Recordings & Info: 283. The Crafty Farmer
[There are two Roud numbers- 2640 & 2637: for The Crafty Farmer with 49 and 173 listings. This encompasses a wide variety of titles and variants including The Yorkshire Bite, Saddle to Rags, and Old Spotted Cow (Catskills, not "The Spotted Cow" which is Roud 956).]
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) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 2640 & 2637: The Crafty Farmer (49 and 173 Listings)
Alternate Titles
Jack the Plowboy
Jack the Cow Boy
Well Sold the Cow
Selling the Cow
The Boy and the Cow
The Highway Robber
The Scotch Herdie
Jack and the Highwayman
John Sold the Cow Well
Robber Song
Selling the Cow
The Crafty Ploughboy
The London Mason
The New Hampshire Bite
The Yorkshire Bite
The (Little) Yorkshire Boy
The Highway Robber
The Oxford Merchant
Traditional Ballad Index: Crafty Farmer, The [Child 283; Laws L1]
NAME: Crafty Farmer, The [Child 283; Laws L1]
DESCRIPTION: A farmer carrying money from/for a transaction is met by a robber. The robber demands his money; the farmer throws it on the grass. While the robber gathers it, the farmer makes off with the robber's horse and all the wealth in his saddlebags
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1769
KEYWORDS: robbery trick money outlaw escape
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,NW,SE)
REFERENCES: (31 citations)
Child 283, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 text)
Bronson 283, The Crafty Farmer" (43 versions)
Laws L1, "The Yorkshire Bite" (Laws gives three broadside texts on pp. 73-77 of ABFBB)
Williams-Thames, pp. 253-254, "The Yorkshire Bite" (1 text) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Bk 11)
Greig #35, pp. 1-2, "The Yorkshire Farmer" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 266, "The Yorkshire Farmer" (9 texts, 7 tunes) {A=Bronson's #25, C=#28 [misattributed in Bronson], D=#27, E=#34, F=#23}
GreigDuncan2 267, "The Farmer and the Robber" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's #1, B=#3}
Dixon-Peasantry, Ballad #17, pp. 126-130,243-245, "Saddle to Rags" (1 text)
Bell-Combined, pp. 177-180, "Saddle to Rags" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 406-413, "The Yorkshire Bite" (3 texts, 1 tune); also pp. 477-478, "The Crafty Farmer" (notes plus many stanzas from Child) {Bronson's #31}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 234-235, "The Yorkshire Bite" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 51-53, "The Yorkshire Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #32}
Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 139-175, "The Yorshire Bite" (9 texts plus 6 fragments, 9 tunes) {B=Bronson's #32, D=#29, K=#20}
BrownII 46, "The Crafty Farmer" [incorrectly listed as Child #278] (1 text plus an excerpt)
BrownSchinhanIV 46, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 237-239, "Well Sold the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-NovaScotia 14, "Well Sold the Cow" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
Greenleaf/Mansfield 20, "The Little Yorkshire Boy" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #21}
Leach-Labrador 60, "The Yorkshire Bite" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Peacock, pp. 33-38, "The Yorkshire Boy" (2 texts, 3 tunes)
Logan, pp. 127-133, "The Crafty Farmer" and "The Yorkshire Bite" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 662-665, "The Crafty Farmer" (2 texts)
FSCatskills 117, "The Old Spotted Cow" (2 texts, 3 tunes) {Tune "B" is Bronson's #29}
Thompson-Pioneer 6, "The Kennebec Bite" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 157, "John Sold the Cow Well" (1 text plus mention of 2 more)
Sandburg, pp. 118-119, "Down, Down Derry Down" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #37}
Combs/Wilgus 89, pp. 130-132, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 text)
SHenry H51, pp. 129-130, "The Crafty Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 31, "The Crafty Farmer" (1 text)
DT 283, CRAFTBY CRFTFARM*
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, pp. 377-380, "The Boy Who Outwitted the Robber" (a prose version of the tale from Scotland)
Roud #2640 and 2637
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Oxford Merchant (Hampshire Bite)" (AFS 4197 A, 1938; on LC58, in AMMEM/Cowell) {Bronson's #18}
Leonard Hulan, "The Yorkshire Boy" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(79), "The Robber Outdone" ("Come listen a while and a story I will tell"), W. Birmingham (Dublin), c.1867; also Firth c.17(20), "The Robber Outdone"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Highwayman Outwitted" [Laws L2]
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Jack the Plowboy
Jack the Cow Boy
Well Sold the Cow
Selling the Cow
The Boy and the Cow
The Highway Robber
The Scotch Herdie
NOTES: Roud has #2637 for Laws L1 Bite, #2640 for Child 283 - BS
Laws, obviously, considers "The Yorkshire Bite" to be distinct from "The Crafty Farmer." He may be right, but Coffin does not find any essential differences, and Bronson seems to regard them as subgroups. Even the three texts Laws gives for comparison have strong similarities in detail; it looks to me as if they are simply (bad) rewrites of the same original.
