Sukey Fry- old lady (NE) pre1901 Eggleston
[From: The Transit of Civilization from England to America in the Seventeenth Century by Edward Eggleston, 1901. This is an excerpt, taken as published.
An American historian and novelist, Edward Eggleston (December 10, 1837 – September 3, 1902) was born and lived in Ohio, then moved to New York in his later years.
R. Matteson 2014]
For Sukey Fry and other ballads I am indebted to my daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye. They were taken from the lips of an old lady of New England birth and lineage who may have been the last person treasuring these bits of colonial folklore. She could remember only a few verses of Sukey Fry, supplying the rest by narrative. "A young nobleman coming to America met a young girl, Sukey Fry, and they fell in love. He was put into prison, and she visited him and carried him things to eat. He agreed, when released, to wait for her seven years unmarried. He returned to England:
"Seven years passed away,
And seven years more followed on.
He at length married some one else. The scene is at the wed-
ding. The servant at the door says:
" 'At your gate, sir, stands the fairest creature
That ever my two eyes did see;
On every finger she has a diamond,
And on her breast plates one, two, three.
The golden ringlets on her shoulders,
Are worth more than you and your bride too.'
" Lord Bateman smote his hand upon the table,
And split the leaf in pieces three,
'I'll stake my life and all my living
That Sukey Fry has crossed the sea!'
The father of the bride says:
" 'Oh, cursed be that Sukey Fry,
I wish she had on the ocean died.'
Lord Bateman replies:
"'I married your daughter to-day 'tis true,
I'm sure she's none the worse for me;
She rode here on my horse and saddle,
She may go home in her coaches free.'"
See the many versions of the ballad in Child's Scottish and English Ballads, and especially Child's learned treatment of its variations in the quarto edition, part II, 454-483. One can not but regret that Professor Child did not have the pleasure of
knowing that the "Isbel," "Dame Essels," "Susy Pye," and "Sophia," of other versions had emigrated with the colonists and assumed the name of Sukey Fry. Many comparisons with the Scottish and the English versions suggest themselves, but they must be left for folk-lorists. But is it on account of the name "Susy Pye" in the ballad, or perhaps on account of the sense of colored or painted in the word "pie," or "pye" that this seems to have been a name for a Moor? In the Records of Massachusetts Colony, 1638, p. 239, "George Pye, a Moor," appears. Rose, Pink, and Piney is among the tales collected by Mrs. Seelye. Piney is the most frequent pronunciation of peony in rustic speech.