bikel & Cynthia Gooding Katherine Jaffrey Young Man and a Maid Sing Love Songs of Many Lands 1956 No
221 The Woodbine & Ivy Band + Nancy Wallace The Green Wedding The Woodbine & Ivy Band 2011 5:25 Yes
221 Thomas Moran The Green Wedding BBC Recordings No
221 William Gilkie Katherine Jaffray The Helen Creighton Collection No
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
221. KATHERINE JAFFRAY
Texts: Katharine Jaffray: Brown Coll / Minish Mss.
Squire of Edinborough: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 400 / Child, IV, 218 (headnote) / Creighton, Sgs Bids N Sc, 22 / Flanders, New Gn Mt Sg$tr, 141,
Local Titles: Katherine Jeffrys; A Scotch Ditty, Katherine Joffray, The Squire of Edinboroughtown-
Story Types: A: Lord Willie courts Katherine and gains the consent of her parents to the marriage. Although promised, the girl falls in love with a second, dashing suitor. Lord Robert from across the border. She says that she will marry him if there is any way. Robert thus attends the wedding as a guest, saying simply that he came because he wished to see Kate on her wedding day. Katherine toasts Robert with a glass of wine, and at that sign the lover takes the girl by her white hand and grass green sleeve, and they flee, galloping over the border. "Her kin did them no harm".
Examples : Minish Mss.
B: The Squire of Edinborough type: A girl, ready to marry a squire's lad, is forced to accept another gentleman. She writes her lover of her plight, and he sends lis answer with a ring, telling her to wear green at her nuptials. She answers that she will marry him in spite of all. On the wedding day, the lover brings a large group of men and attends the ceremony. He mock-toasts the groom, and, in response to the latter's challenge to a fight, asks for a kiss from the bride, after which he promises to leave. The request granted, he slips his arm about the girl and whisks her away to Edinborough.
Examples: Barry (A), Creighton, Flanders.
Discussion: The Type A text, a rare find in this country, follows the Child A version closely for ten stanzas, although it displays some contact with print. The battle at Cowden Banks is omitted, however, and the lovers merely escape in the North Carolina version. Also, the Scottish-English rivalry is no longer a feature of the song, even if the border locale is still discernable.
The Squire of Edinboroughtown is a later remodelling of Katherine Jaffray, probably from print. See Child, IV, 2178. This song (Type B) has survived in both Scottish and Irish versions in Northeastern United States and Canada.
Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 144 suggests that Katherine Jaffray was recomposed in Scotland as The Squire, but the wearing of green by the bride (see Child, IV, 218) surely points to Irish tradition for those texts that include it. No Scots girl would dare clothe herself in that "ill-starred" color.
Folk Index: Katherine Jaffray [Ch 221]
Rt - Green Wedding
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p271 [1770s]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p273 [1850]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p578
Bassett, Mrs. H. F.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p109/# 44 [1930s] (Kath'rine Jaffrey)
Gooding, Cynthia. Young Man and a Maid, Elektra EKL 109, LP (1956), trk# B.03
Henneberry, Ben. Creighton, Helen / Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, Dover, sof (1996/1933), p 22/# 11 [1927-32]
Kelley, Robert (Bob). Edwards, Jay; and Robert Kelley / Coffee House Songbook, Oak, Sof (1966), p 52
Green Wedding [Ch 221]
Rt - Katherine Jaffray
Langstaff, John. Water Is Wide. American and British Ballads and Folksongs, Revels 2202, CD (2002), trk# 12 [1959]
Kentucky Folk-Songs
Hubert G. Shearin
The Modern Language Review, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Oct., 1911), pp. 513-517
Professor A. H. Tolman, of the University of Chicago, in a casual letter has recently called my attention to the fact that Scott modelled 'Lochinvar' on 'Katharine Jaffray' (No. 221 in Child), that he built his 'Jock of Hazeldean' upon one stanza of ' John of Hazelgreen' (No. 293 in Child), and that elsewhere his borrowings from folk-songs are more or less easily discernible;]
Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
The Green Wedding / There Was a Lord in Edinburgh
[Roud 93; Child 221; Ballad Index C221; trad.]
LaRena Clark sang There Was a Lord in Edinburgh in 1965 on her Topic album A Canadian Garland: Folksongs from the Province of Ontario. Edith Fowke commented in the sleeve notes:
In its early form this ballad told how a Scots lass, Katherine Jaffray, was wooed by a Scots laird; when she jilted him for an English lord, her first lover showed up at the wedding and carried her off. This provided the model for the tale of Young Lochinvar that Sir Walter Scott included in Marmion, and Scott himself was the first to print the ballad in his Border Minstrelsy in 1802, from versions in Herd's manuscripts. The original form is rare in tradition, but an Irish remodelling of the story as The Squire of Edinborough Town has had wider currency, particularly in North America. Another Ontario version will be found in [Edith Fowke's] A Garland of Ontario Folk Songs, where full references are given.