Given the degree of variation in the particular verses, it is hard to tell which texts go with which song. Since the versions are so close; I decided not to distinguish them. (One of the few instances where I lumped rather than split, but splitting requires a distinguishing characteristic!)
It's just possible that this has a real-life origin, though I doubt it: David Brandon, in _Stand and Deliver! A History of Highway Robbery_, pp. 29-31, reports that one Isaac Atkinson held up a young woman, who -- apparently thinking he wanted something harder to recover than her money -- threw a bag of coins in the ditch. Atkinson, instead of either pursuing his seduction or doing anything to control the girl, simply jumped off his horse to pick up the coins.
The girl then flew away on her horse, and by chance his horse followed. She was able to report where she had left him, and he was taken and hanged.
Brandon, however, cites no sources; I almost wonder if his tale doesn't combine this one with something like "Lovely Joan." Or, even more likely, with "The Highwayman Outwitted."
The tale of a robber tricking a man off his horse and stealing it has many more analogies, such as the folk tale of "Jack Hannaford," found in Henderson's Folk-Lore of Northern Counties_ and accessible on pp. 40-43 of Joseph Jacobs, collector, _English Fairy Tales_, originally published 1890; revised edition 1898 (I use the 1967 Dover paperback reprint). - RBW
Child Collection Index- Child Ballad 283: The Crafty Farmer
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
283 Alec Bloomfield The Highwayman Outwitted Young Rambleaway - Seven Suffolk Singers 1975 No
283 Alec Bloomfield The Highwayman and the Farmer's Daughter Keith Summers Collection 1970-1977 3:01 Yes
283 Alexander Clark The Crafty Farmer The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
283 Alonzo Lewis Yorkshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Amy Birch There Was an Old Man Lived in Yorkshire An English Folk Music Anthology 1981 No
283 Asa Davis Yorkshire Boy The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Barbara Moncure & Harry Siemsen The Spotted Cow Folksongs of the Catskills - New York State Songs and Ballads 1963 4:55 Yes
283 Bill Sowerby The Yorkshire Bite The Yorkshire Garland Group - Yorkshire Folk Songs 1972-1997 5:23 Yes
283 Danny Brazil Jack and the Robber The Brazil Family - Down By the Old Riverside 2007 No
283 David Edwards The Crafty Farmer (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
283 David Edwards The Crafty Farmer (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
283 Ed McCurdy Yorkshire Bite A Treasure Chest of American Folk Song 1961 3:44 Yes
283 Edwin Day Yorkshire Boy (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Edwin Day Yorkshire Boy (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Euclid I. Williams Yorkshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Ewan MacColl The Crafty Farmer The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 3 1956 4:10 Yes
283 Ewan MacColl The Crafty Farmer The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 6 [Reissue] 196? No
283 Ewan MacColl The Crafty Farmer Chorus from the Gallows 1999 3:42 Yes
283 Ewan MacColl The Crafty Farmer Ballads - Murder Intrigue Love Discord 2009 4:20 Yes
283 Ewan MacColl The Highwayman [English] The Long Harvest, Vol. 5 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1967 3:01 Yes
283 Ewan MacColl The Highwayman Outwitted [English] The Long Harvest, Vol. 5 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1967 2:04 Yes
283 Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger The Crafty Farmer Two-Way Trip 1961 4:25 Yes
283 Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger The Crafty Farmer [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 5 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1967 4:21 Yes
283 George Brown Yorkshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Jim Eldon The Highwayman Outwitted Steve Gardham Collection 1970-1982 1:29 Yes
283 John A. Taggart Yorkshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 John Strachan The Crafty Farmer's Son The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
283 Jonathan Moses Yorkshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Magpie Lane The Highwayman Outwitted Speed the Plough - Songs and Tunes of Rural England 1994 2:08 Yes
283 Magpie Lane The Highwayman Outwitted The Robber Bird 2011 No
283 Margaret Christl, Ian Robb & Grit Laskin Jack, the Cow Boy The Barley Grain for Me 1998 3:07 Yes
