US & Canada Versions 7. Died for Love (The Butcher Boy; Butcher's Boy; In Jersey City/Town; In London City; Railroad Boy; There is a Tavern in the Town; Adieu; Radoo, Radoo, Radoo)
Broadside of The Butcher Boy" published by Henry Wehman circa 1880 in NY
The Butcher Boy.
In Jersey City, where I did dwell,
A butcher-boy I loved so well,
He courted me my heart away,
And now with me he will not stay.
There is an inn in the same town,
Where my love goes and sits him down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And tells to her what he don't tell me.
It's a grief for me; I'll tell you why:
Because she has more gold than I;
But her gold will melt, and her silver fly;
In time of need, she'll be poor as I.
I go up-stairs to make my bed,
But nothing to my mother said;
My mother comes up-stairs, to me
Saying "What's the matter, my daughter dear?"
"Oh! mother, mother! you do not know
What grief, and pain, and sorrow, woe—
Go get a chair to sit me down,
And a pen and ink to write it down."
On every line she dropped a tear,
While calling home her Willie dear;
And when her father he came home,
He said, "Where is my daughter gone?"
He went up-stairs, the door he broke—
He found her hanging upon a rope—
He took his knife and he cut her down,
And in her breast those lines were found:
"Oh! what a silly maid am I!
To hang myself for a butcher-boy!
Go dig my grave, both long and deep;
Place a marble-stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a turtle dove,
To show the world I died for love!"
Identifiers of the 1860s and later print versions:
In Jersey City
my heart away
There is an inn
But her gold will melt,
her Willie dear
Oh! what a silly maid
* * * *
The "Butcher Boy" (also "Butcher's Boy") and some of the related ballads (Sailor Boy/Sweet William; Careless Love; Bury Me Beneath the Willow; Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies) were very popular in the US and Canada in the early 1900s. Davis in his Folk Songs of Virginia[1] lists 26 versions of "Butcher Boy" collected in the 1930s/40s and most major collections have a number of versions[2]. In 1925 the first two early country (old-time) recordings were made by two Virginians: Kelly Harrell (Victor 19563) and also Henry Whitter (Okeh 40375). Guthrie Meade[3] lists 14 early country recordings before 1940. With over half a dozen print versions in the 1800s and early 1900s and a number of popular recordings, texts must be scrutinized carefully to determine if the collected versions are traditional or based on print or recordings. The consistency of the North American "Butcher Boy" texts clearly indicated a print ancestry. Except for a few UK texts, the name "Butcher Boy," brought over by immigrants to the US, had disappeared from versions in the UK by the late 1800s. In the UK only Sheffield Park (c.1760) a ballad not found in the North America, has a common ancestry with the unknown and missing UK antecedent of Butcher Boy that was brought to the US in the 1700s.
The Butcher Boy is an important and popular member of the "Died for Love" family of ballads. Here are my fundamental ballads of Died for Love (A-J)-- some, though related, are quite different ballads and could be listed separately. After each listing (in italics with brackets) is a brief account of that letter version as found in North America:
A. Died for Love-- Roud 60 ("I Wish, I Wish," "Alehouse") Roud 495 [A does not have the "brisk young lover courted me" stanza or the suicide and the "I Wish" stanzas are not found often in the US or Canada without the suicide. The apron stanzas are usually found-- with other floating stanzas-- as part of the related songs.]
B. The Cruel Father ("A squire’s daughter near Aclecloy,") her love is sent to sea- dies of a cannonball; No Roud number. [B in corrupt form is well represented in American tradition, although only two versions from America exist that reasonably tell the ballad story.]
C. The Rambling Boy ("I am a wild and a rambling boy") Roud 18830, c. 1765 [Only one fragment of C has been found in NY. "Rambling Boy with the Answer" was printed in Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Rambling Boy, because of an inferior plot, disappeared from tradition by the 1850s both here and abroad.]
D. Brisk Young Lover ("A brisk young sailor courted me,") Roud 60 [D, as identified by its opening stanza, is not found in America although a few similar lines and phrases from the opening stanza have been found. (see last two lines by Amos Eaton of Vermont: In New York Jersey there did dwell/ A butcher boy and I knew him well/He courted me with his own free will/ Where e'er he goes I love him still. Very few versions in the UK have the suicide.]
E. Butcher Boy ("In Jersey city where I did dwell") Roud 409; Roud 18832 [E, is the popular North American variant with the suicide. Since "butcher boy" is a ballad commonplace found also in Scottish versions of Berkshire Tragedy it seems to have been attached in the UK and brought to America. Curiously, "butcher boy" is not normally associated with the ballad in the UK.]
F. Foolish Young Girl, or, Irish Boy ("What a foolish girl was I,") Roud 60 [Although the lines "What a foolish girl am I/To fall in love with a butcher boy" are standard in the Butcher Boy, the Foolish Young Girl stanza as found in Scotland is similar but different ("What a foolish maid am I/To fall in love with an Irish boy"-- with the second half-- "An Irish boy although he may be/ He spake braid Scots when he courted me"). One Scottish version titled "Brisk Young Sailor" by Sam Davidson of Aberdeenshire (collected about 1907 by Greig) has the Foolish Young Girl stanza and the suicide. The earliest Foolish Young Girl version (late 1700s in Scotland) also has the suicide.]
G. Queen of Hearts ("The Queen of Hearts and the Ace of sorrow") Roud 3195 [This variant of Rambling Boy/Cruel Father is not found in America. Printed as a broadside in the UK, only one traditional version was collected in England.]
I. There is a Tavern in the Town by William H. Hills, c.1883. ("There is a tavern in the town") Roud 18834 [This seems to be an arrangement by Hills using text from Died for Love family as found in Adieu, Adieu (Radoo Radoo, Radoo). Although conclusive evidence dating Radoo, Radoo, Radoo has not been found, at least one source[4] has indicated that it is of Civil War vintage or earlier as found in the American south.]
J. Maiden's Prayer ("She was a maiden young and fair") c.1918; Roud 18828 [Although this variant, J, has the suicide and resembles Butcher Boy, it appears to have been popular mainly in the UK and Australia after the first World War (c. 1920). It's an abbreviated version of Butcher Boy passed by military men during the first and second World Wars and is still current in the UK today.]
K. "Died for Love" hybrids (Versions with Died for Love stanzas which cannot be categorized with A-J)
The following related songs are presented as appendices and these are all found in North America:
7A. The Sailor Boy, or, Sweet William
7Aa. Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea
7B. Love Has Brought Me To Despair
7D. Every Night When The Sun Goes In
7F. My Blue-Eyed Boy
7H. She's Like the Swallow
7K. Love Is Teasing (Love Is Pleasing)
7L. Careless Love
7La. Dink's Song
7M. The Colour of Amber
7O. Must I Go Bound?
7Q. Deep in Love (Deep as the Love I'm In)
7R. Yon Green Valley (Green Valley)
7S. Down in a Meadow (Unfortunate Swain)
7T. Bury Me Beneath The Willow
7U. Wheel of Fortune
7Ua. Young Ladies (Little Sparrow)
7V. The Ripest Apple (Ripest of Apples)
Several of the above appendices are solely or primarily found in North America. They are 7Aa. Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea (US South/Appalachia) 7D. Every Night When The Sun Goes In (Appalachia) 7H. She's Like the Swallow (Canada); 7L. Careless Love (United States south); 7La. Dink's Song (United States southwest); 7T. Bury Me Beneath The Willow (United States, mostly south, mid-west) and 7Ua. Young Ladies (United States, south). These are not the only ballads and songs that have Died for Love stanzas. In his headnotes Belden states[5]: "The concluding stanza in which the girl gives directions for her burial is likely to appear in almost any ballad ending in a death." Although there are instances when the "Go dig a grave" may be found in unrelated songs most of these stanzas are primarily found in the Died for Love family and extended song family[6].
* * * *
The origin and fundamental sources of The Butcher Boy and related ballads had befuddled leading early US musicologists from Kittredge(1916) to Cox (1925) and on to Belden (1940). The main source of confusion appears to be the broadside antecedents that in some cases were unavailable. Kittredge, however, had at his disposal the Harvard Library. Belden mentions two related early sources, The Deceased Maiden Lover and The Constant Lady and False-hearted Squire and says[7], "The location is Sheffield park in Pitts's broadside of that title, which comes closest of all British stall prints to the American ballad. . .". Belden was apparently unaware of The Unfortunate Maid, the early printing of Sheffield Park about 1760 which has subdivided stanza 1, 2 and 4 that are similar to the early stanzas of Butcher Boy. The Pitts broadside was a later printing of Sheffield Park that had borrowed stanzas from "The Constant Lady" broadside for its new ending. Sheffield Park is a different ballad with a similar theme and three similar stanza including the opening stanza. The importance of Sheffield Park is that its similar opening stanza suggest that it was written from an antecedent of Butcher Boy. Belden does not mention the two other antecedents of Constant Lady or suggest the interpolation of Constant Lady into Sheffield Park.
Leading UK musicologists fared no better. The web of confusion printed in the early 1900s about the variants of "Died for Love," "Love has Brought Me To Despair," "In Yorkshire Park," "Deep in Love" with "Waly, Waly" and "Sailor Boy, or, Sweet William" is still being regurgitated today. When Broadwood pointed out the melody of "Sailing Trade[8]" was used in a version of "I Wish, I Wish," the completely different texts were regarded as related. The fact that the print versions of "Sailing Trade" had no text in common with "I Wish, I Wish" and held only the letter/song writing stanza in common with "Died for Love" was overlooked.
With Steve Gardham's assistance Steve Roud broke up his Roud 60 into a number distinct groups with different Roud numbers. However, the job is not complete and because of the mixing of stanzas it's difficult for any precise categorization. For example, look at The Traditional Ballad Index's entry for Roud 18830 which the Index writers assume is the Roud number for variants of Cruel Father but instead Roud gives listings for Rambling Boy. What's even more confusing is that Roud does not have a number for the Cruel Father. Perhaps Renwick wrote his chapter, 'Oh, Willie': An Unrecognized Anglo-American Ballad was published in 2009 which details the existence of the ballad, in vain.
In the US Kittredge established the foundation of the study of the ballad's origin in 1916 by saying[9]:
"The piece appears to be an amalgamation of “The Squire's Daughter” (also known as “The Cruel Father, or, Deceived Maid”) with “There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town” (well known as a student song in this country under the title “There is a Tavern in the Town”)."
Although there are stanzas in common, “The Cruel Father" ballads[10] have a different plot: The cruel father when he finds out his daughter is in love with a prentice boy sends him to sea where he is killed in a battle by a cannonball. The prentice's ghost haunts the father that night who come home to find his daughter has hung herself with a rope. She leaves a note blaming her father for her death.
The similarity of Cruel Father with "The Rambling Boy," is the opening line, the suicide and the "Died for Love" ending; with the "Butcher Boy" the similarity is the suicide and "died for love" ending; with the later reduction, "The Maidens Prayer," the similarity is the suicide and the "died for love" ending. Kittredge's vague statement must mean the suicide is taken from "Squire's Daughter/Cruel Father" or it makes no sense. Considering that the suicide in Cruel Father is different, the Cruel Father is a poor choice. Certainly "There is an Alehouse" is very similar but is missing the suicide. Rambling Boy has the suicide and the reason for the suicide is similar. When Kittredge says Alehouse is "well known as a student song in this country," he is obviously referring to Hills' "There is a Tavern in the Town," which was written with one common stanza. "Alehouse" and "Tavern in the Town" are not that similar, but they are related. So in 1916, Kittredge's statement became the standard-- but in 1925 Cox refined the amalgamation--Cox now based the ballad on four different songs instead of two.
Cox states in Folk Songs of the South[11], "The Butcher Boy" is made up of modified extracts from (1) "Sheffield Park"; (2) "The Squire's Daughter" (called also "The Cruel Father, or, Deceived Maid"); (3) "A Brisk Young Sailor" (or its abbreviated version, "There is an alehouse in yonder town"); and (4) "Sweet William" ("The Sailor Boy").
Cox kept Kittredge's two fundamentals (The Cruel Father, as pointed out-- is a poor choice) and added Sheffield Park and Sweet William. Additionally he said that Alehouse was an abbreviation of Brisk Young Sailor which has an added opening stanza[12]. Cox, by mentioning Sheffield Park, must be referring to the three similar stanzas at the beginning which are also found in its immediate antecedent of 1770, Unfortunate Maid. About 1820 The Unfortunate Maid was titled Sheffield Park and reworked by adding stanzas of another broadside[13] Constant Lady (see also the explanation above). Constant Lady's stanzas are sometimes found mixed with Butcher Boy, but the occurrence is rare. Sheffield Park, Butcher Boy and Constant Lady are all different ballads. Apparently Cox is referring to a version of Sweet William, under the title, The Sailing Trade[14], that was mentioned as having the same melody as a version of "I Wish, I Wish/Died for Love." The only common stanza between print versions of Sailor Boy and Butcher Boy is the "Letter /Song writing" stanza. The melody given was from Christie's "Sailing Trade" from tradition with additional text from print. There are other similarities between "Sailing Trade/Sailor Boy" and "Died for Love" in tradition-- Kidson's Lancashire version of Sailor Boy has the ending stanzas with the suicide of Butcher Boy--alas and alack!!! There are only three extant examples of the hanging suicide in Sailor boy and that is the only one related to Butcher Boy. "Sailing Trade/Sailor Boy" also known as "Sweet William" is a different ballad although in tradition the endings stanzas may be held in common.
Cox confuses the matter further in his notes to "Love Has Brought Me To Despair," saying[15]: This is a remarkably full version of the English song "A Brisk Young Sailor " —that song which, in an abbreviated form, is known as "There is an alehouse in yonder town" (or, in this country, as "There is a tavern in the town"). Somehow the normally sure-footed Cox has listed "Brisk Young Sailor" as a version of "Love Has Brought Me." "Brisk Young Sailor" is not like "Love Has Brought Me" which is derived entirely from "Constant Lady"-- the same broadside with stanzas found in the end of Pitts' "Sheffield Park."
Fifteen years later Belden and the Missouri Folklore Society published "Ballads and Songs" named, I surmise, after Kittredge's 1917 article in the JAF of the same title. Belden's headnotes contend (as mentioned earlier) that Sheffield Park "comes closest of all British stall prints to the American ballad." Belden is referring to the three similar opening stanzas found in Pitt's reworded broadside with has the added stanzas of "Constant Lady" as its ending. The two early broadsides he mentions-- 1. The Deceased Maiden Lover and 2. The Constant Lady and False-hearted Squire are derivatives. The Deceased Maiden Lover, is one of two antecedents of Constant Lady--the other is "The Faithlesse Lover." Both were printed on a single sheet about 1628. The Deceased Maiden Lover is a reworking of lutenist Robert Johnson's “A Forsaken Lover's Complaint” c. 1611. All three antecedents of Constant Lady have a chorus which was taken out in the c.1686 Constant Lady. Belden's assertion may be responsible for "Deceased Maiden Lover" being listed as a version of Died For Love in Sam Henry's Songs of the People, by the editor Gale Huntington.
Yes, it's a tangled web.
* * * *
The history of the Died for Love ballads in North America is long. The first record is a number of chapbook printings of "The Rambling Boy- With the Answer," perhaps the first extant version was published in Philadelphia in 1806. The same title and it's safe to assume, the same text was printed in the UK first in a Scottish chapbook about 1798. The Rambling Boy was printed "With the Answer"-- "The Answer" is a different ballad that begins with a similar opening line and is better known as a version of the late 1700s UK broadside ballad, "Cruel Father or Deceived Maid." "The Rambling Boy" has the floating stanzas about the maid's unrequited love for her rambling boy, her suicide and the 'died for love' ending. Despite a number of printings in the US in the early 1800s and the Rambling Boy ballads popularity in the UK at that time, only two possible traditional versions of the Rambling Boy ballad have been found. The first is a fragment from an account book of Aimer Boyd, a sailor, dated 1826;
"I am a raking and rambling boy,
I seek my lodging, 'too and fro,'
A rambling boy, I soon shall be,
I forsake my lands, and go to sea."
The other likely Rambling Boy version is Brown M[16] collected in the early 1900s but dated back to the 1800s. The once popular "Rambling Boy" title is now used in the US as the title for versions of another ballad; the highway robber ballads of Laws L12; Roud 490; titled "Wild and Wicked Youth," "Newlyn Town" and "The Rambling Boy." There is a possibility that the opening line of 1765 Rambling Boy was used to construct the highway robber ballads.
The only Died for Love ballads with a similar opening that remain from the early broadsides are the ballads known as my B, "The Cruel Father." The three known broadsides of "The Cruel Father" share a similar opening line with Rambling Boy just as the highway robber ballads do. Here are three titles of versions of the Cruel Father found in the US:
1. Rambling Boy- anon (US west) 1916 John Lomax
2. Rambling Rowdy Boy- Rena Hicks (NC) 1933 Henry F
3. I am a Rude and Rambling Boy- Buna Hicks (NC) 1941 Warner
All three titles are titles that you would now expect to be used for the highway robber ballads. When Jean Ritchie sang "Poor and Rambling Boy" or the Carter Family sang their version, "The Rambling Boy," it's unlikely that they suspected there was an earlier different ballad titled "Rambling Boy" and they probably never knew of the "Cruel Father" variants either-- which are rare. In fact, there is no Traditional Ballad Index listing for the Died for Love "Rambling Boy" mentioned by Kittredge in 1916[17] and once very popular in the UK. Of the early UK variants of Died For Love, only two versions of Rambling Boy and a dozen traces of Cruel Father can be found. The Cruel Father has only been found once in tradition in the UK (1930s) as "Isle of Cloy." Both the Rambling Boy and the Cruel Father had virtually disappeared in the UK in the 1900s. In the US the Traditional Ballad Index's heading for The Cruel Father is "Beam of Oak" --the title of a fairly complete version collected in Labrador, Canada. Currently there is no Roud number for Cruel Father and it has not been formally identified as a specific ballad despite a chapter in Renwick's 2006 book titled, " 'Oh Willie:' an unrecognized Anglo/American Ballad."
There are only two fairly complete versions of Cruel Father found in North America. They are:
1."Cruel Father" (my title) sung by Fanny Coffee of White Rock, Virginia on May 8, 1918. Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection.
2. "Beam of Oak." Sung by Stuart Letto of Lance au Clair, Labrador in July, 1960 from "Folk Ballads and Songs of the Lower Labrador Coast" by MacEdward Leach.
The other US versions are very corrupt-- usually just mentioning the Cruel Father who will use a cannonball on the young suitor in order to keep him away from his daughter. Noteworthy are the versions from the Hicks/Harmon family originating from the family of progenitor Council Harmon in the Beech Mountain area of North Carolina. It's possible that the Hicks version which was traced to his Council's daughter dates back to the families residence in Virginia before the Revolutionary War.
