The House Carpenter- Richards (NH) 1942 Flanders I
[From Ancient Ballads III, Flanders; 1963. The Flanders/Coffin notes follow.
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.
I. "The House Carpenter."- From Mrs. Belle Richards of Colebrook, New Hampshire, April 22, 1942. Flanders I
"Well met, well met, my own true love,
Well met, well met," said he,
"For I have crossed the sea, salt sea,
And 'twas all for the sake of thee.
" 'Twas I could have married a king's daughter fair,
And she would have married me,
But I refused her houses and land,
And 'twas all for the sake of thee."
"If you could have wed a king's daughter fair,
I'm sure you are to blame,
For I am married to a house carpenter,
And I'm sure he's a nice young man.
"If you'll forsake your house carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you to a place where the grass grows green
On the banks of a sweet vallee."
"If I forsake my house carpenter
And go along with thee,
What have you got to maintain me upon
And to keep me from slavery?"
"It's I've six ships out on the sea
All sailing for dry land,
And a hundred and ten jolly, brave seamen
And they're all at your command."
She dressed herself in scarlet red;
Methinks she looks fair to behold:
And, as she walked the streets up and down,
She shone like the glittering gold.
She took her babe upon her knee
And gave it kisses three,
Saying, "Stay at home, my darling little babe;
Keep your father company."
She had not been at sea two months -
I'm sure it was not three -
When this fair maid was found to weep,
And she wept most bitterly.
"Oh, is it for my gold that you mourn
That I've not laid up in store,
Or is it for your house carpenter
That you never can see any more?"
"It is not for your gold that I mourn.
'Tis neither for my house carpenter,
But it is all for my darling little babe
That I never shall see any more."
They had not been at sea two months -
I'm sure it was not three
When this proud ship she sprang a leak,
And she sank for to rise no more.
They had not been at sea three months -
I'm sure it was not four -
When this proud ship she sprang a leak
And she sank for to rise no more.
A curse, a curse, on all seamen,
A curse on me for life (doth lie),
For robbing of a house carpenter
And for stealing away his wife.