283 Margaret MacArthur New Hampshire Bite Ballads Thrice Twisted 1999 5:07 Yes
283 Mary Swain The Highwayman Outwitted Tapioca's Big Toe - Traditions & Customs of Tristan De Cunha (S. Atlantic) 1977 No 283 May Louise Harvey Hampshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 May Louise Harvey Hampshire Boy The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Mrs. Herbert Moore Yorkshire Bite The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Mrs. Laura Britton Yorkshire Boy (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Mrs. Laura Britton Yorkshire Boy (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Orlon Merrill Crafty Farmer The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
283 Packie Byrne The Highwayman Outwitted Donegal & Back! - Songs, Ballads & Whistle Tunes from Packie Byrne 2002 No
283 Paul & Liz Davenport The Rich Farmer from Sheffield Spring Tide Rising 2011 No
283 Peggy Seeger The Fair Damsel from London Town [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 5 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1967 4:30 Yes
283 Peggy Seeger Well Sold the Cow [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 5 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1967 5:05 Yes
283 Rachael McShane The Highwayman Outwitted No Man's Fool 2009 3:46 Yes
283 Simon Ritchie The Merchant's Daughter and the Highwayman John Howson Collection 1970-1995 No
283 Warde Ford Oxford Merchant California Gold - Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collected By Sidney Robertson Cowell 193? 5:44 Yes
283 Warde H. Ford The Oxford Merchant Child Ballads Traditional in the United States, Vol. II 1960 5:09 Yes
283 William McKenzie The Crafty Farmer The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 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
283. THE CRAFTY FARMER
Texts: The Crafty Farmer; Barry, Brit Bids Me, 477 (trace) / Cox, F-S South, 166. The Yorkshire Bite: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 406 / Brown Coll / Combs, F-S Etats-Unis, 149 / Creighton, Sgs Bids N Sc, 29 / Flanders, Cntry Sgs Ft, 26 / Flanders, New On Mt Sgstr, 97 / Flanders, Vt F-S Blds : 234 / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Micb, 382 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 46 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 135 / JAFL, XXIII, 451 ; XXX, 3675 XLV, 30 / Sandburg, Am Sgbag 118.
The Maid of Rygate; Greenleaf and Manfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 47.
Local Titles: None given.
Jack and the Highwayman, John Sold the Cow Well, Robber Song, Selling the Cow, The Crafty Ploughboy, The London Mason, The New Hampshire Bite, The Yorkshire Bite, The (Little) Yorkshire Boy, The Highway Robber.
Story Types: A: The Crafty Farmer. A fanner is going to pay His rent when a gentleman thief overtakes him. As they ride along, the farmer, through conversation, reveals the large amount of money that he is carrying on him. He even reveals the hiding-place of the money in his saddle-bags, The thief then pulls a pistol. However, the fanner throws an old saddle-bag over a hedge and, when the robber goes after this decoy, rides off upon the culprit's horse. The desperate thief offers to split fifty-fifty with the farmer, if the latter will only come back. This proposition is ignored, and the farmer goes to the landlord, pays his rent, and finds a lot more money in the robber's portmanteau. On his way home, the farmer finds his own horse tied to a tree. At home, his wife runs about the house in glee when she hears the news.
Examples: Cox.
B: The Torkshire Bite: A boy is robbed after having sold a cow in town for a farmer. The thief had overheard the lad ask for advice as to where to hide the money and had watched a tavern barmaid sew the cash in his coat-lining. Instead of giving the thief the money, the boy spreads it on the grass. When the robber dismounts to pick it up, the lad rides off on the thief's horse. He and the farmer split the loot stored in the robber's saddle-bags, keep the horse, and rejoice. In some texts, the farmer is so happy he gives the boy his daughter as a wife.
Examples: Barry (A): Greenleaf and Mansfield, p. 46; Combs.
C: Mail of Rygate: Here, a heroine, stripped naked and robbed by a bandit, rides off astraddle his horse. She is on her way home from market with gold for her father who has sold some land. As in the other songs, she finds a fortune among the thief's possessions.
Examples: Greenleaf and Mansfield, p. 47.