* * * *
The most popular Died for Love song in the US is "Butcher Boy" or "Butcher's Boy," a title also used for the Scottish traditional versions of Berkshire Tragedy, a different ballad. The three "Died for Love" variants of "Butcher Boy" in the UK and two versions collected in British colonies lend further support to the obvious theory that the false lover at one distant point in time was named, Butcher Boy, in the UK and that name was brought to North America by immigrants. Of the nearly 200 North American traditional versions of Died for Love/Butcher Boy in my collection (see attached on left hand column) it's safe to assume that hundreds more were sung and not taken down or recorded. The Died for Love ballads and ballads/song of their extended family were very popular in tradition from the mid 1800s and early 1900s.
In 1940 Belden gave the story line of the Butcher Boy's 'regular' form, as printed by De Marsan, Partridge, Wehman, and in many songbooks[18]: a girl, who lives in Jersey City, tells how she loves a butcher boy, who has transferred his amours to another girl 'because she has more gold than I;' foretells that he wilt cease to love this other girl when her gold is gone; goes upstairs to make her bed, lamenting to her mother and bidding her bring a chair, pen, ink, and paper; then (with a sudden shift to third person narration) her father comes home, breaks open her door, finds her hanging in a rope, cuts her down, and in her bosom finds a letter giving directions for her burial, including the placing on her breast of a turtle dove 'to show the world I died for love.'
In 1962 Donald M. Winkelman gave a similar account in Western Folklore, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 186-187:
1. Statement of situation: a girl, usually living in Jersey City, loves a butcher boy who first courts, then rejects her.
2. The butcher boy finds another girl, sometimes at an inn or house, to whom he tells things ". . . that he wouldn't tell me."
3. In some versions the taking of a new lover is blamed upon money; in others the reason is not given.
4. A number of texts contain a stanza or two about the questioning mother, and the young lady's desire to write down what has happened."
5. Father returns, searches for his daughter, breaks down her door, and finds her "hanging by a rope."
6. He cuts her down and finds a message asking to be buried in a grave (both wide and deep) with a marble stone and a turtle dove as love symbols.
The origin of Butcher Boy is shrouded in mystery. Clearly the antecedent was brought over from the UK long before the ballad was printed in 1860. Some questions about the origin are:
1. What is the antecedent? Did it disappear in the UK by the late 1800s?
2. What was the name of the original city where the butcher boy did dwell?
3. When did the name, Butcher Boy, appear as the name of the false lover?
4. Was the suicide part of the antecedent or was it added in North America?
5. What ancillary stanzas are found in the older versions that may be tied to UK versions?
There are several forms of opening stanza for Died for Love but the Butcher Boy uses this specific form which is also found in print:
In [ ] City where I did dwell
A butcher's boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.
The US print versions, c.1860 and later, appear similarly:
In Jersey City, where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well,
He courted me my heart away,
And now with me he will not stay.
There is an Inn in this same town,
Where my Love goes and sits him down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And tells to her what he don’t tell me.
Identifiers of print stanza 1 are "Jersey City/butcher boy/heart away" and in stanza 2; "Inn/town" and "Love goes/Sits him down." "The Butcher Boy" broadside was first printed in Philadelphia by J. H. Johnson in 1858. A nearly identical text was printed about 1860 by H. De Marsan in New York. This was followed by "The Butcher Boy of Baltimore," another broadside with nearly identical text published by Harry Tofflin in New York about 1865. A half dozen other printings followed stretching into the early 1900s. Since print versions were made from 1858 onward in New England, there's the chance any subsequent version may be based on print. Versions missing the identifiers or those that have outside stanzas are most likely based on tradition[19]. It appears the broadside was an arrangement of a traditional version from New England.
The common location, Jersey City[20], used in the broadsides is most likely named after that city in the state New Jersey. The state New Jersey and Jersey city were originally named after the Isle of Jersey located between the northern coast of France and the southern coast of England; the island uses English customs and language and its recorded history extends over a thousand years. The second most common location is London City, a location that appears mainly in more archaic versions and indicates that the version is most likely not based on print or recordings.
Although it's impossible to date the arrival of Butcher Boy in North America in any quantitative way, the ballad's arrival is certainly late 1700s and probably earlier. One example of dating the Butcher Boy as it passed down through family lines is the ballad as sung by Lem Griffis which came from his grandmother who was born in the late 1700s in Georgia (see text several paragraphs below). The virtual disappearance in the UK of the name butcher boy as associated with the false lover means that versions arrived in America and British Colonies[] many years ago. Just as the name butcher boy is absent in UK versions[21], the popular versions in the UK of the "brisk young lover" are rarely found in North America and only in corrupt form.
A single stanza from New York Folklore Quarterly - Volume 3, 1947 that appears in article The Ballad of the Butcher Boy in the Rampano Mountains by Anne Lutz may prove to be a significant piece of the puzzle about the origin of the popular "Butcher Boy" variant. The notes and stanza by Lutz follow:
ONCE THERE was in London a butcher boy who made love to a girl and left her, and she hanged herself. At least there is an English version of “The Butcher Boy” that begins:
In London town where I did dwell,
A butcher boy whom I knew well
He courted all my life away,
And now with me he will not stay.
That was sung for me by an old lady, now over ninety, who learned it as a child in Birmingham, England.
Even though this is just a standard single stanza, the fact that even one stanza with the name Butcher Boy was sung in Birmingham, England in the early 1860s is very important. It predates the US "Butcher Boy" broadsides c.1860 and seems to prove what is already obvious--that "Butcher Boy" long ago originated in England, probably as a broadside- now missing- and was brought to the US. What is know is the opening stanza of Butcher Boy and two other stanzas are similarly found in the beginning of the 1770 Unfortunate Maid, better known as Sheffield Park. This indicates a common ancestry and since Sheffield Park is found only in the UK, that's more evidence that a missing broadside of Butcher Boy was printed in the UK in the late 1600s or early 1700s that was used for the creation of the opening stanzas of Sheffield Park.
The opening stanza of the "Sheffield Park" broadside, In Sheffeild Park there did dwell, as well as the 2nd stanza, the maid goes upstairs to bed, and the first half of 3rd stanza, the maid's response to her mistress-- are very similar to stanzas found in Butcher Boy:
Sheffield Park (Pitts broadside)
1. IN Sheffield park, O there did dwell,
A brisk young lad, I lov'd him well,
He courted me my heart to gain,
He is gone and left me full of pain.
2. I went up stairs to make the bed,
I laid me down and nothing said,
My mistress came and to me said,
What is the matter with you my maid.
3. O mistress, mistress you little know,
The pain and sorrow I undergo,
The maid's mistress has become her mother in Butcher Boy:
Butcher Boy (Wehman broadside)
In London City where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well;
He's courted me my heart away
An' along with me he will not stay.
I go up-stairs to make my bed,
But nothing to my mother said;
My mother comes up-stairs to me saying,
"What's the matter, my daughter dear?"
"Oh! mother, mother! you do not know
What grief, and pain, and sorrow, woe—
Although the remained of Sheffield Park has nothing to do with Butcher Boy, this is more evidence that predicts a missing broadside. Another established belief (see Belden, 1940) is that the Butcher Boy originated in the US from an English variant of Died for Love/Brisk Young Sailor. Therefore versions of the Butcher Boy found in the UK originated from the US and crossed back over. This theory would be corroborated by UK versions of Butcher boy with Jersey City (Jessie's City). Since Lutz's informant was in her 90s- say 94- and Lutz collected it in c.1946 the informant would have learned it in Birmingham about 1860 when she was 8 years old. She was not influenced by the c.1860 US broadsides which were not printed in England.
Lutz's simple explanation for the origin of the ballad makes sense-- that "once there was in London a butcher boy who made love to a girl and left her, and she hanged herself." These questions about the origin remain: Why haven't more early traditional or any print versions with the "Butcher Boy" name surfaced in the UK? And-- why is the suicide not present in most UK versions of Died for Love/Brisk Young Lover-- with some versions dated back to the 1700s?
A version from Southeast Georgia was sung by Lem Griffis (c.1896-1968) who gave this history: Well, I know another one, but I declare. My great-grandparents brought it from across the ocean, when they came over hyer. An' I think I still remember that song, all of it. But I know, my grandmother useta sing it years an' years ago.
Griffis' version was collected on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia about 1966 and by his recollection was brought over by his great-grandparents. It has several archaic stanzas at the end and corroborates the evidence that "Butcher Boy" was sung long ago in the US.
Butcher Boy- sung by Lem Griffis about 1966
In London City where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well;
He's courted me my heart away
An' along with me he will not stay.
He goes downtown an' he sets 'isself down,
He takes a stranger upon his knee.
He tells to them things he won't tell me,
An' don't you know that it's grief to see.
He courts them shy, I can tell you why,
Because they have more gold than I.
But gold will melt and silver will fly,
But conscious love can never die.
It was late one night when her father came home,
Inquiring where his daughter had gone
She's gone away her life to destroy;
She's hung herself for the butcher boy.
He ran upstairs and the door he broke,
And found her hanging on a rope
He taken his knife and he cut her down,
And in her bosom this note was found:
"I love you Johnny, I love you well,
I love you better than tongue can tell.
I love my father an' mother too,
But I don't love them like I do you.
I wish an' I wish, but it's all in vain
I wish I was made [a maid?] over again.
According to some genealogical research, Lem's grandfather, Samuel B Griffis, Jr., and his grandmother were born in 1794 in Georgia. His great-grandparents, at least on his father's side, did not emigrate to the US but instead were from South Carolina. Regardless, the ballad through his grandmother probably dates to the 1700s.
The Butcher Boy by Region
The Butcher Boy was certainly brought very early through the counties of the Virginia colony area and was popular in Virginia, North Carolina and Appalachia to the west. A number of archaic and unusual versions were collected in North Carolina and Tennessee. The south is not the only area of dissemination in North America-- the ballad is found throughout North America and can be studied through these regions: Canada; New England (with Pennsylvania); the Southeast (Virginia, Georgia, Florida and Appalachia); the Midwest; and the Southwest[22].
The core stanzas are found in the broadsides of c.1860 and later. The Wehman broadside (see top of this page) of c. 1880 is essentially the same as the earlier broadsides and has 8 1/2 stanzas which would appear below as: [8 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City, an inn]. There are no extra stanzas in the broadsides such as "Must I go bound/orange tree" a common extra stanza or "apron low/frost and snow," a well known stanza in the UK but somewhat rare in the US. The extras stanzas are given below in parenthesis.
Canada: The following versions are from Canada. Maritime Canada is the location of 10 of the versions. Many of the Maritime versions date back a hundred years or more when they were brought to isolated fishing areas by early settlers.
Butcher Boy- Mrs. N. C. Waugh (ON) 1918 Waugh [5 1/2 stanzas: Dublin City; an inn; extra stanza (there is a bird)]
Butcher Boy- Ellen Bigney (NS) 1919 Mackenzie A [10 stanzas; London City; an inn; extra stanza (frost and snow)]
Butcher Boy- Thompson (NS) 1928 Mackenzie B [10 stanzas; Dublin city; a house; extra stanza (rain and snow)]
Butcher Boy- Edward Hartley (NS) 1929 Creighton [7 stanzas; Jersey City; a place; no extra]
Butcher's Boy- Rosie Oikle (NS) 1931 Fauset A [7 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn; no extra]
Must I Go Bound- Peter Dyer (NS) 1931 Fauset B [3 stanzas (non-conforming); London Town; extra stanzas (Must I Go) (Deep blue sea/ orphan)
Butcher Boy- Bert Fitzgerald (NL) 1951 Leach [8 stanzas; Jersey City a place; no extra]
She Died in Love- Mrs. Walters (NL) c.1958 Peacock [1 stanza; (apron stanza) missing full text]
Butcher Boy- Amelia Kinslow (NL) 1959 Peacock [6 stanzas; Jersey city; a girl; no extra]
She Died In Love - Mrs. Ghaney (NL) 1959 Peacock [8 stanzas first missing; an ale-house extra stanzas (Apron Low) (Grows a flower) (Apron full) (Fond of me)]
Beam of Oak- Stuart Letto (LB) 1960 Leach [non conforming; version of B; one stanza (suicide) in common]
Butcher Boy- LaRena Clark (ON) 1965 Fowke [11 stanzas; London City; a house; extra stanza (Frost and snow) unusual ending stanza- two new lines]
Of the 12 versions from Canada, 10 are conforming to standard Butcher Boy form and one is a variant (see appendix) of "Must I Go Bond (Bound)" with only one stanza in common while the other "Beam of Oak" from Labrador, is a variant of B, The Cruel Father. Of the 10 versions 4 have Jersey City; 2 have London City and 2 have Dublin City- an obvious Irish connection. In 3 versions her false lover, the Butcher Boy, goes to "an Inn" to meet another girl (as in print versions) and the location is also "a house" or "a place"- in one archaic version is "an alehouse" as in many UK versions. The most common extra stanza is "frost and snow" however, the apron itself is not mentioned:
I mind the time, not long ago,
He'd follow me through frost and snow.
But now he's changed his mind again.
He'll pass my door and he won't come in[].
One version has the extra "There is a bird" stanza found rarely in North America (New England) and the UK. "She Died In Love" from Mrs. Ghaney in Newfoundland is closely aligned with the broadside "Constant Lady" having borrowed 3 extra stanzas.
New England: The following Died for Love/Butcher Boy versions are from New England. Several of the New England versions are much older than the date they were collected. Butcher Boy as sung by Ada F. Kelley in MA in 1939 (Linscott) goes back several generations though the family. The Butcher Boy sung by Jennie Devlin of NY) probably dates to the 1880s. Lena B. Fish's version may date back hundreds of years through her family(Bourne) and Jim Cleveland's version comes from his mother Sarah, and dates back many years. Several of the versions collected by Lutz in NY (see below) are fragments which will have little value in this study. Unfortunately I don't have access to two New England versions (Barry/Bayard) that use stanzas from Constant Lady (see Belden's headnotes, where he mentions them and gives a stanza). Most of the broadside print versions dating from c.1860 onward are from NY and one from PA which were derived from New England tradition and are not listed below. The broadsides, apparently all from a single arrangement, use the following identifiers: In Jersey City; my heart away; There is an inn; But her gold will melt; her Willie dear; Oh! what a silly maid.
Butcher Boy- old lady (NY-Birm) c.1860 Lutz A [1 stanza; London town]
Ballad of the Butcher Boy- B. Hartman (PA) 1899 [9 stanzas; Lancaster City; flesh house; extra stanza (Must I go Bound/orange tree]
In Jersey- Nancy Giannotti (NJ) 1926 Henry C [5 stanzas; Jersey; same city;]
Butcher's Boy- Frank Luther (NY) 1928 REC [9 stanzas; London city; Spring House; extra stanza (Must I be bound/oranges)]
Butcher's Boy- anon (PA) 1928 Harrisburg Telegraph [9 stanzas; London city; strange house; extra stanza (Must I be bound/oranges)]
In Jersey City- Thad Napiorski (NJ) 1929 Henry D [5 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; other girls end stanza 2 unique lines]
Butcher Boy- Elizabeth Albers (NJ) 1929 Henry E [2 stanzas; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Harrington (VT) 1930 Brown [8 stanzas; London city; same town;]
Butcher Boy- Paul Lorette (VT) 1931 Flanders REC [10 stanzas; Jersey Town; an inn; extra stanzas (Must I go Bound) (There is a bird)]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Burditt (VT) 1932 Flanders REC [2 stanzas; London City; an inn]
Butcher Boy- Jennie Devlin (NY) c.1936 Lomax [2 stanzas; Jersey City; extra stanza (apron low)]
Butcher Boy- Ada F. Kelley (MA) 1939 Linscott [8 stanzas; London City; an inn]
In Jersey City- anon (NY) pre1940 Thompson A [8 stanzas; Jersey City extra stanza (I Wish I Wish/apples)]
Georgia Town- anon (NY) pre1940 Thompson B [outline with 1 stanza; Georgia Town; extra stanza (There is a bird)]
Butcher Boy- Lena B. Fish (NH) 1940 Flanders REC [7 stanzas; Jersey City; tavern]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Russell (VT) 1942 Flanders REC [3 stanzas; Jersey City; house]
I Wish in Vain- F.P. Provance (PA) Bayard 1943 [non-conforming; tavern; extra stanzas (I wish) (babe was born) 2 stanzas of Constant Lady]
Butcher Boy - Alice Robie (NH) 1943 Flanders REC [8 stanza; Dublin Town; a house]
Butcher Boy- Paul Peterson (RI) 1945 Flanders REC [5 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; alehouse]
Butcher Boy- Amos Eaton (VT) 1945 Flanders REC [7 1/2 stanzas; New York Jersey; same town; 1st stanza similar Brisk Young Lover; extra stanza (I Wish, I Wish/orange)
Butcher Boy- O. Jenness (ME) 1947 Flanders REC [6 stanzas; Jersey City; a house; extra stanzas (frost and snow/dresses); (babe was born)]
Butcher Boy- Maggie Gannon (NY) 1947 Lutz B [2 corrupt stanza; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy- Cal Conklin (NY) 1947 Lutz C [9 stanzas; London City; strange house; extra stanza (Must I be Bound/oranges]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. G-- (NY) 1947 Lutz D [3 stanzas; Jersey City; extra stanza (rain and snow/apron)]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. J. Bulson (NY) 1947 Lutz E [1 stanza; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy - William Webster (RI) 1952 Flanders [9 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; a house; extras stanzas (There is a bird) (I wish I wish)]
Butcher Boy- Jim Cleveland (NY) 1966 REC Davies [7 stanzas; Dublin City; extra stanza (apron low) (Must I go bound/child without a name)]
Butcher Boy- anon (PA) 1958 Bayard [7 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Since New England is the obvious source of the c.1860 broadsides with the identifiers-- Jersey city; an inn-- it's no wonder that Jersey City is the most popular location. Of the 28 New England versions 15 have Jersey City. The name "Jersey," also found in the state New Jersey, is derived from the isle off the coast of south England and France. "London city" or "Dublin city" are the next two popular locations while a version from Pennsylvania has the location there in "Lancaster City."
"There is a girl" in "an inn" while one version has "flesh house" while "a house" or a "strange house" or "an alehouse" are also popular. Some locations where he meets the girl are in the "same" city or town. The extra stanzas include "frost and snow/apron low" whereas in Canada the apron was not mentioned. In one version the apron is a dress. There are several stanzas of "I wish my Babe was born" popular in the UK versions of "I Wish I Wish" Roud 495. There are 3 versions of the rare "There is a Bird" also found rarely in the UK. The "Must I Go Bound" extra stanza appears 5 times. There is one non-conforming hybrid with stanzas from "Constant lady" broadside.
