The House Carpenter- Degreenia (CT) 1949 Flanders H
[From Ancient Ballads III, Flanders; 1963. The Flanders/Coffin notes follow.
John Minear: From the Flanders Collection, May 17, 1949, as sung by Oscar Degreenia of West Cornwall, Connecticut. Flanders says, "He learned this from his Canadian-born father and his mother, a native of Glover, Vermont." So we don't really know whether this is a Canadian version or from what part of Canada, or whether it is a Vermont version. It is probably not a "Connecticut version."
Lorraine Lee Hammond covers this song on her CD, “The Opal Ring” (Snowy Egret Music label), and says, "Oscar Degreenia, a man who was
at once illiterate and a trove of ancient ballads. Hammond, accompanied on most cuts by her guitar virtuoso husband Bennett, “covers” DeGreenia’s versions of “Back of Yonder Mountain,” “Andrew Bataan,” “House Carpenter,” “Mary on the Wild Moor” and “Young But Daily Growing.”
Oddly, the first two lines, "Well met, well met. . . &c" of the first stanza are missing.
R. Matteson 2013]
James Harris, or the Daemon Lover
(Child 243)
Behind the sentimental Child A version of this song lies the legend of Jane Reynolds of Plymouth and a sailor, James Harris; who exchanged marriage vows. He was pressed into the service and after three years reported dead. Jane then married a ship carpenter. They lived happily for four years and had children. One night when the carpenter was out, Jane heard a rapping at the window. It was the ghost of Harris come to claim his love. She explained to him what had happened but was willing to follow him off when he promised her great wealth. On shipboard, she began to repent her infidelity, but too late. The ship sank, or at least she was never heard of again. Her bereaved husband later hanged himself.
In America, the supernatural element of the song and the names of the lead characters are not retained. Usually, though not always (see Flanders E1 and E2), the husband is a house, not a ship, carpenter. The action before the arrival of the lover and the suicide of the husband are invariably omitted. This form of the song, which is quite standard throughout the states, can no doubt be laid to the popularity of the song in print, perhaps to the broadside published by De Marsan (see Phillips Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 308-309) about 1860. Most of the texts follow De Marsan's song, which is similar to Child B, rather faithfully, but he probably took his version from established oral tradition. See JAF, XXXV, 347; Belden, 79-80; J. Harrington Cox, Folk Songs of the South (Cambridge, Mass., 1925), 139; and Arthur K. Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 439, tor discussion along this line.
The Flanders A-L texts are of a normal American sort, close to but not exactly like the De Marsan broadside. M, with its retention of the ghostly title, can be compared to Scottish Child D and F. The N1 and N2 "Banks of Claudy" versions represent an unusual line of development. They retain the name of the lover, as well as his ghostly nature, and with the one recorded in Greig and Keith, 196, represent two of the few surviving texts that are not of "The House Carpenter" sort. See Child A, B, C, and F for the miraculous gilded ship.
The song, once common, is now rare in Scotland. However, it survives in England, with a ship carpenter instead of a house carpenter, in a form much like the American. See Dean-Smith, 80, and Belden, 79-80, for references. There are no European analogues to the story, though the motif is not unusual. A Danish tale of a deceitful woman is somewhat like "James Harris." In America, it borrows heavily from many other ballads. See Flanders G; also note the references in Coffin, 140.
The eleven tunes for Child 243 consists of one large group of related tunes and three single, evidently unrelated ones: Wales, Price, and Sullivan. The large group can be subdivided into closely related subgroups as follows: 1) Moses, Richards; 2) Merrill, George; 3); Fish, Degreenia, Mancour; 4) Reynolds. The Wales tune may be related to the large group rather than being independent.
H. "The House Carpenter."- sung by Oscar Degreenia of West Cornwall, Connecticut on May 17, 1949.
"I have came across the sea, salt sea;
It was all for the sake of thee.
"I might have married a king's daughter fair
And she would married me."
"For I have married a house carpenter
And I think he's a very nice man."
"If you will leave your house carpenter
And come along with me,
I'll take you there where the grass grows green
On the banks of the sweet Dundee."
"If I should leave my house carpenter
And go along with thee,
What have you there to support me on
Or keep me from misery?"
"I have three ships all loaded with gold
And sailing for dry land,
And a hundred and twenty sailor boys
Will be at your demand."
She picked her baby up into her arms
And give him kisses three,
Saying, "Stay at home with you pap
For he is good company."
They had not sailed a week an' a half,
I'm sure it was not three,
Before this fair maid found for to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
"Is it for gold that you do weep,
Or is it for my store?"
"It's for my darling little babe
That I never will see no more."
They had not sailed three weeks and a half,
I'm sure it was not four,
When a hole broke lout in the bottom of the ship,
And their bones was heard no more.