Discussion: The Crafty Farmer itself is rare indeed in America. Cox, F-S South, prints a West Virginia text that is almost identical to Child A, although there are eight additional lines in the American text that do not affect the story and a rearrangement of stanzas in the final stages of the song. Barry, Brit Bids Me, 477 notes that the same text was recognized by a Maine sea-captain as a song his sailors used to sing.
The usual ballads of a duped thief belong, in America, to the Yorkskire Bite series. See Logan's Pedlar's Pack, 131. This song (1769) is older in print than The Crafty Farmer (1796), and both are members of a large group of similar tales. See Child, V, 129. See also Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 47 where an American version of The Maid of Rygate (Logan's Pedlar's Pack, 133) is printed under the title The Highway Robber.
For a detailed discussion of The Yorkshire Bite and for an anecdote that runs parallel to The Crafty Farmer, see JAFL, XXIII, 45 iff. A bite is a shrewd trick played on a person in this case like those tricks for which the people of Yorkshire are famous. There are also Kennebec, South Carolina, and New Hampshire bites mentioned in this country. See NTFLQ, IV, 179 and Flanders, New Gn Mt Sgstr, 97. The American refrains are nonsense lines.
Folk Index: The Crafty Farmer [Ch 283/Laws L 1]
Rt - Yorkshire Bite ; There Was an Old Man Lived in Yorkshire
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p662
Farnsworth, Paul. Cox, John Harrington (ed.) / Folk-Songs of the South, Dover, Sof (1967/1925), p166/# 31 [1916]
MacColl, Ewan. MacColl, Ewan / Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, Oak, Sof (1965), p24
Pittser, A. H.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p131/# 55 [1930s] (Johnny and the Highwayman)
The Yorkshire Bite [Laws L 1/Ch 283]
Rt - Crafty Farmer ; Old Spotted Cow ; Saddle to Rags
At - Well Sold the Cow ; Crafty Plough Boy ; Selling the Cow
Laws, G. Malcolm / American Balladry from British Broadsides, Amer. Folklore Soc., Bk (1957), p165
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p664
Bloomfield, Alec. Good Order! Ladies and Gentlemen Please, Veteran VT 140CD, CD (2000), trk# 13 [1938-39] (Farmer from Cheshire)
Carter, Reuben. Hubbard, Lester A. / Ballads and Songs from Utah, Univ. of Utah, Bk (1961), p263/#141 [1940s?]
Christl, Margaret; & Ian Robb. Barley Grain for Me, Folk Legacy FSI 062, LP (1976), trk# 8 (Jack, the Cow Boy)
Douglas Family. Thompson, Harold W.(ed.) / Body, Boots & Britches, Dover, Bk (1962/1939), p163 [1930s] (Kennebec Bite)
Forsythe, Margery K.. Sandburg, Carl (ed.) / American Songbag, Harcourt, Sof (1955/1928), p118 (Down, Down Derry Down)
Henneberry, Ben. Creighton, Helen / Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, Dover, sof (1996/1933), p 29/# 14 [1927-32] (Well Sold the Cow)
MacArthur, Margaret. MacArthur, Margaret / Ballads Thrice Twisted, Whetstone WR 05, CD (1999), trk# 16 (New Hampshire Bite)
Moore, Mrs. Herbert. Flanders, Helen H. & George Brown / Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads, Folklore Associates, Bk (1968/1931), p234 [1930/10/10]
The Yorkshire Bite (Reel)
The Old Spotted Cow [Ch 283/Laws L 1]
Rt - Yorkshire Bite
Edwards, George. Cazden, Norman, et.al. / Folk Songs of the Catskills, SUNY Press, sof (1982), p442/#117B [1940s]
Edwards, George. Cazden, Norman / Abelard Folk Song Book, Abelard-Schuman, Bk (1958), p 78
Joy, Frank. Cazden, Norman, et.al. / Folk Songs of the Catskills, SUNY Press, sof (1982), p445/#117C [1950s]
Van Wagner, Etson. Cazden, Norman, et.al. / Folk Songs of the Catskills, SUNY Press, sof (1982), p440/#117A [1940s]
Saddle to Rags [Ch 283]
Rt - Yorkshire Bite
At - Yorkshire Farmer
Unidentified Singer. Kidson, Frank (ed.) / Traditional Tunes. A Collection of Ballad Airs, S.R. Publishers, Bk (1970/1891), p140 [1880s]