The South (including West Virginia; Virginia; Appalachia; Georgia; Florida). The following 81 versions are from the Southeast-- a number of them are not versions of Butcher Boy but are from the Died for Love family. One important point of dissemination of the ballads is the area of the Virginia Colony (James River basin) established in the early 1600s. Over 30 versions are known to have been collected in Virginia alone-- many reported by Davis in Folk Songs of Virginia have never been printed and remain in the WPA collection. The alternate occupation of "railroad boy" seems to have been popular mainly in Kentucky and is found in recordings from Buell Kazee to Morgan Sexton.
"Radoo, Radoo, Radoo" (Adieu) was printed in NY and London in the 1880s but originated in the US south among African-Americans where it was heard sung there in 1869 by Justin McCarthy on a speaking tour and was arranged with music by American Bessie O’Connor. "Radoo" or "Adieu" was used in William Hills arrangement/composition "There is a Tavern in the Town." "Adieu" was a folk chorus sung with other related floating verses and was collected in Virginia in 1916 by John Stone for Davis-- the Virginia "Adieu" was combined with other ballad/song stanzas including "Must I Go Bound," "My Blue-Eyed Boy" and the "who will shoe my pretty little feet" stanzas associated with Child 76.
Several versions of B, The Cruel Father have been collected in the South, including one excellent MS version by Sharp, who did not publish it.
Sweet William- Mary Smith (NC) c.1875 Brown M [5 stanzas; non-conforming; related to C, Rambling Boy]
Betsy, my Darling Girl- Griffin (GA) 1877 Morris [6 stanzas; non-conforming; only one stanza in common]
In Jersey Town- English nurse (VA) 1889 Babcock [8 stanzas; Jersey Town; name]
Butcher Boy- Nellie Martin (SC-MO) 1906 Belden C [7 mostly corrupt stanzas; missing opening stanzas; two extra stanzas (Apron low) (an unusual stanza-"Katie McGays," not part of Died for Love)
Brisk Young Lover- Della Moore (GA) 1909 Sharp A [8 stanzas; 1st stanza similar Brisk Young Lover; a house; ending stanza's last two line unique]
Farmer's Boy- Lura Wagoner (NC) 1913 Brown K [13 stanzas; probably compilation; London City; strange house; 4 extra stanzas (Must I be bound/orange) (evening fair) (unique "went to her grave") (unique "warning" stanza)
Black Birds- Lura Wagoner (NC) 1913 Brown L [6 stanzas; non-conforming; version of B, Cruel Father]
Forsaken Lovers- L. D. Hayman (NC) 1915 Brown N [1 stanza; last stanza]
Butcher Boy- Jane Hicks Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp B [7 1/2 stanzas; London city; a house; extras stanza (Must I go bound/orange tree)]
Blue Eyed Boy- Hezekiah Crane (TN) 1916 Sharp MS [5 stanzas; North Carolina; farmer's house; has "blue-eyed boy" instead of "butcher boy."]
Little Sparrow- Ella Taylor (IN) 1916 Tolman [4 stanzas; non-conforming; has one stanza of Butcher Boy]
Adieu- Mrs. Nathaniel Stone (VA) 1916 Davis [4 stanzas; non-conforming; related to I, Tavern in the Town]
Butcher's Boy- Nellie Haddix (WV) 1917 Cox A [8 stanzas; Jersey City; missing other location]
Butcher Boy- Virginia Ransom (KY-WV) 1917 Cox B [6 stanzas; New York City; that town]
Cruel Father- Fanny Coffey (VA) 1918 Sharp C, Sharp MS [6 stanzas; version of B, Cruel Father; still has several stanzas in common with Butcher Boy]
Died for Love- Sina Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp D [last stanza]
In Jersey City- Vergie Charlton (WV) 1918 Sharp MS [1st stanza only; Jersey city]
I Wish, I Wish- Jacob Sowder (VA) 1918 Sharp MS [1 1/2 stanzas; missing all but 1/2 stanza and extra stanza (I wish I Wish/apple)]
In Jefferson City- (NC) 1920 Sutton, Brown A [9 stanzas; Jefferson city; same town; ending shows variation]
Butcher Boy- Amos Abrams (NC) c.1922 Abrams C [5 stanzas; Tarlborough town; same town]
Butcher's Boy- Kelly Harrell (VA) 1925 Victor REC [9 stanzas; London City; strange house; extra stanza (Must I go Bound/oranges)]
Butcher Boy- Spence Moore (VA) 1925 Davies [3 stanzas; London City; 2 lines "Must I go bound"]
Boston Town- Emeth Tuttle (NC) 1926 Brown H [only 2 lines given; Boston Town]
London City- no informant (US) 1927 Sandburg B [7 1/2 stanzas; London City; fair little town; "railroad boy"]
The Railroad Boy- Buell Kazee (KY) 1928 REC [5 1/2 stanzas; Lebanon City (London?) "railroad boy"]
Butcher Boy- Bradley Kincaid (KY) 1928 REC [7 stanzas; London city; strange girl; two extra stanzas (bring back my blue-eyed boy) (never change the old for the new).]
In Johnson City- Minnie Church (NC) 1930 Brown I [6 stanzas; Johnson City; same town; one extra stanza (The first two lines from the broadside "Nelly's Constancy," the last two found in "Rambling Boy" other broadsides)]
Butcher's Boy- Sam Harmon (TN) 1930 Henry A [7 stanzas; yonder city; a house]
Butcher's Boy- Lois Whitbee (NC) c1930 Lunsford A [9 stanzas; London City; a train; extra (Must I go bound/oranges)]
Butcher's Boy- Dora Blanton (SC) c1930 Lunsford B [8 stanzas; London City; strange house; extra (Must I go bound/oranges)]
The Butcher's Boy- anon (NC) c1930 Lunsford C [5 stanzas; London City; strange house; extra (Must I go bound/oranges)]
Jefferson City- anon (NC) c1930 Lunsford D [9 stanzas; Jefferson City; same town; extended ending with willow]
Johnson City- Gera Norris (NC) c1930 Lunsford E [7 1/2 stanzas; Johnson City; extra 2 lines Nelly's Constancy; 2 lines (I love my papa); stanza (Must I go)]
Jaunson City- Clyde West (NC) c1930 Lunsford F [5 stanzas; Jaunson City; same town; unique ending stanza]
Butcher Boy- A. Truelove (VA) 1931 Scarborough A [1 stanza; London City; claims English origin]
Butcher's Boy- O. Johnson (VA) 1931 Scarborough B [9 stanzas; London City; strange home; extra stanza -corrupt- (Must I go bound)]
Butcher Boy- Bessie Musick (VA) 1931 Scarborough C [7 stanzas; New York City; extra stanzas (young and free) (No, no, apple/lily tree)]
Jersey City- Mary Presley (VA) 1931 Scarborough D [6 stanzas; Jersey City; down the road; 3 extra stanzas last unique (apron low) (my babe was a-born) (Go on young man)- no suicide]
In Johnson City- McCurry (NC) 1931 Scarborough F [3 stanzas; Johnson City; strange town]
Butcher's Boy- L. Corbin (NC) 1931 Scarborough G [5 stanzas London City; another town; extra stanza (Must I go bound)]
Died in Love- Lovingood (NC) 1931 Scarborough H [4 stanzas; London hills; opening stanza Nelly's Constancy/I love my mother]
Oh Willie- Mary Lou Bell (VA) 1932 [4 stanzas non-conforming - version of B, Cruel Father]
London City- Dock Stinnett (TN) c.1933 Henry B [8 stanzas; London City; same town]
Rambling Rowdy Boy- Rena Hicks (NC) 1933 Henry F [6 stanzas; non-conforming; version of B, Cruel Father]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Schell (NC) 1933 Matteson [7 stanzas; yonder city; a house]
Butcher's Boy- Molly Jackson (KY) 1935 Lomax [3 stanzas; non-conforming as sung to Careless Love; Johnson City; same town]
Butcher's Boy- Jimmy Morris (KY) 1937 Lomax [7 stanzas; London city; a place; extra (Must I go) has 2 line fence/sense ending]
Railroad Boy- Nell Hampton (KY) 1937 Lomax REC [8 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; a place]
Butcher's Boy- Farmer Collett (KY) 1937 Lomax [incomplete transcription; old London City]
In Jersey City- Minnie Curtis (NC) 1937 Abrams A [7 stanzas; Jersey City; a house]
Butcher's Boy- Irving Caldwell (KY) 1937 Lomax [8 stanzas; London City; strange girl in this town]
Butcher's Boy- Virgie Bailey (KY) 1937 Lomax [9 stanzas; opening stanzas conform possibly to B, Cruel father or are unique]
Butcher's Boy- Liza Stewart (KY) 1937 Lomax REC [6 1/2 stanzas; London City; same town; some variation in ending; extra stanza]
London City- Edith Walker (NC) 1939 Brown 4K [6 stanzas; London City same city; ending has variation with "willow tree"]
Butcher's Boy- James York (NC) 1939 Brown B [9 stanzas; Johnson City; same town; extra stanza [Must I go bound/oranges)]
Butcher's Boy- Smith/Combs (KY) 1939 Combs [8 1/2 stanzas; London city; some old town "railroad boy"; extra stanza [apron low) and extra 1/2 stanza (fence/sense)]
Butcher's Boy- Blue Sky Boys (NC) 1940 REC [8 stanzas; London City; strange girl in this town]
Rude & Rambling Boy- Buna Hicks (NC) 1941 Warner [4 1/2 stanzas; version of B, Cruel father; 2 1/2 stanzas in common]
In London Street- anon (NC) c.1942 Abrams B [2 stanza fragment; London Street; strange house]
Boston Town- Virginia Bowers (NC) 1943 Brown D [only 2 stanzas given; Boston town]
Boston Town- Virginia Hartsell (NC) 1943 Brown C [only 1 stanza given; Boston Town; extra 1/2 stanza (Shall I Go bound)]
Butcher Boy- Bell Lambert (NC) 1943 Brown F [7 stanzas; New York City; extra 1 1/2 stanzas (young and free) (No, no, apple/lily tree) as 1/2 of stanza 2 and all of 3]
In Boston Town- Eva Furr (NC) 1943 Brown G [only ending given; Boston Town; (see Brown D) ("let me down with a golden chain")]
In Johnson City- Ella Smith (NC) 1943 Brown J [3 stanzas; Johnson City; only one line given]
As I Walked Out- Eden Hash (TN) 1947 McDowell A [7 stanzas; non-conforming has parts of 3 standard; extra stanzas (Morning fair) (he's gone) (I wish, I wish) (heart-ease); The "morning fair" and "heart-ease" stanzas are rare, while "I wish" is more common.]
Forsaken Girl- Eden Hash (TN) 1947 McDowell B [6 stanzas; hybrid with 3 standard stanzas; extra stanzas (little sparrow) (I wish, I wish) (deep blue sea/orphan). The "little sparrow" and "deep blue sea/orphan" appear in at least three other variants; usually together.]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Gilley (TN) 1947 McDowell C [9 stanzas; London City; strange house; extra stanza (Must I Go bound/oranges)
Johnson City- Robert Wallace (AL) 1948 Arnold [7 stanzas; Johnson City; same town]
Railroad Boy- Mrs. Hornbeak (FL) 1950 Morris A [4 stanzas; Jersey City; another place
Butcher's Boy- Mrs. Brady (FL) 1950 Morris B [9 stanzas; London city; very same town; extra (Must I go bound/oranges)]
Butcher Boy- Effie Tucker (TN) 1953 Boswell [8 stanzas; London city; strange house]
Farmer's Boy- J. Ralph Vass (VA) 1959 Shellans [9 stanzas; yonder city; strange place]
Morning Fair- Frank Proffitt (NC) 1962 REC [8 stanzas- hybrid version with 3 1/2 varied stanzas standard; extra stanzas (morning fair) (she gave me cake) (father gave me land) last compares to Irish version of B]
Butcher Boy- Edwin Mays (OH-VA) 1962 Winkelman
Go Dig my Grave- Watson/Ritchie (KY-NC) 1963 REC [5 1/2 stanzas with 2 line chorus; recreation of Kazee's version with other traditional material from unknown sources]
I Wish, I Wish- Dillard Chandler (NC) 1965 REC [2 stanzas- variant of I Wish I Wish; 2nd stanza apple tree reconstructed]
Butcher Boy- Lem Griffis (GA) 1966 Burrison [6 1/2 stanzas- London City; downtown; extra stanzas (I love you Johnny) and 1/2 stanza (I Wish I Wish)]
Down in Adairsville- Hedy West (GA) 1967 REC [5 stanzas "farmer's boy"; Adairsville; another house; extra (Must I go bound/orange)
Alabama City- Mrs. Carter (AL) 1968 Dill [4 1/2 stanzas "cotton-mill boy," Alabama City; (Must I go bound/orange)]
Butcher's Boy- Buell Bush (WV) c.1971 Bush II [8 stanzas; London city; strange house; extra (Must I go bound)]
Butcher Boy- Dimple Savage Thompson (KY) 1975 [8 stanzas; London; same town]
London City- Morgan Sexton (KY) pre1976 REC [6 stanzas; London city; same town; ending 2 line (fence/sense)]
Butcher Boy- Betty Smith (NC) 1981 REC [7 stanzas; London city; two extra stanzas (I wish/cherry tree) (babe was born)]
Butcher's Boy- Arwoods (NC) 1983 Yates [7 stanzas; London city; strange house; extra (Must I go bound)]
Butcher Boy- Russell Lahew (WV) c. 1997 Davies [8 stanzas; London city; (Must I go bound/ orange)]
The versions from the South have a significant amount of variety. There are 7 hybrid versions with mostly non-conforming stanzas and 6 versions of B, Cruel Father, with several others using one stanza perhaps from B). "London City" is by far the most popular location with "Jersey City" a distant second used in 7 versions. There are 5 Johnson City version and 4 versions use Boston as the city or town; this is followed by New York City with 2 and Jefferson City, Alabama City; North Carolina and Tarlborough. He meets a girl usually in "the same town" or in a "strange house/place" that he takes upon his knee.
In Kentucky the "butcher boy" changes trades and is frequently a "railroad boy." Two versions resemble the short "I wish" versions (Roud 495) of the UK. A dozen versions have the popular "Must I Go bound/oranges" stanza some with the "foolish part" ending which is rare. Two variants of Must I go bound which use instead "young and free/ no, no, that can never be." There are several "apron low" stanzas and "I wish" which are rare in North America.
The Midwest (and West) region includes Michigan; Wisconsin; Ohio; Indiana; Illinois and states west of the Mississippi River including Missouri and Iowa. The three total versions from Utah, Wyoming and California are arbitrarily included here. Michigan and Wisconsin would be influenced by New England/Canada versions while Indiana and Ohio could be influenced by either expansion from New England or from Appalachia across the Ohio River. Dividing Missouri and Arkansas (Southwest) is problematic as they are combined in various Ozark collections (Randolph/Parler etc). Here are the 48 versions from the Midwest-- a third of them are fragments:
Butcher Boy- Lorraine Purvis (IO) c.1870 Stout H [8 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Died for Love- Mrs. Gray (IN) c. 1875 Henry F [Last stanza only]
Butcher Boy- Ida M. Cromwell (IO) c.1898 Rogers [7 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Butcher Boy- The Stanley's (IO) c.1901 Stout A [7 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Butcher Boy- Eva Packard (MO) 1903 Belden A [7 stanzas; Jersey City; same town]
Butcher Boy- Mr. Vaughan (MO) 1903 Belden B [8 stanzas; Jersey City; a house]
Butcher Boy- Nellie Martin (SC-MO) 1906 Belden C [6 stanzas of 6 lines; Jersey City; extra stanza (Apron low)]
Foolish Girl- Ada Belle Cowden (MO) 1909 Belden D [only two lines given; London city]
Adieu- Shirley Hunt (MO) 1911 Hamilton/Belden C [5 stanzas non-conforming; "Adieu" is chorus; 4 extras stanza (evening fair) (Must I go bound) (blue-eyed boy) (got a friend)]
Turtle Dove- A.F.Nelson (WI-MO) 1913 Belden F [only one stanza given; Jersey City]
Butcher's Boy- Lillian Boswell (WY) 1914 Pound A [7 1/2 stanzas Jersey City; a house]
Butcher's Boy- Jane Goon (OH) 1915 JAF Eddy A [8 1/2 stanzas; New Jersey city; same town]
Little Sparrow- Ella Taylor (IN) 1916 Tolman [4 stanzas non-conforming; 1 stanza Butcher Boy; 3 extra (Little sparrow) (dark blue sea/orphan) (I wish I wish)]
Blue Eyed Boy - Frances Ries (OH) 1927 Sandburg A [7 stanzas non-conforming uses Careless Love form last 4 stanzas; has 2 extra stanzas (blue -eyed boy) (Must I go bound); ends with (fence/ sense)]
Butcher Boy- B. Anderson (MO) 1928 Randolph A [6 1/2 stanzas; yonder city; a house]
Butcher Boy- Ruth Hains (MO) 1928 Randolph C [4 stanzas; Jersey City]
I Wish, I Wish- Violet Justis (MO) 1929 Randolph B [4 stanzas only extras stanzas given (I wish I wish) (aprons long) (old for the new) (Must I be bound).
In Jersey City- Bessie Martin (MI) 1930 Gardner A [10 stanzas; Jersey City; same town; two extra stanzas (aprons low) (I wished/orange)]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Peter Miller (MI) 1931 Gardner B [8 stanzas; one given; Jersey City]
False Lover- Parmer/Robbins (IO) 1931 Stout B [8 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Butcher Boy- Rubye Krueger (IO) 1931 Stout C [last stanza only]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Willer (IO) c.1931 Stout D [1 1/2 stanza; first and last; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy- Bernice Voege (IO) c.1931 Stout E [first stanza only; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Olson (IO) c.1931 Stout F [1/2 first stanza; New York City]
Butcher Boy- Iva Ehlers (IO) c.1931 Stout G [first stanza only; Jersey City]
Butcher's Boy- A. Lauterbach (IO) c.1931 Stout I [6 stanzas; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy- Otto Rayburn (MO) 1932 Randolph D [final stanza (fence/sense)]
Georgia City- William Rabidue (MI) 1935 Gardner C [first stanza only; Georgia City]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Rothrock (IN) 1935 Brewster A [7 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Butcher's Boy- Mrs. Vaughan (IN) 1935 Brewster B [8 stanzas; Jersey City; very same town]
Butcher's Boy- Ken Williams (IN) 1935 Brewster C [5 stanzas; London City; strange town; extra stanza (deep blue sea/orphan girl)]
Butcher's Boy- Ben Rice (MO) 1937 LOC REC [9 1/2 stanzas; no city named; a place]
Butcher Boy- Pearl Nye (OH) 1937 J. Lomax [5 stanzas; London City; strange town; extra stanza (deep blue sea/orphan girl) cf. Brewster C]
Jefferson City- Knefelkamp (IL) 1938 Neely A [about 8 stanzas (some text missing) Jefferson City]
Butcher Boy- Dave Adamson (IL) 1938 Neely B [some text missing; Jersey City]
Butcher Boy- Clara Walpert (IL) 1938 Neely C [4 1/2 stanzas Jersey City same town]
Butcher Boy- Ida Thompson (IL) 1938 Neely D [text missing; Jefferson City]
Jersey City- Melissa Moores (OH) 1939 Eddy A [9 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn (close to print)]
Butcher's Boy- Mrs. Warner (OH) 1939 Eddy B [8 1/2 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Butcher's Boy- May Kennedy McCord (MO) 1939 Owens [7 stanzas; London City; a house]
Butcher's Boy- L. Short (MO) 1941 Randolph E [8 stanzas Jersey city; another house]
Butcher Boy- Salley Hubbard (UT) 1947 Hubbard [6 stanzas Dublin Town; a house; two extra stanzas (Apron low) (babe was born)]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Robert Hill (MO) 1950 Parler E [9 stanzas; London City; a strange house; extra (Must I go bound)]
Butcher Boy- E.L. Simons (IN) 1951 Simons Family [7 stanzas; Jersey City; an inn]
Butcher Boy- Ina Harvey (MO) 1958 Hunter C [5 1/2 stanzas; first stanzas missing]
Butcher's Boy- Dorothy Ross (MO) 1959 Hunter D [9 stanzas; London City; a strange house; extra (Must I go bound)]
Butcher Boy- Bill Ping (CA) 1972 Hunter B [9 stanzas; Jersey City; tavern; extra (heart-ease)]
Most of the Midwest versions conform to c. 1860 print versions. There are only a few versions that are clearly archaic or unusual: Little Sparrow (IN) 1916 Tolman; Blue Eyed Boy (OH) 1927 Sandburg; I Wish, I Wish (MO) 1929 Randolph B;
Butcher Boy (UT) 1947 Hubbard.