Nora Cleary sang The Green Wedding at home at The Hand near Milton Malbay, Co. Clare, July 1976. This recording by Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie was included in 1998 on the Topic anthology Tonight I'll Make You My Bride (The Voice of the People Series, Vol. 6).
Martin Carthy sang The Green Wedding unaccompanied live at the Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast, on October 20, 1978. In his introductory words he credited Thomas Moran as his source for this song (who also supplied him with Handsome Polly-O). This concert was published in 2011 on his CD The January Man.
Lyrics
Nora Cleary sings The Green Wedding
There was a squire in Edinburgh town, and a squire of high degree,
He's fell courting a comely girl and a comely girl was she.
She got consent from father and mother, from old and young likewise,
And it's then she said, “I am undone,” as the tears fell from her eyes.
She wrote her love a letter and sealed it with her right hand,
And told him she was to be wedded to a very rich farmer's son.
The very first line he looked over it, he smiled and thus did say,
“I might deprive him of his bride all on his wedding day.”
He wrote her back an answer and that without delay,
He wrote her back an answer to be sure to be dressed in green,
“A suit of the same I will put on; the wedding I will see.
A suit of the same I will put on; your wedding I will prepare,
Oh dearest, dearest, it's with you I will wed in spite of all that's there.”
He looked east and he looked west and all around the land;
He selected a score of fine young men all of a Scottish clan.
They rode on in twos and threes and a single man rode he,
And away they went to the wedding's house with his company dressed in green.
“Oh, welcome, and oh, welcome, where have you spent the day?”
He laughed at them, he scoffed at them, he smiled and thus did say,
“They might have been some fairy troops who rode along this way.”
She filled him a glass of new port wine; he says to the company round,
“Where,” he replied, “ is the man,” he said, “the man they call him groom?”
“Where,” he replied, “ is the man,” he said, “who will enjoy the bride?
For another might like her as well as him and would take her from his side.”
Then out spoke the bachelor with a voice so loud and clear,
Saying, “If it is for fight that you came here, I am the man for thee.”
“It's not for fight that I came here, but friendship for to show.
Give me one kiss from your bonny, bonny bride and away from you I go.”
He caught her by the middle so smart and by the grass-green sleeve,
He marched her out of the wedding house, but his company asked no leave.
The drums they'd beat, and the morning sun most glorious to be seen,
And away he went to Edinburgh town with his company dressed in green.
Martin Carthy sings The Green Wedding
Now there was a squire in Edinburgh town, and a wealthy squire was he,
And he has a-courted a country girl and a comely lass was she.
And he's got consent from father and mother, and old and young likewise,
But still she cries, “I am undone,” as the tears fell from her eyes.
So she's wrote her love a letter and she sealed it with her hand,
All for to say she was to be wed unto some other man.
Now the very first line that he looked o'er, he smiled and this did say,
“Oh, I think I'll have his bride from him all on his wedding day.”
So he's wrote her back a letter to be sure and dress in the green,
“And a suit of the same I will put on; for your wedding day I'll prepare.
Now he's looked east and he's looked west and he's looked all over his land;
And he has a-mounted eight score men all from the Scottish clan.
And he's mounted two on every steed and a single man rode he,
And they are off into Edinburgh town with the company dressed in green.
“Oh, you're welcome, oh, you're welcome, oh, where have you been all the day?”
Oh, did you see them fairy troops that rode all on this way?”
And they filled him a glass of the new port wine and he drank to the company round,
“Oh happy is the man,” he says, “the man that they call the groom.
But happier is the man,” he says, “that shall enjoy the bride,
For another might like her as well as him and have her from his side.”
Oh, then up jumped the young bridegroom and an angry man was he,
He says, “If it's to fight that you came here, I am the man for thee.”
“Now it wasn't to fight that I came here, but friendship I mean to show.
Give me one kiss of your bonny, bonny bride and away from you I'll go.”
And he's ta'en her by her middle so small and by her grass-green sleeve,
And he's waltzed her through the wedding house door, of the company's asked no leave.
And they laughed at him and they scoffed at him, they scorned then this did say,
“Oh, it must have been some fairy troops that stole your bride away.”
From: Two English Ballads and their Greek Counterparts
With "Catharine Jaffray" (Child 221C) and "Lord William or Lord Lundy" (Child 254A), particularly in stanzas 9-11 of the former and generally in the latter, may be compared the famous Greek ballad "The Abduction of Akritas' Wife" (i arpayi tis yinekos tu Akrita).