There Was A Youth- Griffin (GA-FL) c.1870 Morris
[From Folksongs of Florida, Morris, 1950. His notes follow. Griffin was born in 1863 in Georgia and learned most of her ballads from her father, a fiddler, before she moved to Florida when she was ten years old.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISTINGTON
(Archive 963-83; Child, No. 105)
This ballad, definitely bourgeois in its social tone, has not had the widespread popularity in America that the numerous printed versions indicate it has enjoyed in England. The Florida variant retains the situation found in the child version but adds a motif in which the bailiff's daughter is held captive. It retains the situation of thee two lovers' seven-year separation imposed by the parents in order to alienate the lovers' affections. the lovers' absence is not motivated in the Florida version as it is in the Child piece.
There are some interesting bits of folk-diction here: "to pollidge" means to parley, to talk, to carry on a conversation; "wearied pains" is an unusual epithet; "to turn aloose" is commonly found among the "cracker" element in the state.
"There Was A Youth." Recorded in 1934 from the singing of Mrs. G. A. Griffin (b. 1863), who learned the song from "Cousin Lou" Brown when Mrs. Griffin "wasn't but a wee little bit of a girl." "Cousin Lou" lived in Dooly County, Georgia.
There was a youth, a loving youth;
He was the squire's son.
He courted the bailiff's daughter
Till the bailiff's horse could run.
He locked her up, he kept her confined;
He kept her confined seven years or longer;
He kept her confined seven years or longer
While no man don't her see.
At last one day he gave her a play;
She walked out to play;
She dressed herself in silks and satins so fine;
So shyly she ran away.
She walked out and she walked down;
She sat down by the green oak tree;
She sat down by the green oak tree
For to rest her wearied pains.
She looked up the road and whom did she see?
None but her own true love,
None but her own true love,
None but her own true love who courted her seven long years ago.
O, up she got and halted his bridle,
Halted his bridle and the ring she took,
Halted his bridle and the ring she took,
Saying, "Kind sir, won't you stop and pollidge with me
Till I rest my wearied pains?"
"O yes, O yes, O yes, kind miss,
I will stop and pollidge with you;
Yes, I will stop and pollidge with you
Till you rest your wearied pains.
"Can you tell me anything about
My own true love who courted me seven long years ago?"
"O yes, I can tell you all about.
She's dead and buried where no man don't her see."
"O, turn me aloose and let me go,
And I will travel all over this globe;
And I will travel all over this globe
Where no man don't me know."
"O yes, O yes, kind sir,
I will tell you again.
She is yet alive, standing close by your horse's side
Just ready to be your bride."
O down he got and upon her finger
And upon her finger that the rings he put;
Upon her finger that the rings he put
And he married her that night.