Jersey City is the dominant location with London City a distant second with 6 versions. One version each has "Jefferson City," "Georgia City" and "Dublin Town." The butcher boy goes to "an inn" as in the broadsides but also goes to a "strange house" or "a house." Extras extra stanzas include "deep blue sea/orphan girl," "heart-ease" "aprons low" "Must I go bound" and "I wish/oranges."
The Southwest region includes Arkansas; Mississippi; Louisiana; Kansas and Texas. Following are 27 versions from the Southwest.
Butcher Boy- Almeda Riddle (AR) c.1912 Wolf [7 stanzas; Jersey City; extra 1 1/2 stanza (young and free/apples)]
Rambling Boy- anon (US west) 1916 John Lomax [8 stanzas version of B, Cruel Father]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. G. V. Easley (MS) 1926 Hudson A [8 stanzas; a village; a house]
In Kosciusko- Sanford Hughston (MS) 1926 Hudson B [8 1/2 stanzas; Kosciusko; extra stanza (deep blue sea/orphan); extended ending]
Wrecked & Rambling Boy- Hellums (MS) 1926 Hudson C [6 stanzas; Version of B, Cruel Father; extra stanza (I love you Willie)]
Grieve, Oh Grieve- Sam Hinton (TX) 1927 REC [2 stanzas with "Go dig my grave" as chorus; part of "adieu" songs]
Butcher Boy- anon (AR) 1927 Farm Life [7 stanzas; New York City; (young and free/apples) cf. Riddle]
My Love Willie- Hippolyte Dupont (LA) 1934 Lomax [7 stanzas sung in French; village; house; extra (there is a bird) 2 stanzas not translated]
Through the Meadow She Ran- Dusenberry (AR) 1936 [7 stanza hybrid; a house; extra 3 stanzas from Constant Lady]
Butcher's Boy- G. McCarty (AR) 1941 Randolph F [only first stanza given; Londers City]
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Wasson (AR) 1941 Randolph G [only extra stanza given (Must I go bound/oranges)]
Butcher Boy- Arlie Freeman (AR) 1942 Randolph H [only extra stanza given (Must I go bound/oranges)]
Butcher Boy - Goldie Gardner (AR) 1953 Parler C [3 stanzas; Newport Town]
Butcher's Boy- Inez Gibson (AR) 1956 Parler G [8 stanzas; London City; strange house; 1/2 stanza (Must I go bound)]
Butcher's Boy- Vesta Belt (KS) 1957 O'Bryant [6 stanzas; Kansas city; 2 extra stanzas (land of love) (apron low)]
Butcher Boy - Lucy Quigley (AR) 1958 Hunter A [6 stanzas London City; this town]
Butcher Boy- Gladys McChristian (AR) 1958 Parler D [6 stanzas; Jersey city; a house]
Soldier Boy- Pearl Brewer (AR) 1958 Parler F [4 stanzas; beginning missing]
Butcher's Boy- Buck Buttery (AR) 1958 Parler H 7 stanzas; [New York City; extra (young and free/apples)]
Butcher Boy- Mildred Ratliff (AR) 1959 Parler A [6 stanzas; Jersey City; a house (I wish, I wish)]
Butcher Boy - Bessie Atchley (AR) 1960 Parler B [9 stanzas; London City; strange house; extra stanza (Must I go bound)]
Poor Girl- Lora Moore Jasper (AR) 1962 Parler I [3 stanzas; yonder's town]
Oh, Willie- Rod Drake (TX) 1952 Owens [5 stanzas; version of B, Cruel father]
Butcher's Boy- Sam Hinton (TX) 1966 REC [6 stanzas; Jersey city; an inn]
Butcher Boy- Ollie Gilbert (AR) 1969 Hunter E [6 stanzas; London City; same town]
Butcher Boy- Roy Wrinkle (AR) 1969 Hunter G [6 stanzas; London City]
I Died for Love- Dale Klugg (AR) 1969 Hunter F [5 stanzas, first missing; strange house; extra stanza (Must I go bound)]
The Southwest continues the tradition of the South. There are 5 London City versions and 4 Jersey city versions along with a variety of other city names. The butcher boy visits another girl at a "strange house" or "house."
Some conclusions of the study by regions: The approximately 200 traditional "Died for Love/Butcher Boy" versions of North America in this collection exhibit a wide variety of ballad types and the extra stanzas mirror those found in the UK. The most popular extras stanza is "Must I go bound?" which has a variant: Shall I be young (bound) shall I be free." The ending is usually the same as the UK variants "Till an orange grows on an apple tree." There are 5 variants of the stanza "There's is a bird in yonder tree/Some say he's blind and can not see"-- one sung in French from Louisiana. Other variants stanzas include "I wish I wish," "frost and snow" and "babe was born." Stanzas from Constant Lady have been found in nearly a dozen versions. Several stanzas have her searching for the "heart-ease" flower or making a bed of flowers upon which she dies of love (a broken-heart).
With the false lover's name consistently appearing as butcher boy in a variety of isolated regions, the obvious conclusion is the name originated long ago in the UK and was brought to America in the last half of 1700s and early to mid-1800s by immigrants. The name and form of the first stanza died out in the UK and was replaced by broadside forms such as "Brisk Young Sailor" of the late 1700s in England. The suicide which is standard in North America is found similarly in the early broadsides Rambling Boy and Cruel Father. The location Jersey City seems to be an American recreation even though it originated from the Isle of Jersey. It's possible the few versions of Butcher Boy in the UK and stanzas with the suicide are artifacts from long ago but they could also be derived indirectly from American versions or prints.
* * * *
There are several US versions (see: K. "Died for Love" hybrids) which open with a stanza or use a stanza with a pastoral setting. From Brown K comes:
8. I went out one evening fair
To view the plains and take the air.
I thought I heard some young man say
He loved a girl that was going away.
This stanza with alterations appears in a half dozen US versions including "Morning Fair" by Frank Proffitt (NC); Forsaken Love by Eden Hash (TN) and "Blue Eyed Boy" by Belden (version C). Another hybrid version was published in Some Songs Traditional in the United States by Albert Tolman in 1916[23]. Tolman's comment and text follow:
Why a faithless lover should be called a “true love,” and why the devoted maiden should wish to fly away to him, are not made clear.
I. I wish I was a little sparrow;
I'd fly away from grief and sorrow;
I'd fly away like a turtle dove;
I'd fly away to my own true love.
2. 'Twas but last night he said to me:
“I’ll take you o'er the dark blue sea.”
But now he's gone, and left me alone,
A single maid without a home.
3. Oh grief, oh grief! I'll tell you why:
Because she has more gold than I;
He takes that other girl on his knee,
And tells her what he don't tell me.
4. I wish, I wish, but all in vain,
That my true love would come back again.
But then I know that will never be,
Till the green, green grass grows over me.
The opening stanza seems to be part of the "Little Sparrow" but in fact is taken from a similar antecedent English broadside, "The Silver Pin." Stanza two is known as the "deep blue sea" stanza and is found in Canada (Must I go Bond) and the US added to versions of Died for Love and Butcher Boy. The last is usually "An orphan girl without a home." Stanza three is standard Butcher Boy/Died for Love while the last stanza is a variant of two well-know Died for Love stanzas: "I Wish my babe was born" and "I wish I was a maid again."
* * * *
Another popular version of Died for Love in the US was "There is a Tavern in the Town" a composition/arrangement attributed to William H. Hills who published it in his 1883 edition of Student Songs. The opening stanza of Hills arrangement is clearly taken from the second stanza of the Butcher Boy (or fist of Alehouse) while stanzas two and three of "Tavern" are recreated from the basic sentiment of Alehouse/Butcher Boy. The last stanza of "Tavern"-- "Go dig my grave both wide and deep"-- is borrowed nearly exactly from Butcher Boy. Hills also has a two-stanza chorus which is different than Butcher Boy. Remember that Kittredge in 1916 said "Tavern" was a popular student song and a version of "There is an Alehouse[24]." Clearly "Tavern" is a recreation of traditional stanzas but where did Hills get his material?
The mystery of 'There is a Tavern in the Town," begins with an African-American song called "Radoo, Radoo, Radoo" [hereafter "Radoo"]. In a letter[25] to Rosa Campbell Praed(1851-1935) dated July 1885 Justin McCarthy(1830-1912)[26] refers to Bessie O'Connor who: created a sensation at Mrs. Jeune's the other night. . . I close with some words of the refrain of a song I used to hear long ago in the Southern States of America sung by negroes and of which I am reminded by one of Mrs. O'Connors songs--"And May the World go well with you!"[27]
Irish writer and Nationalist Justin McCarthy must have heard "Radoo" during a lecturing tour in the United States, c. 1869 and it was also known independently by Texan Bessie O'Connor[28], who published the music while living in the UK. The words and music appeared in The Right Honourable (1886) a "pseudo-fictional" book written by both Justin McCarthy and Australian writer Rosa Campbell Praed.
An article in the Pall Mall Budget: Being a Weekly Collection of Articles, Volume 35, 1887 states, "We have received from Messrs. Francis Brothers and Day [London publisher] a copy of a well known old negro song called “Radoo; or, May this world go well with you.” The words are said to be from a Creole song, and the music is arranged by Bessie O'Connor, with accompaniments for the piano and banjo. As Mr. Justin McCarthy says of it, “Nothing could be more sweet, simple, and pathetic, and any one who sings to the accompaniment of his or her banjo, or who desires a characteristic and very pleasing simple negro song, cannot do better than procure Mrs. T. P. O‘Connor’s."
This is a 1893 printing by the same printers and appears[29]:
RADOO RADOO RADOO (Adieu) Or May this World go well with you. Words from a Creole Song. Music by Bessie O’Connor. Arranged for the Guitar by Walter Redmond. Published by Francis, Day and Hunter, 195, Oxford St, London. New York, T B Harms & Co. 18 east 22nd St. dated 1893. "The word ‘Radoo’ meaning ‘adieu’ is used by the Negroes of South America."
Radoo, radoo, kind friends, radoo, radoo, radoo,
And if I never more see you, you, you,
I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree,
And may this world go well with you, you, you.
Shall I be bound, shall I be free, free, free,
And many is de girl dat don’t love me, me, me,
Or shall I act a foolish part,
And die for de girl dat broke my heart, heart, heart.
Give me a chair and I’ll sit down, down, down,
Give me a pen, I’ll write it down, down, down,
And every word that I shall write,
A tear will trickle from my eye, eye, eye.
Radoo, radoo, kind friends, radoo, radoo, radoo,
And if I never more see you, you ,you,
I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree,
And may this world go well with you, you, you.
Radoo, radoo, kind friends, radoo, radoo, radoo,
And if I never more see you, you, you,
I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree,
And may this world go well with you, you, you.
"Radoo" was also published by, or before, 1884 [Bodleian date 1877-1884] in London in a collection of songs by R. March[30]. The chorus of "Radoo" is the same as the first stanza of the chorus of Hill's "Tavern." The second and third stanzas of "Radoo" are similar to those found in the Butcher Boy and the Died for Love family.
Another song incorporated into William Hills "There is a Tavern in the Town" is "Fare Thee Well" which was written c. 1835 by Robert Gilfillan, who was born in Dunfermline, Fifeshire, on the 7th of July, 1798. It begins:
Fare thee well for I must leave thee,
But O! let not our parting grieve thee;
Happier days may yet be mine,
At least I wish them thine- believe me!
The "Adieu/Radoo" stanza itself also appears in a different setting in tradition and was collected by John Stone in Virginia in 1916. This variant includes the floating stanzas of Child 76 "Lass of Roch Royal" (just the "Who will shoe my pretty little feet" parts). It was published in Traditional Ballads of Virginia as an appendix of Child 76 "Lass of Roch Royal." Here's what Davis says in TBVa[31]:
"In other variants of the same combination song (see below)- this "Adieu" stanza appears after the "shoe my foot" stanzas or - and more generally- as a chorus." It seem unlikely that "Tavern" had any influence on the text which appears:
[Adieu] collected by Mr. John Stone. Sung by Mrs. Nathaniel Stone, of Culpeper, Va. Culpeper County Nov. 15, 1916. With music.
1. "Adieu, kind friend, adieu, adieu,
I cannot linger long with you;
I'll bid farewell to all my fears
While I am in a foreign land.
I'll bid farewell to all my fears
While I am in a foreign land."
2 "Must I go bond and you go free?
Must I go bond and you go free?
O, must I act the foolie's part
And die for a man that would break my heart?
O, must I act the foolie's part
And die for a man that would break my heart?"
"O, who will shoe those pretty little feet?
O, who will glove those lily-white hands?
O, who will kiss those ruby lips,
While I am in a foreign land?
O, who will kiss those ruby lips
While I am in a foreign land?"
"My father will shoe my pretty little feet;
My brother will glove my lily-white hands;
My mother'll kiss my ruby lips,
When you are in a foreign land.
My mother'll kiss my ruby lips
When you are in a foreign land."
Only the first two lines of Adieu remain unchanged in the version collected by Stone above. As mentioned earlier Irish writer Justin McCarthy heard "Radoo" about 1869 and includes it in his fictional 1886 book, "The Right Honourable" co-authored with Australian writer Rosa Campbell Praed. They also include O'Connor's music and call it "a genuine plantation song." In the book "Radoo" was sung by the fictitious Zenobia (Zen) who heard it sung on plantation presumably before the Civil War. It was called a Civil-War song and was the African-American "attempt at adieu." On p. 171, just a little past the music, "Radoo" is called "A wild little American negro song. . ."
Years later O'Connor's arrangement of Radoo, Radoo, Radoo with the ‘There is a Tavern’ tune was reprinted in her 1913 book, My Beloved South. She uses her formal name Elizabeth Paschal O'Connor and the book was co-authored by Mrs. T. P. O'Connor. The "Adieu" ("Radoo") stanza is associated with Must I Go Bound and My Blue-Eyed Boy (Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy) Roud 18831. Other traditional stanzas are found in the following two songs given by Belden[32]:
'Blue-eyed Boy.' Secured in 1909 by Miss Hamilton from Julia Rickman of the West Plains High School.
Must I go bound while he goes free?
Must I love a fellow when he don't love me?
Or must I act the childish part
And love a fellow when he broke my heart?
Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you.
I'll hang myself on a green willow tree
Unless he consents to marry me.
and:
"Adieu." Communicated to Miss Hamilton in 1911 by Shirley Hunt of the Kirksville Teachers College. Note the 'eavesdropping' introductory stanza, a favorite opening for the pastourelle type of street ballad.
As I walked out one evening fair
To view the plains and take the air
I overheard a young man say
He loved a girl that was going away.
Chorus: Adieu, adieu, my friends, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you.
I'll hang my harp upon the willow
And bid this lonesome world adieu.
Go bring me back that blue-eyed. boy,
Go bring my darling back to me,
Go bring me back the one I love
And happy I shall always be.
Must I be bound and you go free?
Must I love one that don't love me?
Or must I act a childish part
And stay with one that broke my heart?
Sometimes you think you have a friend
And one you always can depend;
But when you think that you have got,
When tried will prove that you will not.
The same "pastoral" stanza occurs in several hybrid versions of Butcher Boy. Here's is Hill's text of "Tavern," the penultimate stanzas does not appear in Hills' 1883 edition:
There is a tavern in the town, (in the town),
And there my dear love sits him down, (sits him down),
And drinks his wine 'mid laughter free,
And never, never thinks of me.
Chorus: Fare thee well, for I must leave thee,
Do not let this parting grieve thee,
And remember that the best of friends
Must part, must part.
Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu, adieu, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you,
I'll hang my harp on the weeping willow tree,
And may the world go well with thee.
He left me for a damsel dark, (damsel dark),
Each Friday night they used to spark, (used to spark),
And now my love who once was true to me
Takes this dark damsel on his knee.
And now I see him nevermore, (nevermore);
He never knocks upon my door, (on my door);
Oh, woe is me; he pinned a little note,
And these were all the words he wrote:
Oh, dig my grave both wide and deep, (wide and deep);
Put tombstones at my head and feet, (head and feet)
And on my breast you may carve a turtle dove,
To signify I died of love.
"There is a Tavern in the Town" by F. J. Adams, 1891.
Following Hills publication of "Tavern" in his 1883 "Student Songs" and in subsequent editions an arrangement of "Tavern" was published in 1891 by F.J. Adams whose publisher Willis Woodward and Co. apparently ignored Hills' copyright. The song became popular and entered tradition and was published in American Ballads and Songs by Louise Pound in 1922 as well as other folk editions[33].
* * * *
There is no known antecedent of Butcher Boy in the UK that has the first stanza, suicide and name Butcher Boy. Perhaps a broadside was once printed and has disappeared. As suggested by the Lutz version and its appearance in remote areas of North America, the Butcher Boy originated in the UK. A name conflict with Scottish versions of Berkshire Tragedy also named Butcher Boy may have occurred which helped drive the "Died for Love" Butcher Boy name into oblivion in the UK. It's impossible to say why the name Butcher Boy and form which was brought to America disappeared abroad. The exportation of the Butcher Boy ballad must have occurred in the 1700s and early to mid-1800s. Two British colonies[34] have versions of the Butcher Boy, which further strengthens the concept that the ballad was known in the UK and was brought to America and its colonies.
