The Highway Robber- Edison (NL) 1929 Greenlief
[This is the first version collected in North America of the "Maid of Rygate" branch of songs that includes the titles The Highwayman Outwitted" and "The Cheshire Farmer’s Daughter" and is Laws 2; Roud 2638. It's found in Greenleaf & Mansfield's Ballads & Sea Songs of Newfoundland (1933) pp.47-48 and was collected from George Edison in 1929 in Newfoundland.
Below is the text reprinted from a broadside by Harkness in the Houghton Library at Harvard University in Laws American Balladry From British Broadsides.
The Highwayman Outwitted
In Lincolnshire lived a rich farmer,
And his daughter to market would go;
Thinking that no body would harm her,
As she rode away to and fro.
Till she met with a lusty highwayman,
Her pockets he drew from her sides;
And as she stood shivering and shaking,
He gave her the bridle to hold.
From stirrip to saddle she mounted,
She threw her legs over like a man;
All the way that she gallop'd, she shouted
Now catch me you rogue, if you can.
This highwayman soon followed after,
A bullet from his pistol let fly;
He ran, but he could not come at her,
His boots they so hampered his knees.
As she rode over her father's green pasters,
It had just struck a eleven by the clock;
Her father was sorely afrighted, to see
Her ride home in her smock.
O daughter what has been the matter, you
Have tarried so long from your home?
O father I have been sorely afrighted,
But still I have come to no harm.
Then he pulled from behind her, a
Port mantell with several articals more;
And ninety score of bright guineas,
He tumbled them out on the floor.
O father this is a grand portion,
It will keep the wild wolf from the door;
O daughter it is a grand portion,
Unto thee I will give as much more.
Then here is a health to the lass,
That the risk of her life she has run;
She tricked the highwayman compIetely
Out of his horse, money and gun.
R. Matteson 2014]
The Highway Robber-
1. 'Tis of a rich merchant of London,
Who had lots of land that he sold,
Who sent out his daughter to market
To receive every penny in gold.
2. She sewed the gold up in the saddle,
And that with good leathers well-lined;
She sewed the gold up in her saddle,
For fear any danger would find.
3 She sewed the gold up in her saddle
And starts out for home on the highway;
She chanced for to meet a bold robber,
He bid this fair damsel to stay.
4 Three blows of his whistle he gave her,
And the pistol he popped to her breast,
Saying, "Now deliver your money,
Or else you'll die a cruel death."
5 This fair pretty maiden got frightened,
And so did Dobbin her steed;
Down off his saddle she lightened,
And Dobbin trots home with good speed.
6 He stripped this fair damsel stark naked
And gives her his horse for to hold;
She stood there a shivering and a-shaking
Like one who was dying with cold.
7. This fair pretty maiden got courage
While he was in search of his prey;
Saying 'Young man, it's no time to be idle;
I'll show you a trick on the highway.
8. From the stirrup to saddle she mounted,
She threw her legs 'cross like a man,
She drove the thief's horse off on a stretch gallup:
'Now catch me bold thief, if you can.
9. He runned and he bawled and he shouted,
He runned and he puffed and he blowed,
He runned and he bawled and he shouted,
'Come back, and I'll give you your clothes.'
10. 'My clothes ain't of very much value,
You can keep them kind sir, can keep them, kind sir, if you please ."
He runned and he bawled and he shouted,
Till his boots they hackered his heels.
11 She rode over hills and through valleys
And places she knew very well;
She leaved the old thief with a trifle,
About five shillings to tell.
12 She rode over hills and through valleys,
And arrived at her home twelve o'clock;
Her father was very much frightened
To see her ride home in her smock.
13 She shoved the thief's horse in the stable,
And in his portmantel she found
Some hundred of bright sparkling diamonds
To the value of ten thousand pounds.
14 Here's five thousand pound for you, pa,
and I will keep five thousand more.
Don't you [text upcoming]