The Three Sisters- Chisholm (Va.) 1916- Sharp C
[My title, even though there were three sisters- this is about the oldest and youngest. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Sharp/Campbell 1916; also Sharp/Karpeles 1932, version B. Sharp's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
Notes from Sharp 1917: No. 4. The Two Sisters
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 10.
Texts with tunes:—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i., pp. 40 and 42. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i., 253, and ii., 282. English County Songs, p. 118. Northumbrian Minstrelsy, p. 61. Child, v., pp. 411 and 412 (three tunes). "Binnorie," arranged
by Dr. Arthur Somervell. American variants:—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii, 130 (with tune); xviii, 130 (without tune); xix, 233.
[The Three Sisters]- Louisa Chisholm (VA) 1916
That will be true, true to my love, Love and my love will be true to me.
1. There lived an old lord by the Northern sea,
Bown down,
There lived an old lord by the Northern sea,
The boughs they bent to me,
There lived an old lord by the Northern sea,
And he had daughters one, two, three,
That will be true, true my love,
Love and my love will be true to me.
2 A young man came a-courting there,
He took choice of the youngest there.
3 He gave this girl a beaver hat,
The oldest she thought much of that.
4 "O sister, O sister, let's we walk out
To see the ships a-sailing about."
5 As they walked down the salty brim,
The oldest pushed the youngest in.
6 "O sister, O sister, lend me your hand,
And I will give you my house and land."
7 "I'll neither lend you my hand or glove,
But I will have your own true love."
8 Down she sank and away she swam,
And into the miller's fish pond she ran.
9 The miller came out with his fish hook
And fished the fair maid out of the brook.
10 And it's off her finger took five gold rings,
And into the brook he pushed her again.
11 The miller was hung at his mill gate
For drowning of my sister Kate.