The creation of Butcher Boy is certainly from "Alehouse" with the suicide and ending from the broadside "Rambling Boy" or a similar unknown print since elements of the Cruel Father's plot are not standard in Butcher Boy. Its conception could be as follows: An original opening stanza "In London Town where I did dwell" was created followed by stanzas from Alehouse ("There is a house;" "It's a grief') and the writing of the "suicide" note perhaps from Sailor Boy. I believe the original name of the city was most likely "London City" which was adapted and localized in New England to become "Jersey City[35]." The popularity of "Jersey City" can be attributed to the widely printed New England broadsides. Several possible antecedents with the suicide were found in Scotland by Grieg in the early 1900s. This version given from stanza 4 was sung by Sam Davidson 1863–1951 of Auchedly, Tarves Aberdeen; a farmer of North Seat Farm and well known singer who learned ballads from his farm hands:
4. There's an alehouse in yonder town
My love gangs and he sets himself down,
He takes another fair maid on his knee,
And he tells her what he has done to me?
5. There's a blackbird on yonder tree,
Some says it's blind and canna see,
I wish it had been the case with me,
When first I fell in his company.
6. I wish, I wish but I wish in vain,
I wish I were a maid again,
But a maid again I'll never be
Till an apple grows on an orange tree.
7. I wish my baby it was born,
And set upon its nurse's knee,
And I myself were dead and gone
And the long green grass growing over me.
8. I saw her love come in last night
To search for his own heart's delight,
He ran upstairs, the doors he broke,
He found his love hanging on the rope.
9. He's ta'en his knife and he's cut her down,
And in her breast this note it was found:
"I promised to be this young man's wife,
And for his sake hae ta'en my life."
10. "You'll go dig my grave both long, wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and my feet,
And in the midst a turtle-dove,
To let all the world know that I died in love[36]."
Stanzas 5-7 are extra stanzas, rare in North America but common in the UK. If these extra stanzas are eliminated and the father is substituted for her lover, this versions is very similar to Butcher Boy, without the first stanza and the Butcher Boy name. Several Scottish versions have the suicide and are possible antecedents. The Butcher Boy name, the form of the first stanza and suicide was part of the ballad when it came to America many, many years ago. As stated earlier, the Butcher Boy ballad certainly came to America with the early settlers and was here by the late 1700s. An earlier pre-Revolutionary date is possible, but speculation. The additional stanzas including "Must I Go Bound," "I Wish I Wish" and "There is a bird" common in the UK are further evidence of the ballad's British origin.
* * * *
A number of localized versions have been part of the history of Butcher Boy in North America. "Jersey City" is by far the most popular localization[37]. One popular "localized" version is given below from the Folkways recording, "Fifty Sail on Newburgh Bay," 1975 by Pete Seeger and Ed Reneham. The liner notes follow:
The Hudson River Valley was settled by people who came from many parts of the world. They often brought with them the songs they had known in their homeland and in time, these songs acquired a local flavor. One of these songs originally came from Ireland in a somewhat different form. John Allison. who wrote "Hudson River Steamboat," also in this collection, adapted and arranged this traditional song- and called it
TARRYTOWN
In Tarrytown there did dwell
A lovely youth, I knew him well,
He courted me, my life away.
But now with me he will no longer stay.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With wild goose grasses growin' over me.
When I wore my apron low,
He'd follow me through rain and snow,
Now that I wear my apron high,
He goes right down the street and passes by.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With wild goose grasses growin' over me.
There is an inn, in Tarrytown,
Where my loves goes and sits him down,
He takes another on his knee,
For she has gold and riches more than me.
Wide and deep my grave will be
With wild goose grasses growin' over me.
The same recreation was recorded by the Weavers as "Wild Goose Grasses." Another localization is "Down in Adairsville" a Georgia version recorded by Hedy West in 1966. These recordings reflect the continued popularity of the ballad in the 1960s and 1970s in the US.
* * * *
Conclusions: The Died for Love ballads and their extended family have been very popular in North America. The Butcher Boy, despite its suicide, was very popular in the early 1900s and the known record of over 200 traditional versions shows only a fraction of its circulation. Guthrie Meade[38] lists over a dozen "early country" recording sessions of Butcher Boy (Butcher's Boy) by leading recording artists including Kelly Harrell, Henry Whitter; Vernon Dalhart, Buell Kazee; Bradley Kincaid and Blue Sky Boys. More recent recordings include: Joan Baez "The Railroad Boy" on Joan Baez Volume 2 1961; Railroad Boy as performed by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez during the second Rolling Thunder Revue (1976); Kirsty MacColl "The Butcher Boy" on Caroline 1995; Dave Van Ronk "The Butcher Boy" on Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street 2005; Lau "Butcher Boy" on Lightweights and Gentlemen 2007; and Elvis Costello "The Butcher's Boy" 2006.
The confusion about the origin of the Died for Love songs continues to this day- May, 2017. The notes from the usually reliable Traditional Ballad Index for the Died for Love family are further evidence of the confusion that goes back to the leading ballad researchers of the 1900s. Steve Roud and Steve Gardham expanded the Roud numbers for the Died for Love family but still versions of Cruel Father have no designated Roud number. Although popular back in the early 1800s the ballad and broadside Rambling Boy (Died for Love, C) is not listed on Traditional Ballad Index although there are two US versions and numerous traditional and broadside versions in the UK. Also not found in the Traditional Ballad Index is 7C, Sheffield Park. These "Died for Love" studies are my attempt at clarification although as this study has proven-- the exact origin of Butcher Boy is still speculation. Because Butcher Boy has been found in a consistent form in various remote ares of North America as well as in the British colonies, it points to a print antecedent in the UK. This missing British broadside, with a similar ancestry to Sheffield Park, was printed long ago (guestimating c.1686 to early 1700s) and disappeared from the UK. Evidence of its existence may be seen in the few Scottish versions with the hanging and several similar English versions.
What has been missing from this study is the deep pathos conveyed by the tragic tale of the loss of a beloved daughter who had "died for love." From the 1991 recording "Mountain Music Bluegrass style" by Bob Baker and the Pike County Boys comes this text that Baker learned from his parents in Pike County, Kentucky[39]:
“Snow Dove”
She went upstairs to make her bed,
Not a word to her mother she said,
Her mother she, went up there too,
"Daughter, daughter, what's wrong with you?"
Oh mother mother I cannot tell,
That butcher boy that I love so well,
There's another girl, in another town,
He goes right there and sits right down.
He gets her down upon his knee
And tells her things he won't tell me.
That night her father came in from work,
"Dear mother dear mother, where is my girl?"
Her went upstairs to make her hope,
And found her hanging on a rope.
Her took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these words he found:
Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place marble stones at my head and feet,
And in the middle of my grave put a snow-white dove,
To show the world that I died for love.
R. Matteson 2017
Port St. Lucie, FL
_______________________________________________
Footnotes:
1. Kyle Davis, Jr., Folk Songs of Virginia: A Descriptive index and Classification 1965. A least one and probably two versions are of Cruel Father, my version B. The texts are currently unavailable, only one has been reprinted.
2. The popular Butcher Boy appears in most collections and has been found extensively in Appalachia and in the Northeast as well as Canada and Maritime Canada. The Virginia Colony (Virginia after 1776) appears to be main repository. Whether the ballad was brought before the Revolutionary War is not proven but it seems possible. Several of the New England versions also appear to be quite old; Lutz A, Linscott's version and several of Flander's seem to be (at my estimation) in the first half of the 1800s at least.
3. Meade/Spottswood/Meade; Country Music Sources; 2002.
4. "The Right Honourable": A Romance of Society and Politics by Justin McCarthy, Mrs. Campbell Praed; 1888.
5. "Ballads and Songs" by H.M. Belden, 1940.
6. Many of the songs outside the "extended family" are similar in theme, such as "Early, Early in the Spring" (Laws M1; Roud #152) which sometimes that the "Go Dig a Grave" ending stanza.
7. Headnotes for Butcher Boy in "Songs and Ballads" by H.M. Belden, 1940.
8. Broadwood's quote is currently unavailable; see JFSS I, A Sailor's Life.
9. Kittredge's notes appear in The Journal of American Folk-lore, 1916 in the Tolman article, Some Songs Traditional in the United States.
10. For a list of Cruel Father ballads-- see the main headnotes version B.
11. John Harrington Cox, Folk Songs from the South, 1925.
12. Ibid.
13. The Constant Lady and False-hearted Squire, a broadside dated c. 1686.
14. See online: Sailing Trade ("The sailing trade is a weary trade,") chapbook, "Four Excellent New Songs," Edinburgh. Printed by J. Morren, c. 1800.
15. John Harrington Cox, Folk Songs from the South, 1925.
16. Only "Sweet William," Brown Collection M, remains as a possibility of a second version.
17. Kittredge provided notes for Some Songs Traditional in the United States by Albert Tolman published in the JAFL in 1916.
18. From the headnotes of Butcher Boy in "Ballads and Songs" by H.M. Belden, 1940.
19. "London Town" is the second most popular location and is found similarly in two British colonies. The use of "London Town" or versions with extra stanzas indicates a version not based on print.
20. There a number of occurrences of Jersey City or use of Butcher Boy that are English. Two early versions are a version with "Jersey City" attributed to an English nurse was collected by Babcock and published in 1889 and a version titled "Jessie's City" was collected in 1905. A list of UK versions and those from British colonies with Butcher Boy may be found in the British and Other Versions headnotes. Either the versions were learned from print/US citizens abroad or are remnants of archaic versions that disappeared in the UK long ago.
21. The name and form of Butcher boy are found in several UK versions. There is no certain explanation-- either they are left-over artifacts from a missing British broadside or they are learned from American sources.
22. There are several incomplete texts in this study in which the recording could not be understood or complete access was not given by Google Books-- resulting in a partial transcription.
23. See: Some Songs Traditional in the United States by Albert Tolman published in the JAFL in 1916.
24 The full quote is: "The piece appears to be an amalgamation of “The Squire's Daughter” (also known as “The Cruel Father, or, Deceived Maid”) with “There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town” (well known as a student song in this country under the title “There is a Tavern in the Town”)."
25. Our Book of Memories: Letters of Justin McCarthy to Mrs Campbell Praed (London, 1912)
26. Justin McCarthy was an Irish writer and politician.
27. "And May the World go well with you!" is another name for "Radoo, Radoo, Radoo."
28. Bessie O'Coonor is also known as Elizabeth Paschal O'Connor (1850- 1931). She was the wife of Tay Pay O'Connor, Irish politician and journalist. She grew up in Texas and published several books including My Beloved South.
29. This copy of "Radoo" was emailed to me by Steve Gardham in February 2017.
30. Published between 1877 and 1884 by R. March & Co., 18, St. James's Walk, Clerkenwell, London, E.C.
31. Traditional Ballads of Virginia by A. Kyle Davis Jr., 1929.
32. "Songs and Ballads" by H.M. Belden, 1940.
33. Other editions include versions printed by Spaeth, by Silber and by Fuld. Since "Tavern" was published internationally, it's difficult to gauge the influence of print-- the "folk" versions seem to be based on print.
34. The Butcher Boy was sung by from Lily Green, a native of Tristan da Cunha c. 1938 and c. 1962 by Maybelle Simmonds of Lowlands, Nevis.
35. Although "Jersey" is derived originally from the Isle of Jersey there's no certainty that Jersey has not been appropriated in America.
36. From The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection- Volume 8 by Patrick N. Shuldham-Shaw, Emily B. Lyle, published 2002.
37. This conclusion is made from studying the 200 North American versions by region (see Regions).
38. "Country Music Sources: A Biblio-Discography of Commercially Recorded Traditional Music," by Guthrie T. Meade, 2002.
39. Some info and text provided from the Old-Time String Band Book, 1964; Cohen and Seeger.
Special thanks to Steve Gardham for his many contributions to this study.
_____________________________
[Some North American versions of Butcher Boy that do not conform to broadsides:
1. Ballad of the Butcher Boy- Billy Hartman (PA) 1899 from Keystone folklore quarterly, Volume 2, no. 1, p. 26; Spring 1967.
2. Belden C
3. Butcher Boy- Jane Hicks Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp B
North American versions of Died for Love that conform to Cruel Farther variants:
1. Rambling Boy; John Lomax 1916
2. Cruel Father Sharp C 1918
CONTENTS: (individual taexts are found attached to this page (green highlight) on left-hand column or click on blue highlighted title below)
1) Rake and Rambling Boy- Almer Boyd (NY) 1826
2) Butcher Boy- old lady (NY-Birm) c.1860 Lutz A
3) The Butcher Boy- (PA) 1858 J. H. Johnson broadside
4) The Butcher Boy- (NY) De Marsan broadside c. 1860
Butcher Boy- Lorraine Purvis (IO) c.1870 Stout H
Died for Love- Mrs. Gray (IN) c. 1875 Henry F
Sweet William- Mary Smith (NC) c.1875 Brown M
Betsy, my Darling Girl- Griffin (GA) 1877 Morris
There is a Tavern- William H. Hills (MA) 1883
Radoo, Radoo, Radoo- unknown (NY) c.1883
In Jersey Town- English nurse (VA) 1889 Babcock
There is a Tavern- F. J. Adams (NY) 1891 Levy
Butcher Boy- Ida M. Cromwell (IO) c.1898 Rogers
Ballad of the Butcher Boy- B. Hartman (PA) 1899
Butcher Boy- The Stanley's (IO) c.1901 Stout A
Butcher Boy- Eva Packard (MO) 1903 Belden A
Butcher Boy- Mr. Vaughan (MO) 1903 Belden B
Butcher Boy- Nellie Martin (SC-MO) 1906 Belden C
Foolish Girl- Ada Belle Cowden (MO) 1909 Belden D
Brisk Young Lover- Della Moore (GA) 1909 Sharp A
Adieu- Shirley Hunt (MO) 1911 Hamilton/Belden C
Butcher Boy- Almeda Riddle (AR) c.1912 Wolf
Farmer's Boy- Lura Wagoner (NC) 1913 Brown K
Turtle Dove- A.F.Nelson (WI-MO) 1913 Belden F
Black Birds- Lura Wagoner (NC) 1913 Brown L
Butcher's Boy- Lillian Boswell (WY) 1914 Pound A
Forsaken Lovers- L. D. Hayman (NC) 1915 Brown N
Butcher's Boy- Jane Goon (OH) 1915 JAF Eddy A
Rambling Boy- anon (US west) 1916 John Lomax
Butcher Boy- Jane Hicks Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp B
Blue Eyed Boy- Hezekiah Crane (TN) 1916 Sharp MS
Little Sparrow- Ella Taylor (IN) 1916 Tolman
Adieu- Mrs. Nathaniel Stone (VA) 1916 Davis
I'll Hang My Harp- Amy Henderson (NC) 1916 Brown
Butcher's Boy- Nellie Haddix (WV) 1917 Cox A
Butcher Boy- Virginia Ransom (KY-WV) 1917 Cox B
Dearest Billie- Agnes Presley (NC) 1917 Wetmore
Butcher Boy- Mrs. N. C. Waugh (ON) 1918 Waugh
Cruel Father- Fanny Coffey (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
Died for Love- Sina Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp D
In Jersey City- Vergie Charlton (WV) 1918 Sharp MS
I Wish, I Wish- Jacob Sowder (VA) 1918 Sharp MS
Butcher Boy- Ellen Bigney (NS) 1919 Mackenzie A
In Jefferson City- (NC) 1920 Sutton, Brown A
Butcher Boy- Amos Abrams (NC) c.1922 Abrams C
Butcher's Boy- Kelly Harrell (VA) 1925 Victor REC
Butcher Boy- Spence Moore (VA) 1925 Davies
Butcher Boy- Mrs. G. V. Easley (MS) 1926 Hudson A
In Kosciusko- Sanford Hughston (MS) 1926 Hudson B
Wrecked & Rambling Boy- Hellums (MS) 1926 Hud C
In Jersey- Nancy Giannotti (NJ) 1926 Henry C
Boston Town- Emeth Tuttle (NC) 1926 Brown H
Blue Eyed Boy - Frances Ries (OH) 1927 Sandburg A
London City- no informant (US) 1927 Sandburg B
Butcher Boy- anon (AR) 1927 Farm Life
Grieve, Oh Grieve- Sam Hinton (TX) 1927 REC
Butcher Boy- Thompson (NS) 1928 Mackenzie B
Butcher's Boy- Frank Luther (NY) 1928 REC
The Railroad Boy- Buell Kazee (KY) 1928 REC
Butcher Boy- Bradley Kincaid (KY) 1928 REC
Butcher Boy- B. Anderson (MO) 1928 Randolph A
Butcher Boy- Ruth Hains (MO) 1928 Randolph C
Butcher's Boy- anon (PA) 1928 Harrisburg Telegraph
Butcher Boy- Edward Hartley (NS) 1929 Creighton
In Jersey City- Thad Napiorski (NJ) 1929 Henry D
Butcher Boy- Elizabeth Albers (NJ) 1929 Henry E
I Wish, I Wish- Violet Justis (MO) 1929 Randolph B
In Johnson City- Minnie Church (NC) 1930 Brown I
Butcher's Boy- Sam Harmon (TN) 1930 Henry A
In Jersey City- Bessie Martin (MI) 1930 Gardner A
Butcher's Boy- Lois Whitbee (NC) c1930 Lunsford A
Butcher's Boy- Dora Blanton (SC) c1930 Lunsford B
The Butcher's Boy- anon (NC) c1930 Lunsford C
Jefferson City- anon (NC) c1930 Lunsford D
Johnson City- Gera Norris (NC) c1930 Lunsford E
Jaunson City- Clyde West (NC) c1930 Lunsford F
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Harrington (VT) 1930 Brown
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Peter Miller (MI) 1931 Gardner B
Butcher's Boy- Rosie Oikle (NS) 1931 Fauset A
Must I Go Bound- Peter Dyer (NS) 1931 Fauset B
Butcher Boy- A. Truelove (VA) 1931 Scarborough A
Butcher's Boy- O. Johnson (VA) 1931 Scarborough B
Butcher Boy- Bessie Musick (VA) 1931 Scarborough C
Jersey City- Mary Presley (VA) 1931 Scarborough D
In Johnson City- McCurry (NC) 1931 Scarborough F
Butcher's Boy- L. Corbin (NC) 1931 Scarborough G
