The Suffolk Miracle- Stockton (TN) 1916 Sharp B
[Sharp's generic title. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians- I; 1917 and 1932; Sharp and Campbell edited Karpeles. Following is an excerpt from Mike Yeats about the informant.
R. Matteson 2013]
Excerpts from: "Come in, come in …"
Jeff Stockton and the Flag Pond singers by Mike Yeats
On Monday 4th September, 1916, Cecil Sharp and his assistant Maud Karpeles were in the small settlement of Flag Pond in Unicoi County, Tennessee, and that was the day when they 'went off early in search of Jeff Stockton on Hogskin Creek'.
Jeff came from the area of Flag Pond, a settlement so named because of the flag irises that grow around the edges of local ponds. It is one of the most beautiful parts of the Appalachian Mountains, set at some 2,000 feet above sea level in the midst of rolling hills. Jeff was born on 12th January, 1859, the son of Samuel Stockton (18.3.1828 - 9.2.1894)1 and Elizabeth Stockton, nee Horne (died 12.9. 1904). County records record his name as T Jefferson Stockton, the 'T', I presume, standing for Thomas, after the US President. On 24th December, 1874, Jeff Stockton married Eliza Carter (2.10.1885 - 28.7.1925) and the couple had no fewer than ten children. An 1880 census shows that Jeff was a farmer who worked in both Tennessee and neighbouring North Carolina.
Sharp and Karpeles arrived at Jeff's home sometime around 10am and stayed there until 3.30pm. Jeff turned out to be 'a very fine singer' who gave Sharp quite a crop of songs. There were a number of Child ballads, including versions of Fair Margaret and Sweet William, The Maid Freed from the Gallows, The Suffolk Miracle, The Wife of Ushers Well, The Cruel Mother, The Trooper and the Maid, Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, as well as a tune for Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor. And there were Anglo-American songs aplenty, such as The Lady and the Dragoon, The Warfare is Raging, The Cruel Ship's Carpenter, The Old Grey Mare, Skewball, Edwin in the Lowlands Low, Once I Courted (Don't You Remember) and The False Lover's Farewell. Elsewhere I have written that Jeff only sang Anglo-American songs to Sharp2, but I now know this to be incorrect, because he also gave Sharp a version of Katie Morey and a tune for the song Brother Green.
I am now sitting looking at the photograph of the Stockton Family. It is a formally posed photograph of Jeff and Eliza Stockton and eight children. Three chairs have been brought out for the younger children and the rest are standing in front of a split-rail fence in a field that is probably close to their home. Some unknown person has written the names of four of them, Jeff and his wife Eliza, son Wesley and daughter Bertha. These latter would be Wesley Stockton (19.10.1888 - 17.4.1979) and Bertha Stockton Phillips (18.8.1890 - 25.9.1975). But who are the others? Are they, in fact, some of Jeff and Eliza's other children? Wesley had an older brother, William Henry Stockton (13.3.1881 - 16.6.1968), but in the photograph there are only two younger boys. And who are the other girls? Are any of these either Cordelia Stockton Tipton (10.12.1875 - 11.5.1958), Betsy Jane Stockton Blankenship (22.8.1878 - 22.11.1953), Lonie Stockton Mashburn (11.11.1892 - 7.12.1975), Nancy D Stockton (2.5.1883 - 30.11.1899), Minnie Lee Stockton Silvers (born 22.5.1885) or Kittie Stockton Hensley (2.4.1899 - 18.8.1976)? There was also another daughter, Tilda Stockton (30.10.1896 - 29.6.1898), but none of the children seem to be young enough to be Tilda.
Notes from English Folk Songs in the Southern Appalachians (1917 edition) to No. 31. The Suffolk Miracle.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 272.
Each of the three tunes, A, B and C, is a variant of the carol air, "Christmas now is drawing near at hand" ( see Journal of the Folk-Song Society, v., pp. 7—11).
THE SUFFOLK MIRACLE- Collected from Jeff Stockton, TN, 1916; Sharp B;
1 Sing courting, courting, courting cain [sic],
But all the courtships were in vain,
As soon as her parents came to know,
They sent her three hundred miles or more.
2 It's first they vowed and then they swore
Back home she should not come no more.
This young man was taken sad,
No kind of news could make him glad.
His day had come, his hour had passed,
Unto his grave he must go at last.
3 Although he has twelve months been dead
He arose and rode this milk-white steed.
Your mother's cloak, your father's steed,
My love, I've come for you with great speed.
4 They rode more swifter than the wind,
At last, at last, three hours or more,
At last, at last, three hours or more,
He sot her at her father's door.
5 Just as they got within the gate,
He did complain his head did ache.
She drew her handkerchief from around her neck
And bound it round her lover's head.
6 She reached around to kiss his lips.
She says: My love, you're colder than the clay.
When we get home some fire we'll have;
But little did she know he'd come from the grave.
7 Go in, go in, my love, go in,
Till I go put this steed away.
Her knocking at her father's door —
The sight of her love she saw no more.
8 This old man arose, come putting on his clothes,
Saying: You're welcome home, dear child, to me;
You're welcome home, dear child, to me.
What trusty friend did come with thee?
9 Did you not send one I did adore,
I loved so dear, could love no more ?
Him a-knowing he had twelve months been dead,
It made the hair rise on the old man's head.
10 The very next morning this was to do,
This young man raise and him to view.
Although he had twelve months been dead,
The handkerchief was around his head.
11 Come parents all, both old and young,
Your children love more precious than gold.
For in love let them have their way,
For love brings many to their grave.