Died in Love- Lovingood (NC) 1931 Scarborough H
Butcher Boy- Paul Lorette (VT) 1931 Flanders REC
False Lover- Parmer/Robbins (IO) 1931 Stout B
Butcher Boy- Rubye Krueger (IO) 1931 Stout C
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Willer (IO) c.1931 Stout D
Butcher Boy- Bernice Voege (IO) c.1931 Stout E
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Olson (IO) c.1931 Stout F
Butcher Boy- Iva Ehlers (IO) c.1931 Stout G
Butcher's Boy- A. Lauterbach (IO) c.1931 Stout I
Oh Willie- Mary Lou Bell (VA) 1932
Butcher Boy- Otto Rayburn (MO) 1932 Randolph D
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Burditt (VT) 1932 Flanders REC
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Schell (NC) 1933 Matteson
London City- Dock Stinnett (TN) c.1933 Henry B
Rambling Rowdy Boy- Rena Hicks (NC) 1933 Henry F
My Love Willie- Hippolyte Dupont (LA) 1934 Lomax
Drunkard's Song- Rudy Vallee (VT) 1934 REC
Georgia City- William Rabidue (MI) 1935 Gardner C
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Rothrock (IN) 1935 Brewster A
Butcher's Boy- Mrs. Vaughan (IN) 1935 Brewster B
Butcher's Boy- Ken Williams (IN) 1935 Brewster C
Butcher's Boy- Molly Jackson (KY) 1935 Lomax
Thro the Meadow She Ran- Dusenberry (AR) 1936
Butcher Boy- Jennie Devlin (NY) c.1936 Lomax
Butcher's Boy- Jimmy Morris (KY) 1937 Lomax
Railroad Boy- Nell Hampton (KY) 1937 Lomax REC
Butcher's Boy- Ben Rice (MO) 1937 LOC REC
Butcher's Boy- Farmer Collett (KY) 1937 Lomax
In Jersey City- Minnie Curtis (NC) 1937 Abrams A
Butcher's Boy- Irving Caldwell (KY) 1937 Lomax
Butcher's Boy- Virgie Bailey (KY) 1937 Lomax
Butcher's Boy- Liza Stewart (KY) 1937 Lomax REC
Butcher Boy- Pearl Nye (OH) 1937 J. Lomax
Jefferson City- Knefelkamp (IL) 1938 Neely A
Butcher Boy- Dave Adamson (IL) 1938 Neely B
Butcher Boy- Clara Walpert (IL) 1938 Neely C
Butcher Boy- Ida Thompson (IL) 1938 Neely D
Butcher Boy- Ada F. Kelley (MA) 1939 Linscott
Jersey City- Melissa Moores (OH) 1939 Eddy A
Butcher's Boy- Mrs. Warner (OH) 1939 Eddy B
London City- Edith Walker (NC) 1939 Brown 4K
Butcher's Boy- James York (NC) 1939 Brown B
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Fairbanks (VT) 1939 Flanders
Butcher's Boy- May Kennedy McCord (MO) 1939 Owens
Butcher's Boy- Smith/Combs (KY) 1939 Combs
Butcher's Boy- Blue Sky Boys (NC) 1940 REC
In Jersey City- anon (NY) pre1940 Thompson A
Georgia Town- anon (NY) pre1940 Thompson B
Butcher Boy- Lena B. Fish (NH) 1940 Flanders REC
Rude & Rambling Boy- Buna Hicks (NC) 1941 Warner
Butcher's Boy- L. Short (MO) 1941 Randolph E
Butcher's Boy- G. McCarty (AR) 1941 Randolph F
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Wasson (AR) 1941 Randolph G
Butcher Boy- Arlie Freeman (AR) 1942 Randolph H
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Russell (VT) 1942 Flanders REC
In London Street- anon (NC) c.1942 Abrams B
I Wish in Vain- F.P. Provance (PA) Bayard 1943
Boston Town- Virginia Bowers (NC) 1943 Brown D
Boston Town- Virginia Hartsell (NC) 1943 Brown C
Butcher Boy- Bell Lambert (NC) 1943 Brown F
In Boston Town- Eva Furr (NC) 1943 Brown G
In Johnson City- Ella Smith (NC) 1943 Brown J
Butcher Boy - Alice Robie (NH) 1943 Flanders REC
Butcher Boy- Paul Peterson (RI) 1945 Flanders REC
Butcher Boy- Amos Eaton (VT) 1945 Flanders REC
As I Walked Out- Eden Hash (TN) 1947 McDowell A
Forsaken Girl- Eden Hash (TN) 1947 McDowell B
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Gilley (TN) 1947 McDowell C
Butcher Boy- O. Jenness (ME) 1947 Flanders REC
Butcher Boy- Maggie Gannon (NY) 1947 Lutz B
Butcher Boy- Cal Conklin (NY) 1947 Lutz C
Butcher Boy- Mrs. G-- (NY) 1947 Lutz D
Butcher Boy- Mrs. J. Bulson (NY) 1947 Lutz E
Johnson City- Robert Wallace (AL) 1948 Arnold
Butcher Boy- Mrs. Robert Hill (MO) 1950 Parler E
Railroad Boy- Mrs. Hornbeak (FL) 1950 Morris A
Butcher's Boy- Mrs. Brady (FL) 1950 Morris B
Butcher Boy- E.L. Simons (IN) 1951 Simons Family
Butcher Boy- Bert Fitzgerald (NL) 1951 Leach
Butcher Boy - William Webster (RI) 1952 Flanders
Oh, Willie- Rod Drake (TX) 1952 Owens
Butcher Boy- Effie Tucker (TN) 1953 Boswell
Butcher Boy - Goldie Gardner (AR) 1953 Parler C
Lullaby- Carrie Grover (NS-MA) pre1953
Butcher's Boy- Inez Gibson (AR) 1956 Parler G
Butcher's Boy- Vesta Belt (KS) 1957 O'Bryant
Butcher Boy - Lucy Quigley (AR) 1958 Hunter A
Butcher Boy- Gladys McChristian (AR) 1958 Parler D
Soldier Boy- Pearl Brewer (AR) 1958 Parler F
Butcher's Boy- Buck Buttery (AR) 1958 Parler H
She Died in Love- Mrs. Walters (NL) c.1958 Peacock
Butcher Boy- Ina Harvey (MO) 1958 Hunter C
Butcher Boy- anon (PA) 1958 Bayard
Butcher Boy- Amelia Kinslow (NL) 1959 Peacock
She Died In Love - Mrs. Ghaney (NL) 1959 Peacock
Butcher Boy- Mildred Ratliff (AR) 1959 Parler A
Farmer's Boy - J. Ralph Vass (VA) 1959 Shellans
Butcher's Boy- Dorothy Ross (MO) 1959 Hunter D
Butcher Boy - Bessie Atchley (AR) 1960 Parler B
Beam of Oak- Stuart Letto (LB) 1960 Leach
Morning Fair- Frank Proffitt (NC) 1962 REC
Butcher Boy- Edwin Mays (OH-VA) 1962 Winkelman
Poor Girl- Lora Moore Jasper (AR) 1962 Parler I
Go Dig my Grave- Watson/Ritchie (KY-NC) 1963 REC
Butchler's Boy - Vern Smeiser (US) 1963 REC
Butcher's Boy- Grant Rogers (NY) 1964 REC Paton
Snow Dove- Bob Baker (KY) pre1964 Cohen/Seeger
Butcher Boy- LaRena Clark (ON) 1965 Fowke
I Wish, I Wish- Dillard Chandler (NC) 1965 REC
Butcher Boy- Jim Cleveland (NY) 1966 REC Davies
Butcher Boy- Lem Griffis (GA) 1966 Burrison
Butcher's Boy- Sam Hinton (TX) 1966 REC
Down in Adairsville- Hedy West (GA) 1967 REC
Alabama City- Mrs. Carter (AL) 1968 Dill
Butcher Boy- Ollie Gilbert (AR) 1969 Hunter E
I Died for Love- Dale Klugg (AR) 1969 Hunter F
Butcher Boy- Roy Wrinkle (AR) 1969 Hunter G
Butcher's Boy- Buell Bush (WV) c.1971 Bush II
Butcher Boy- Bill Ping (CA) 1972 Hunter B
Butcher Boy- Dimple Savage Thompson (KY) 1975
London City- Morgan Sexton (KY) pre1976 REC
Butcher Boy- Betty Smith (NC) 1981 REC
Butcher's Boy- Arwoods (NC) 1983 Yates
Butcher Boy- Russell Lahew (WV) c. 1997 Davies
_____________________________________________________________
ADD: The Butcher Boy. sung by Carrie and Jane Pankratz of Cow's Bay, Oregon c. 1947 (Matteson MS Collection)
In London City, where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well,
He courted me my heart away,
And with me then he will not stay.
There is a strange house in this town,
Where my he goes up and sits right down;
He takes another girl on his knee,
And tells to her things he won't tell me.
I have to grieve; I'll tell you why:
Because she has more gold than I;
But her gold will melt, and her silver fly;
In time of need, she'll be as poor as I.
She went upstairs to go to bed,
And nothing more to her mother said;
My mother said "You are acting queer,
"What is the trouble my daughter dear?"
"Now mother dear you need not know
What pain and sorrow, grief and woe—
Give me a chair and sit me down,
With pen and ink to write words down."
And when her father first came home,
"Where is my daughter, where has she gone?"
He went upstairs and the door he broke,
And he found her hanging from a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these words he found:
"A silly girl I am you know
To hang myself for the butcher's boy."
Go dig my grave, both long and deep;
Place a tombstone at my head and feet,
Upon my breast a snow-white dove,
To show the world I died for love!"
Must I be bound while he goes free,
Must I love a boy who don't love me,
Alas, alas it can never be
Till oranges grow on apple trees.
--------------------------
From: Miller, A Study of Folklore in Watauga County, North Carolina
(1938)
Sung by Mrs. Clarence Isaacs, August 2,1937, Isaacs' Branch, Sugar Grove
North Carolina.
The Lover's Farewell
“In Johnson City where I did dwell
There lived a boy I loved so well
He courted me my heart away,
And then with me he would not stay.
“In that same city there lived a girl
Whose house he'd go and sit around
He’d pull her down upon his knee
And tell her things he wouldn't tell me.
“And I will tell you the reason why:
Because she had more gold than I.
Her gold will melt and her beauty will fly;
She’ll see the day she’s poor as I."
It was late in the evening when her father came home,
Inquiring where his daughter had gone
He ran upstairs and the door he broke,
He found her hanging by his own bed rope.
He took his knife and cut her down
And in her bosom this letter was found.
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep;
Place a marble stone at my head and feet.
"And on my grave place a weeping willow tree,
That it may weep and mourn for me.
And in this tree place a turtle dove,
To show the world that I died for love."
This letter was written by her own right hand
This letter was written to a brisk-eyed man,
“Go read it o’er, my love, said she,
"For this'll be the last you read of me."
______________________________
[The following influential notes are from Some Songs Traditional in the United States, by Albert Tolman, c. 1915; reprinted in JAF 1916-- notes by Kittredge in brackets.]
THE BUTCHER'S BOY.
The following was obtained by Miss Mary O. Eddy from Miss Jane Goon, both of Perrysville, O. Shearin's text (p. 24) lays the scene in New York; Barry's (No. 41), “in London city;” Belden's (No. 21), as here. Pound, p. 18."
There is an English version in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii, 159. It seems strange that this should begin, “In Jessie's city, oh, there did dwell.”
1. [Barry prints the tune in this Journal, xxii, 78. See also Belden, this Journal, xxv, 13. A Virginian version of the words was published by Mr. W. H. Babcock in Folk-Lore, vii. 32.]
2. [“The Butcher Boy,” almost word for word identical with the text here printed, is found in an American broadside of about 1860 (H. de Marsan, New York, Harvard College, 25242.5.5 [138]). It was No. 8 in de Marsan's list No. 7,” and also in a New York broadside of 1880–90 (“Henry J. Wehman, Song Publisher,” No. 302, Harvard College, 25241.29). The same piece is in “Journal of Folk-Song Society,” II, 159–160. For the last four stanzas see “Early, Early all in the Spring” (“Journal of Folk-Song Society,” II, 293–294).
The piece appears to be an amalgamation of “The Squire's Daughter” (also known as “The Cruel Father, or, Deceived Maid”*) with “There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town” (well known as a student song in this country under the title “There is a Tavern in the Town”)."
An absurdly confused (but quite singable) piece, “The Rambling Boy,”" concludes as follows:–
My father coming home at night,
And asked for his heart's delight,
He ran up stairs the door he broke
And found her hanging in a rope.
He took a knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom a note was found,
Dig me a grave both wide and deep,
And a marble stone to cover it."]
* These last four lines also conclude other English songs. See Journal of Folk-Song Society, ii, 158–159; iii, 188.
* The Brown University collection of Andrews and de Marsan broadsides has the list, from which the number can be ascertained.
* [Early nineteenth-century English broadside in Harvard College Library, 25242.5.5 (147), no. 7 (“W. Shelmerdine & Co. Printers, Manchester”).]
* [Early nineteenth-century slip in Harvard College Library, 25242.2, fol. 65.]
* [Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i, 252-253; ii, 168-169; Leather, Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, pp. 205-206 (“A Brisk Young Sailor"); cf. Kidson, Traditional Tunes, pp. 4446; Broadwood, Traditional Songs, pp. 92-95.]
* [Pitt's broadside (Harvard College Library, 25242.2, fol. 120); cf. “I am a Rover” (Kidson, pp. 147-148). For the last stanza of “The Butcher Boy” see also Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii, 158; iii, 188.]
* [Cf. a somewhat similar stanza (6) in “The Sailor's Tragedy” (this Journal, xxvi, 177). To the references there given add: The Universal Songster, London, 1834, ii, 273; The Lover's Harmony, London, (ca. 1840), p. 278; Gavin Greig, Folk-Song of the North-East, Peterhead, 1914, no. cxxx.]
___________________________________________________
[Belden's extensive notes, Ballads and Songs, 1940 follow. The flower reference by Belden from an unknown song submitted by Barry (one stanza is given below) may be found in some UK versions and comes from "The Constant Lady and False-hearted Squire," also called "Oxfordshire Tragedy" by Louis Chappell. More extensive flower references are found in The Deceased Maiden Lover (w/Chorus) broadside which is a rewrite of lutenist Robert Johnson's circa 1611 song of 4 stanzas (w/chorus) titled, “A Forsaken Lover's Complaint.” Only one stanza of Deceased Maiden is similar to the ones in The Oxfordshire Tragedy. The heart-ease is the flower that cures broken-hearts.
Belden's notes are incorrect especially regarding Sheffield Park- see my headnotes.]
The Butcher Boy
For evidence of the popularity of this ballad in stall and songbook print see Kittredge's notes in JAFL XXIX 1?0 and XXXV 361. He suggests that it is an amalgamation of 'The Cruel, Father, or Deceased Maid,' and, 'There is an Alehouse in Yonder Town,' both English. The combination, however, seems to be rather definitely an American product. In its 'regular' form, as printed by
De Marsan, Partridge, Wehman, and in many songbooks, a girl, who lives in Jersey City, tells how she loves a butcher boy, who has transferred his amours to another girl 'because she has more gold than I;' foretells that he wilt cease to love this other girl when her gold is gone; goes upstairs to make her bed, lamenting to her mother and bidding her bring a chair, pen, ink, and paper; then (with a sudden shift to third person narration) her father comes home, breaks open her door, finds her hanging in a rope, cuts her down, and in her bosom finds a letter giving directions for her burial, including the placing on her breast of a turtle dove 'to show the world I died for love.' Most of the elements of the story are to be found in more than one British ballad. The location in Jersey City is, of course, American (the 'in Jessie's city' of the Essex text in JFSS II 159 looks as if this text had traveled back from America to England); but it is 'in London city' in texts from Nova Scotia, Vermont, Virginia, and Tennessee, 'in Dublin city' in Ontario and one text from Nova Scotia, 'in New York City' in one of the West Virginia and. one of the Iowa
texts, 'in Jefferson city' in two Illinois texts, 'in yonder city' in Georgia, and 'down in a village' in Mississippi. The location is Sheffield park in Pitts's broadside of that title, which comes closest of all British stall prints to the American ballad and is current also orally in Hampshire (Gillington, Eight Hampshire Folk Songs No. 7). A Dorset text has 'in Yorkshire Park.' The 'butcher boy' is only American, but is remarkably constant in American texts in English analogs he is 'a brisk young lad,' 'a sailor lad', 'a rambling boy,' and the like (in the Essex text mentioned above he is 'a postman boy'). The tavern (inn, alehouse) is English; American texts of The Butcher Boy have either no localization of the young man's second. amours or a vague, town, or 'house' (exceptions are Nova Scotia A, Ontario, Iowa A B H, and the Nebraska text in ABS 62- this last not strictly a text of The Butcher Boy. The girl's suicide by hanging appears in The Rambling Boy (Pitts), The Cruel Father (Harvard Library, no imprint), and in oral tradition in Lincolnshire (JFSS II 293-4, a version of Early, Early in the Spring[Kidson]), Essex (JFSS II 159-600, in Jessie's City), and Dorset (JFSS VII 46-51 The concluding stanza in which the girl gives directions for her burial is likely to appear in almost any ballad ending in a death. Missouri C has in its third stanza (see below) an item which I have found in only two other traditional texts of the Butcher Boy but which is of frequent occurrence elsewhere: in Dorset (JFSS V 188-9) There was Three Worms on Yonder Hill, fairly close in story to The Butcher Boy), perhaps in Lancashire (JFSS I 252-3) a text of There is an alehouse in Yonder Town in which Kidson has editorially filled in the places with other words), in Spaeth's text in weep some More, My Lady 728-9, in North Carolina (SharpK II 268, Every Night When the Sun Goes in), in the Appalachians (AMS 50, Careless Love) and in negro songs (JAFL XXIV 296, PFLST VII 99, ANFS 326-7, NS 194-5, and elsewhere). It is a riddling metonymy of a sort that the folk are fond of, like the sheath and knife figure in the Child ballad named therefrom. One other feature, frequent in English ballads having a similar story but not found in any text[1] of The Butcher Boy, should be mentioned. In two seventeenth century broadsides, The Deceased Maiden Lover and The Constant Lady and False-hearted Squire (Roxburghe Ballads I 260-2 and VIII 635-6), in Sheffield, Park (Pitts; also in oral tradition in Hampshire, see above), in Lancashire and Hertfordshire texts of A Brisk Young Sailor (JFSS V 183-9), in the Dorset There was Three Worms on Yonder Hill, in an Essex text of Died for Love (JFSS II 158-9)--all having a story something like that of The Butcher Boy--the girl does not hang herself but, like Ophelia, goes in search of flowers to cure the wounds of love[2] makes a bed of them, and dies thereon (or, sometimes, dies and is covered with flowers and grass by her loving mistress). This element appears also in an otherwise unrelated song from North Carolina, Dearest Billie (MSNC 7). The Butcher Boy, as distinct from other renderings of the same general situation, has been recorded from tradition in Essex (JFSS II 159), Nova Scotia (BSSNS 157-60, SBNS 33-4), Ontario (JAFL XXXI 79), Vermont (VFSB 115-6 ) , New Jersey (JAFL XLIV 76-7, XLV 78, FSSH 197-9), Pennsylvania (JAFL XXII 78, tune only), Virginia (FLJ VII 32, SCSM 282-6, Grapurchat for 25 August, 1932), West Virginia (FSS 480-2), Tennessee (JAFL XI:IV 77-8, FSSH 796-7 ), North Carolina (BMFSB 96-7, SCSM 287-8), Georgia (SharpK II 76-8, JAFI: XLV 72-9, FSSH 195-6), Mississippi (FSM 160), Missouri (Ozark Life Y No. 9), Ohio (JAFL XXIX 109, XXXV 360-1), Indiana (FSSH 199), Illinois (TSSI 146-9), Iowa (MAFLS XXIX 37-47), and Wyoming (ABS 60-2). Shearin's list shows that it is known also in Kentucky; and it is probable that it is current in many other parts of the country but has not been thought worthy of record. Spaeth (Weep Some More, My Lady 128-9) and Sandburg (ASb 324) give it without localization.
1. Rather, in any printed text. In two texts privately communicated to me by Barry in 1917, one from, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and one from Deerfield, Massachusetts, the girl runs thru the meadows gathering flowers, for
There is a flower that I've heard say
'Tis called hearts-ease both night and day,
And if that flower I could find,
'Twould ease my heart and please my mind.
The former of these has also the 'apron high' motif.
2. The folklore of flowers and herbs is too complex and too vague to be dealt with here; see PMLA XXXIII 359-67. As de Gubernatis (Mythologie des Plantes I 131), Ovid knew that there were no simples that could cure these wounds:
Me miseram, quod amor non est medicabilis herbis Heroid. V 149
Ei mihi, quod nullis amor est sanabilis herbis Metam, I 523.
_________________________________________________________________________
THE BALLAD OF THE BUTCHER BOY IN THE RAMAPO MOUNTAINS
Anne Lutz [for full-article see Recordings & Info page]
ONCE THERE was in London a butcher boy who made love to a girl and left her, and she hanged herself. At least there is an English version of “The Butcher Boy” that begins:
In London town where I did dwell,
A butcher boy whom I knew well
He courted all my life away,
And now with me he will not stay.
That was sung for me by an old lady, now over ninety, who learned it as a child in Birmingham, England.
In Rockland County, New York, and in the adjacent part of New Jersey, most people claim that the faithless butcher boy lived in Jersey City.
The first person to sing part of this ballad for me was old Maggie Gannon, housekeeper for Gill Pitt, on the mountain paralleling the Haverstraw Road near Ladentown, New York. Her enunciation is poor, but her vigor and enthusiasm are amazing. This is what I got:
A butcher boy in Jersey City
And now with me he won’t not stay.
He silver will melt, he gold will fly;
You’ll be poor as I.
Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Marble stones to my head and feet,
To show this world I died for love.
With this for a beginning, I started to hunt for people who know folksongs in the area that may be roughly defined as the Ramapo Mountains and adjacent regions. Very soon I found that in this section "The Butcher Boy" was the best song to use for a feeler, whenever I began asking someone about old songs.
Most people seem to know the story as Maggie Gannon does; the butcher boy left the girl for another who has more money
Cal Conklin, itinerant handyman of the Tallman-Monsey-Laden- town section of Rockland County, wrote out the words of the song for me The following is his version, with his own spelling and punctuation: In London City where I did Dwell A
_____________________________________________________
Scarborough E, not related to Butcher Boy
Polly Perkins, Of Washington Square (1860s)
I'm broken hearted as a Butcher boy etc.
Chorus: Oh, she was as beautiful as a butterfly
There's none could compare
With pretty little Polly Perkins,
Of Washington Square.
Mr. Edward Conwell, of Columbia University, contributed a fragment with the following note:
I have tried from time to time to learn where my Grandfather may have found the following snatch of song. He was born in 1826, served in the Civil War, and was acutely alive to any sort of song or verse. This may have been a bit of dam yankee, imperfectly caught on the battle-fields, or it may have been picked up from some book-agent. No stranger was ever turned from his door, and a good guess is that some agent had sung a snatch from Broadway, as he peddled books, lightning
rods or enlarged pictures. I offer it exactly as it was sung. What the second phrasing "in grief to compare" might mean, I can't guess.
(E) "There was a butcher's boy
In grief to compare
With my little Polly Perkins
Of Washington Square."
________________________________
[Two similar versions based on a recreation by John Allison, recorded first as Tarrytown]
"Wild Goose Grasses" - The Weavers, on various of their records and re-releases.
"Tarrytown" - Pete Seeger, on his Carnegie Hall Concert album.
----------------------
[Missing]
Or what about George Reneau's recording "Railroad Lover" ("In Johnson City where I did dwell, that railroad boy I loved so well . . . "), which is actually a variant of the familiar "Butcher's Boy"?
______________________________________________________
[Both Irish Girl and Michigan Minstrel have "As I walked out" line and are similar]
A New Song Call'd, The Irish Girl, 1810
As I walked out one evening fair
[has" I wish" stanzas
----------------
[This opening is found several hybrid versions]
CHAPTER III.
"As I walked out one evening fair,
For to view the fields and take the air,
I heerd a damsel syin' say,
'The youth I love is a guayne away.'"
Michigan Minstrel.
Widow Spriggins, Mary Elmer, and Other Sketches
edited by M. L. Ward Whitcher 1868
___________________________________________________
From Waly, waly notes:
In the same collection we can find a version of "My Blue-eyed Boy" from Nebraska (ca. 1905, p. 212) that also includes this verse. Frank Brown once noted that this song has "one of those Protean folk-lyrics whose identity is hard to fix because they shift from text to text, taking on new elements and dropping old ones from the general reservoir of the folk fancy" (Brown 1952, Vol. 3, p. 298). His own "Blue-Eyed Boy" as well a variant collected by Paul Brewster are very different from Pound's but have retained this particular verse (see for Brown 1952, dto.; Brewster 1940, p. 85, here as "I turn back to my childhood part" [sic!]). "Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag (1927, p. 324) looks more like a version of "The Butcher Boy" while "Brisk Young Lover" as sung by Jane Gentry in 1916 for Cecil Sharp (Smith, p. 175, the melody is also in Sharp 1917, No. 101B, p. 287) is in fact "The Butcher Boy" with a mutilated variant of this verse - without the "childish part" - added at the end of the song.
----------------------------------------------------
Love' (Roud 18828); 'The Butcher Boy' (Roud 18832); 'The Tavern in the Town', an American student song from about the 1880s (Roud 18834); 'The Rambling Boy' (Roud 18830); and 'Isle of Cloy' (Roud 23272);
-------------
"Butcher Boy, The" (aka "In Just a City [Jersey City]") [Laws P35]
Tavern in the Town
Roud Folksong Index (S253330)
First Line:
Source: Gwilym Davies Collection
Performer: Unknown singer
Date: 1979 (Feb)
Place: England : Gloucestershire : Stonehouse
Collector: Davies, Gwilym
----------------------
Brown III, 1954
Little Sparrow
F. 'A Wish.' From W. Amos Abrams of Boone; not dated, but probably some time in the 1930s. One of the composites so often found in folk lyric. The second, third, and fifth stanzas belong to "The Butcher Boy,' the first stanza is from 'Little Sparrow.'
1 I wish I was a little sparrow ;
I'd fly away from sin and sorrow,
I'd fly away like a turtle dove,
I'd fly in the arms of my true love.
2 In yonder lands there is a home,
They say that's where my true love's gone.
But there's a girl sits on his knee.
Oh, don't you know that's grief to me ?
3 It's grief to me, I'll tell my why,
Because she has more gold than I.
But her gold will melt, her silver fly;
She'll see the day she's poor as I.
4 Oh. 1 wish. I wish, but I wish in vain,
That he'd come hack to me again.
But now he['s| gone, left me alone.
Poor orphan girl without a home.
5 Go dig my grave hoth wide and deep.
Place a marhle stone at my head and feet
And on my hreast place a turtle dove
To testify that I died of love.
* Texts of 'The Butcher Boy' show that this line should run 'It's grief to me. I'll tell you why.'
----------
265
There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat
This appears to be a patcliing together of nuisic-hall matter — the
opening stanza— and stanzas from 'The Blue-Eyed Boy,' p. 298.
'There Comes a Fellow with a Derby Hat.' From the manuscript song-
book of -Miss Edith Walker of Boone, Watagua county.
1 There comes a fellow with a derby hat.
They say he's jealous, but what of that?
If he is jealous, I am gay ;
I can get a sweetheart any day.
Chorus:
Go bring me back the one I love,
Go bring my darling back to me.
They say that he loves another girl;
If true, he's proven false to me.
2 There sits a bird on yonder tree.
They say he's blind and cannot see.
If I had only been like he
Before I'd a-kept your company!
Brown Collection Vol. 3, 1953
259. I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree
Here the shoe-and-glove stanzas from 'The Lass of Roch Royal' are combined with the refrain of a very familiar song. There is a quite unauthenticated legend that this song, a very popular parlor song of the last century, was the work of a young British officer who fell in love with the Princess Victoria before she came to the throne. Its actual authorship seems not to be known. It is reported as traditional song in Scotland (Ord 56-7), is listed in the Shearin and Pound syllabuses, and is to be found in several books of popular songs — without, of course, the shoe-and-glove stanzas.
A. 'I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree.' Contributed by Miss Amy Henderson of Worry, Burke county; not dated, but at some time before 1916. Note that the rhythm of lines 1 and 5 has been changed from that found in these stanzas elsewhere.
1 'Oh! who's going to shoe my pretty little foot, foot, foot,
And who's going to glove my lily-white hand,
And who's going to kiss my ruby lips
When you're in a far distant land ?'
Chorus: Adieu, kind friends, adieu, adieu.
I stay no longer here with you.
I'll hang my harp on a willow tree
And go for the fellow that goes for me.
2 'My Pa's going to shoe my pretty little foot, fool, foot.
My Ma's going to glove my lily-white hand;
I know who'll kiss my ruby lips
When I'm in a far distant land.'
B. 'I'll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree.' Contributed by I. A. Greer of Watauga county. The chorus only with the music.
I'll hang my harp on a willow tree.
Adieu, kind friends, adieu, adieu.
I'll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree
And may the world go well with thee.
---------------
Adieu Adieu Adieu
Roud Folksong Index (S196470)
First Line: Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu, adieu, adieu
Source: Greig-Duncan Collection 6 p.265
Performer: Walker, Mrs.
Date: 1906 (Sep)
Place: Scotland
Collector: Duncan, James B.
----------
Tavern in the Town
Roud Folksong Index (S380052)
First Line: There is a tavern in the town, in the town
Source: Hopkins, Songs from the Front and Rear (1979) p.32
Performer:
Date: 1939-1945
Place: Canada
Collector:
Roud No: 18834
---------------
There is a Tavern in the Town
Roud Folksong Index (S253519)
First Line:
Source: WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.1389
Performer: Hill, Miss Corrie
Date: 1940 (5 Oct)
Place: USA : Virginia : Culpeper
Collector: Jeffries, Margaret
I Wish I Wish
Roud Folksong Index (S336938)
First Line: ... goes unto yonder town
Source: Peter Hall Sound Collection (copy in School of Scottish Studies and Vaughan Williams Memorial Library)
Performer: Macdonald, Jessie
Date: 1960s - 1980s (?)
Place: Scotland
Collector: Hall, Peter
Roud No: 18834
---------------
Early Early All in the Spring
Roud Folksong Index (S371600)
First Line: Oh it's early, early all in the spring
Source: Topic TSCD 677T ('The Flax in Bloom')
Performer: Ryan, Winnie
Date: 1952 (24 Jul) / 1952 (1 Aug)
Place: N. Ireland : Belfast
Collector: Kennedy, Peter / O'Boyle, Sean
Roud No: 18834
---------
Lullaby
Roud Folksong Index (S214428)
First Line: I wish to God my child was born
Source: Grover, Heritage of Songs p.24
Performer: Grover, Mrs. Carrie
Date:
Place: USA : Maine
Collector:
Roud No: 60
-----------------
West Virginia Folklore - Volumes 4-9 - Page 30
https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LYAAAAMAAJ
1953 - Snippet view - More editions
2. When I wore my aprons low,
He followed me through frost and snow;
Now when I wear them to my chin,
He passes by and won't come in.
3. He takes a girl upon his knee;
He tells her things that he won't tell me,
Shall I be young, shall I be free
Shall I love a boy that don't love me?
----------------
Folk Music Journal - Volume 3, Issues 1-2 - Page 105
https://books.google.com/books?id=1JkJAQAAMAAJ
1975 - Snippet view - More editions
When I wore my apron low My love followed me through frost and snow, But now my apron is up to my chin My love will pass by and say nothing. 4. On yonder hill there stands an inn Where my love goes and sits him down. He takes another
---------------
Newfoundland versions
From the Memorial University Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA) Song Index and Song Annotation Collection: Burke, Anne MUNFLA 78-274; (for Sr. Theresa Ryan) MUNFLA 72-261; Casey, George MUNFLA 68-40; Cochran, C. MUNFLA 75-102; Dalton, Gordon MUNFLA 73-153; Goldstein, Kenneth and Gerald Thomas MUNFLA 78-239; Kearney, Anna MUNFLA 74-45; Knight, Margaret Bennett MUNFLA 73-145; Maldonald, Joan MUNFLA 78-314; Molovin, Larry MUNFLA 78-275; Rosenberg, Neil and Wilf Wareham MUNFLA 71-1; White, Anna MUNFLA 78-453
In London city where I does dwell
By Anne Burke
Abstract
Fragment. The narrator courted a butcher boy in London. She wishes her baby was born - and that she was dead.Laws, P24; Peacock, 1965: 705, 709; Greig, p. 137 & 179
Year: 1990
OAI identifier: oai:collections.mun.ca:munfla_list/4540
Provided by: Memorial University Newfoundland Digital Archive Initiative
-------
Shenandoah Valley Folklife - Page 27
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1604736674
Scott Hamilton Suter - 2012 - Preview - More editions
In London city where I did dwell, A butcher's boy I loved so well, He courted me my life away, And with me then he would not stay. There is a strange house in this town, Where he goes up and sits right down, He takes another girl on his knee
-----------
53rd Ballad - Roud Number: V20648
Title: Adieu or Radoo
First Line: Radoo, Radoo, kind friends Radoo, Radoo, Radoo
Imprint Names: March, R. and Co.
Imprint Locations: London
Date between 1877 and 1884
Imprint: R. March & Co., 18, St. James's Walk, Clerkenwell, London, E.C.
Notes: Two sheets forming a songbook. With advertisements and prose pieces. Stamped: Bodleian Library, 22 April, 1918. Large format
Series Identifier: March's Royalty Songs 56
--------------
39th Ballad - Roud Number: 18834
Title: There is a tavern in the town
First Line: There is a tavern in the town, in the town
Authors: Hills, W.H.
Edition - Bod663
Imprint Names: March, R. and Co.
Imprint Locations: London
Date between 1877 and 1884
Imprint: R. March & Co., St. James's Walk, Clerkenwell, London
Notes: Two sheets forming a songbook. With advertisements, poems, and prose pieces. Stamped: Bodleian Library, 22 April, 1918. Large format
Series Identifier: R. March & Co.'s Sole Right Edition 37
"The Popular Songster"
William H. Hills is editor of Students' Songs, 3rd ed. (1883), in which the first known printing of the song appeared (James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, 4th ed., p. 572).
-------------]
There is a Tavern in the Town
by sung by Fred Feild
--------------------------
Students' Songs, 3rd edition, copyrighted May 14, 1883,1 Cambridge, Mass., p. 8,
"The Right Honourable": A Romance of Society and Politics
By Justin McCarthy, Mrs. Campbell Praed 1888
Sung by Zen (Zenobia)
---------------------------------
What a foolish girl was I [grey cock- Jane Hicks Gentry ]
when I thought he was as true
As the rocks that grow to the ground.
But since I do find he has altered in his mind,
It's better to live single
O what a foolish Girl was I
Found in Blaikie mS from the Jack Campin
Vergie Wallin (Grey Cock) Yates
Said, 'Oh what a foolish girl was I when I thought my love was as true
As the rocks grow to the ground
But since I've found he's altered in mind
It's better to live single than bound'
-------------
Butcher Boy
Traditional arr. Susan Lawrence
In London town, where I did dwell
Lived a butcher boy, I loved quite well
He courted me, my life away
And now with me he will not stay
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I were a child again
A maid again I ne'er will be
While cherries grow on an ivy tree
She went upstairs to go to bed
And calling to her mother said
"Give me a chair till I sit down
And a pen and ink till I write down"
With every word she shed a tear
And every line cried "Willie dear -
Oh, what a foolish girl was I
To fall in love with a butcher boy"
He went upstairs and the door he broke
He found her hanging from a rope
He took his knife and he cut her down
And in her pocket, these words he found
Oh, make my grave large, wide and deep
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
And in the middle, place a turtle dove
To show the world, that I died for love
----------------------------------
Jersey City (Through the meadow she ran) Library of Congress AFS 00871 B01; 1936.
Title: Jersey City (Through the meadow she ran); Alternate Title: Through the meadow she ran: Jersey City; Contributor Names: Lomax, John Avery -- 1867-1948 (recordist): Dusenbury, Emma, Mrs. (singer): Powell, Laurence -- 1899-1990
----------------------------------------------
The Rambling boy, with the Answer : to which is added, Blue bells of Scotland, Good morrow to your night cap, Capt. Stephen Decatur's victory, Green upon the cape-- Publication
Philadelphia, Publisher not identified, 1806
_________________________________
Title: Butcher's boy (part 1), Contributor Names: Cadeau, Mathilda (Performer)Lomax, Alan, 1915-2002 (Collector), Created / Published: Baraga, MI, None 1938, 10, Subject Headings: -Folk music -- Michigan- 2452B
In french
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ELRP7lrFEg
--------------
Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. (PWH of Paul Weirlck); 21May65; R361S36. OH MA-MA! (THE BUTCHER BOY); based on the popular Italian song success "Luna mezzo mare," by Rudy Vallee 4 Paola Citorello, new matter by Andrews Sisters.
Journal of American Folklore; 1922
The Butcher's Boy.
Part I, 169-170. English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 101; compare also the close of No. 106. Cf. One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 94; cf. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, v, 181-189; cf. The FolkLore of Herefordshire, 205-206.
Miss Eddy gets a text superior to that in Part I and the first air below from Mrs. M. M. Moores, and the second air from Miss Helen Chapel, both of Perrysville, O.
In Jer-sey City, where I did dwell,
A butcher's boy I loved so well;
He courted me my heart a-way, And now with me he will not stay. 1 Lomax has "wild-wood flowers."
[To the references for "The Butcher Boy" given in JAFL xxix, 169170, may be added "The Genevieve de Brabant Songster" (New York, cop. 1869), p. 18; "Delehanty & Hengler's Song and Dance Book" (New York, cop. 1874), p. 135; "Henry de Marsan's New Comic and Sentimental Singers' Journal," i, 16 (No. 3); "Delaney's Song Book No. 18" (New York [1898]), p. 24; "Wehman Bros.' Good Old-Time Songs No. 3" (New York, cop. 1914), p. 72. In all, the text is almost identical, letter for letter, with that in the de Marsan broadside, and the same is true of Miss Eddy's copy. See also the Nova Scotia version in Mackenzie, pp. 9-10. A slip recently acquired by the Harvard College Library (no imprint) carries the date of the piece back to the eighteenth century ("The Cruel Father, or, Deceived Maid"). The broadside song "Sheffield Park" (Catnach; Jackson & Son, late Russell, Birmingham) resembles "The Butcher Boy."]
BUTCHER BOY, THE. Sung by Mrs. Esco Kilgore. Norton, Va., Herbert Halpert, 1939.
Folk songs of Peggy Seeger: 88 traditional ballads and songs; Peggy Seeger/ Oak Publications, 1964
43. The Butcher's Boy
Tip top album of Carson J. Robison songs: together with hill country ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7A7AQAAIAAJ
Carson Robison, Joe Davis - 1936 - Snippet view
The Butcher's Boy SONG By E. V. BODY
5E Buthcer boy I loved so well;
to my moth - er said; sor - row, grief and woe;
marble at my feet; girl,
where has she gone?
bosom, these words he found;
He court - ed me,
But moth - er said
Give me
--------------
Butcher Boy Vernon Dalhart, Perfect 12330, 1927
Carolina Night Hawks recorded: “Butcher's Boy,”
---------------------------------
Recorded Joan O'Bryant - The Butcher's Boy (1957)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5peSOLDs2ek
Butcher's Boy
In Kansas city where I did dwell,
A butcher's boy I loved so well,
But he holds a strange girl upon knee,
And tells to her what he won't tell me.
-----------------
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ELRP7lrFEg
-----------
West Virginia Folklore - Volumes 4-9 - Page 30
https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LYAAAAMAAJ
1953 - Snippet view - More editions
... He kissed her marble brow; His thoughts ran back to where she said, "I'm growing warmer now." XIII. The Butcher's Boy (Also sung by Mrs. Young, Linden) 1. In London Town where I did dwell, A butcher's boy I loved so well; He courted me
--------------
High Atmosphere (Rounder CD 0028):
I WISH MY BABY WAS BORN
Sung by Dillard Chandler at Andy Cove, N.C.
An English version of this short, fragmentary song can be found in The Penguin Book of English Folksongs, edited by Ralph Vaughn Williams and A.L. Lloyd. It appears to be related to the Sharp (EFSA 199) version of "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" which was made popular by the Weavers. Dillard always brings an empty sense of sadness to his singing, revealing more of himself than most ballad singers usually do. Dillard has released several records on Folkways.
--------
I WISH MY BABY WAS BORN is "traditional, with additional lyrics by Anthony Minghella," and it is performed by Tim Eriksen, Riley Baugus, and Ray Winstone. The soundtrack album, however, says it is performed by Tim Eriksen, Riley Baugus, and Tim O'Brien.
The oldest recording by that name seems to be a field recording made in 1965, in which it is sung by Dillard Chandler. This version can be found on the collection "High Atmosphere." There are also recordings by The Be Good Tanyas and Uncle Tupelo.
I WISH, I WISH is obviously related, but not quite the same.
Following is a composite from several sources on the Internet.
I WISH MY BABY WAS BORN
I wish, I wish my baby was born,
And sitting on its papa's knee.
And me, poor girl, were dead and gone,
And the green grass growing over me.
I'm not no saint, nor I never shall be
'Til the sweet apple grows from the sour apple tree,
But still I hope the time will come
When you and I shall be as one.
-----------------------------
In a query about the music to Radoo, Justin McCarthy in a letter dated May 27, 1991 wrote "I referred her to Bessie O'Connor as the one who has set the song to music."
July 1885 Justin McCarthy refers to Bessie O'Connor who created a sensation [with radoo] at Mrs. Jeune's the other night, "I close with some words of the refrain of a song I used to hear long ago in the Southern States of America sung by negroes and of which I am reminded by one of Mrs. O'Connors songs--"And May the World go well with you!"
Pall Mall Budget: Being a Weekly Collection of Articles, Volume 35, 1887
We have received from Messrs. Francis Brothers and Day a copy of a well known old negro song called “Radoo; or, May this world go well with you.” The words are said to be from a Creole song, and the music is arranged by The
Bessie O'Connor, with accompaniments for the piano and banjo. As Mr. Justin McCarthy says of it, “ Nothing could be more sweet, simple, and pathetic," and any one who sings to the accompaniment of his or her banjo, or who desires a characteristic and very pleasing simple negro song, cannot do better than procure Mrs. T. P. O‘Connor’s.
Justin McCarthy (22 November 1830 – 24 April 1912) was an Irish nationalist and Liberal historian, novelist and politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1879 to 1900, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
He also collaborated on three novels with Rosa Campbell Praed: The Right Honourable (1886)
after a lecturing tour in the United States, c. 1869
Rosa Campbell Praed (27 March 1851–10 April 1935), often credited as Mrs. Campbell Praed (and also known as Rosa Caroline Praed), was an Australian novelist in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her large bibliography covered multiple genres, and books for children as well as adults. She has been described as the first Australian novelist to achieve a significant international reputation.[1]
Born Rosa Murray-Prior in Bromelton in the Moreton Bay area of Queensland, Praed was the third child of Thomas Murray-Prior (1819–1892) and Matilda Harpur.[2] Her father was born in England and went to Sydney in May 1839.
In 1876, after the failure of the cattle station, the Praeds moved to England where Rosa established herself as a writer. Except for a visit to Australia in 1894–95, England was henceforth her home.
Her marriage was not a successful one and, within a few years of their arrival in England, Praed decided, due to her husband's extramarital affairs, to live a separate life.[9]
In 1884 she began her friendship with Irish politician, historian and writer, Justin McCarthy, a friendship which continued for the rest of his life. He was 20 years her senior, with an established reputation as a literary man. They collaborated on three political novels, The Right Honourable (1886), The Rebel Rose (issued anonymously in 1888, but two later editions appeared in their joint names under the title The Rival Princess ), and The Ladies' Gallery (1888).
My Beloved South
By Elizabeth Paschal O'Connor, Mrs. T. P. O'Connor
1888 book, "The Right Honourable" it was called "a genuine plantation song." According to the authors, Radoo was learned by Zenobia from a "Southern States woman" who heard it sung on plantation presumably before the Civil War. It was called a Civil-War song and was the African-American "attempt at adieu."
(Right Honourable, 1888) is on p. 171, just move up a little past the music to where it's called "A wild little American negro song. . ."
Radoo was published by 1884 [Bodleian date 1877-1884] and I still think it predates Tavern in the Town and was used in its creation along with Butcher Boy.
----------------------------
Newfoundland Drinking Songs, ©1973, Audat Records
Butcher Boy (Ryan's Fancy)
In Dublin City where I did dwell,
Lived a butcher boy I loved right well;
He courted me my life away,
But now with me he will not stay.
I wish my baby it was born,
And smiling on his daddy's knee;
And me, poor girl, to be dead and gone,
With the long green grass growing over me.
She went upstairs to go to bed,
And calling out her mother said:
Give me a chair till I sit down,
And a pen and ink till I write down.
At every word she shed a tear,
And every line cried, Willy, dear,
Oh, what a foolish girl was I,
To fall in love with a butcher boy.
He went upstairs and the door he broke,
He found her hanging from a rope;
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her pocket these words he found:
Oh, dig my grave large, wide, and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet;
And in the middle a turtle dove,
So the world may know I died for love.
####.... Author unknown. Variant of a 19th-century British broadside ballad, The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G Malcolm Laws, 1957). Also a variant of the broadside ballad, The Butcher Boy, published by H De Marsan (New York, NY) circa 1860, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Harding B 18(72) ....####
This variant and the variant in the video above was recorded by Ryan's Fancy (Newfoundland Drinking Songs, ©1973, Audat Records).
-----------------------------------
FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FA 2401
© 1966 Folkways Records and Service Corp., 17 W. 60th St., NYC
THE WANDERING FOLK SONG
By SAM HINTON
1. The Butcher's Boy [no informant named] When a song has become firmly established in the oral tradition, it is very likely to produce "floating stanzas" which wander about, ready to attach themselves to any song that seems to need another verse or two. "The Butcher's Boy," which probably dates back to the early 1600's, has produced a whole rash of these floating stanzas, of which the most widespread are the "Dig my grave both Wide and deep" lines.
In Jersey City where I did dwell,
A butcher's boy I loved so well.
He courted me both night and day,
But now with me he will not stay.
There is an inn in this same town,
There my love he sits- him down,
Takes some strange girl upon his knee,
And tells her what he won't tell me.
Oh, is this not grief to me,
That she has silver more than me?
But her gold will fade and her silver fly,
And someday she'll be poor as I
She went upstairs and to her bed,
Nothing to her mother said.
And when her father he came home,
He said "Where has my daughter gone?
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
Found her hanging by a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom these words he found.
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
With marble slab at head and feet;
On my breast a turtle dove,
To show the world that I died for love. "
3. Grieve, Oh Grieve
I learned this one long before "There Is a Tavern in the Town" became a hit song. My mother learned it when she was a girl
in Gatesville, Texas, and I can't remember when I didn't know it. It contained the first line I recognized as a floating
stanza, and I can still remember my delight at hearing Rev. Terry Wilson of Crockett, Texas, read the 137th Psalm, with its familiar lines". . . . yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows. . ." Later, the appearance of "The Tavern in the Town" gave me an inkling of the wandering propensities of music.
Oh grieve, oh grieve, my true love grieve;
Must I love someone that don't love me?
Must I go bound while you go free
And love somebody that don't love me?
Oh dig my grave, both wide and deep,
With marble slab at head and feet;
On my breast a turtle dove
To show this world that I died for love.
Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu;
I can no longer stay with you.
I'll hang my harp on the willow tree
To show the world that I died for thee.
Oh, dig my grave, oh dig it deep ETC.
---------------
Kentucky Folklore Record - Volumes 3-4 - Page 96
https://books.google.com/books?id=F8DjAAAAMAAJ
1957 -
"Oh, dig my grave "both wide and deep,
And place a marble stone at my head and feet.
Upon my breast place a snow white dove
To let the world know that I died for love."
---------
Butcher's Boy
In yonder city, there did dwell
A butcher's boy, I loved him well
He courted me my life away
And then with me would no more stay.
She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying, "Daughter, oh daughter, what troubles you?"
"Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell
That butcher's boy I love so well
He courted me my life away
And now at home he will not stay"
"There is a place in London town
Where that butcher's boy goes and sits down
He takes that strange girl on his knee
And tells to her what he won't tell me"
Her father he came up from work
Saying, "Where is my daughter, she seems so hurt"
He went upstairs to give her hope
And found her hanging from a rope
He took his knife and cut her down
And in her bosom these words were found
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Place a marble slab at my head and feet
And over my coffin, place a snow white dove
To warn the world that I died of love
DT #320
Laws P24
from Peggy Seeger
Recorded on Folkways Anthology
--------------------
New York Folklore Quarterly - Volume 23 - Page 128
https://books.google.com/books?id=bWDYAAAAMAAJ
1967 - Snippet view - More editions
On every verse she shed a tear, at every line cried, "Willie Dear." And when her father first came home, where is my daughter, where has she gone? He went upstairs and the door he broke, he found her hanging onto a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down and in her bosom these words he found: A silly girl am I, you know, to kill myself for a butcher boy. Go dig my grave both wide and deep, place marble stones at my head and feet. Upon my breast a snow
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Monroe County Folklife - Page 17
https://books.google.com/books?id=4WXYAAAAMAAJ
1975 - Snippet view - More editions
He went upstairs and, the door he broke / He found her hanging by a rope He took his knife and cut her down / And in her hands these words he found. Go dig my grave both wide and deep / Place a marble stone at my head and feet On my
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Letters - Volume 5 - Page 20
https://books.google.com/books?id=gDDmAAAAMAAJ
1931 - Snippet view - More editions
Drawing his knife he cut her down, And in her bosom these words he found — "A silly girl was I, you know To kill myself for a Soldier Boy." "Go dig my grave both wide and deep, Putt a marble stone at my head and feet; And my breast a snow .
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Midwest Folklore - Volume 9 - Page 23
https://books.google.com/books?id=Nl_YAAAAMAAJ
1959 - Snippet view - More editions
"There is a house in yonders town, My love he goes and there he set down. He takes another girl all on his knee, O, isn't he unkind to me. "He courts her and I know why; Because she has more gold than I. Gold will melt and silver will fly, Bu
Taven in th town Wally Cox http://goodoldsongs.tripod.com/goodoldsongs/id16.html
Shenandoah Valley Folklife - Page 27
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1604736674
Scott Hamilton Suter - 2012 - Preview - More editions
In London city where I did dwell, A butcher's boy I loved so well, He courted me my life away, And with me then he would not stay. There is a strange house in this town, Where he goes up and sits right down, He takes another girl on his knee
Henry De Marsan's New Comic and Sentimental Singer's Journal
https://books.google.com/books?id=3Lk_AQAAMAAJ
1871
Good Old-time Songs - Issue 3 - Page 72
https://books.google.com/books?id=E6MVAAAAYAAJ
Wehman bros., firm, publishers - 1914 -
New York Folklore Quarterly - Volume 3 - Page 30
https://books.google.com/books?id=1IELAAAAIAAJ
1947 - Snippet view - More editions
You will notice that Cal said London City. About eight or every ten people who have given me parts of this ballad begin it as follows: In Jersey City where I did dwell, A butcher boy I loved so well; He courted me my heart away, And now
Vermont Folk-songs & Ballads - Page 115
https://books.google.com/books?id=MNzWAAAAMAAJ
Helen Hartness Flanders, George Brown - 1931 - Snippet view - More editions
In London city where I did dwell Lived a butcher boy I loved so well. He courted me my heart away, And then with me he would not stay. There is a girl in this same town Where my love goes and he sets him down. He takes this strange girl on
Monroe County Folklife - Page 16
https://books.google.com/books?id=4WXYAAAAMAAJ
1975 - Snippet view - More editions
This version was sungby Dimple Savage Thompson. A shorter version was provided by Mattie Rowlancf Harrison. In London where I did dwell / Lived a butcher boy I loved so well He courted me my heart away / And then with me he would not
English Dance & Song - Volumes 61-62
https://books.google.com/books?id=w1ZLAAAAYAAJ
1999 - Snippet view - More editions
... an old 78 record sung by Kelly Harrell, and asked if it matched anything we had heard of. The first verse runs - In London City where I did dwell, A butcher's boy I loved so well. He courted me my life away And with me then he would not stay.
West Virginia Folklore - Volumes 4-9 - Page 30
https://books.google.com/books?id=N7LYAAAAMAAJ
1953 - Snippet view - More editions
... kissed her marble brow; His thoughts ran back to where she said, "I'm growing warmer now." XIII. The Butcher's Boy (Also sung by Mrs. Young, Linden) 1. In London Town where I did dwell, A butcher's boy I loved so well; He courted me my
Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois - Page 146
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0809321831
Charles Neely, John Webster Spargo - 1998 - Preview - More editions
"With pen and ink I'll write it down." In every line she dropped a tear; In every verse was "Willie dear." Her father came home from work that night And asking for his daughter dear, He went upstairs; the door he broke And found her hanging on .
-----------------------------------
"The Butcher Boy ," 91-92 California folklore,
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IN NEW YORK CITY, WHERE I DID DWELL. Sung by Adolphus Delmas. Round Lake, Mich., Alan Lomax, 1938.
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A Family Heritage: The Story and Songs of LaRena Clark - Page 92
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1895176360
Edith Fowke, Jay Rahn, LaRena LeBarr Clark - 1994 - Preview - More editions
"There is a house in this same town; My love goes there, he sets him down; He takes a strange girl on his knee, And tells to her what he once told me. "I mind the time not long ago I-Ie followed me through frost and snow, But now he's changed
--------------------
PETERS FSOW 1977 p204 Mabel Hawkins, Wis 1923
Up The Green Meadow
Baker, Bob; and the Pike County Boys. Mountain Music Bluegrass Syle, Folkways FA 2318, LP (1959), trk# B.10 (Snow Dove)
Reed, Ola Belle; and Family. Ola Belle Reed & Family, Rounder 0077, LP (1977), trk# B.05
------------------------
American Ballads and Songs- Louise Pound 1922
24. (A) The Butcher's Boy. Text obtained by Lillian Gear Boswell at Hartville, Wyoming, 1914. Related to The Brisk Young Lover, Broadwood, Traditional Songs and Carols (1908), p. 92. See alao, Campbell and Sharp, p. 286.
(B) There Is A Tavebn In The Town. From a manuscript book of songs in the possession of L. C. Wimberly. 1916. This well-known college song is a variant of, or is somehow related to, The Brisk Young Lover and The Butcher's Boy.
24. (A) THE BUTCHER'S BOY
In Jersey City where I did dwell
A butcher's boy I loved so well;
He courted me my heart away,
And now with me he will not stay.
There is a house in this same town,
Where my true love goes and sits him down,
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And tells her what he won't tell me.
"Tis grief, 'tis grief, I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I;
Her gold will melt and silver fly,
She'll see the day she's poor as I.
I went upstairs to make my bed,
And nothing to my mother said,
I took a chair and sit me down,
With pen and ink I wrote it down,
On every line I dropped a tear,
While calling home my Willy dear.
Her father he came home that night,
"Where, O where has my daughter gone?"
He went upstairs, the door he broke,
And found her hanging by a rope.
He took his knife to cut her down,
And on her bosom these lines he found:
"O what a foolish girl am I
To kill myself for a butcher's boy.
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet.
Upon my breast a turtle dove
To show the world I died for love."
(B) THERE IS A TAVERN IN THE TOWN
There is a tavern in the town, in the town,
And there my dear love sits him down, sits him down,
And drinks his wine mid laughter free,
And never, never thinks of me.
Fare thee well for I must leave thee,
Do not let this parting grieve thee,
And remember that the best of friends must part, must part.
Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you,
I'll hang my harp on the weeping willow tree
And may the world go well with thee.
He left me for a damsel dark, damsel dark,
Each Friday night they used to spark, used to spark,
And now my love once true to me
Takes that dark damsel on his knee.
O dig my grave both wide and deep, wide and deep,
Put tombstones at my head and feet, head and feet,
And on my breast carve a turtle dove
To signify I died of love.
------------------
Samuel P. Bayard
Western Folklore
Vol. 17, No. 4 (Oct., 1958), pp. 229-247+312
GROUP I: SONGS WITH EXTENSIVE ORAL TRADITIONS
THE BUTCHER BOY
(Laws P-24) Laws, ABBB, 260, and Belden, 201 of., print extensive notes to this popular story of thwarted love and tragedy. Stout, 37, records it from Iowa. The tune, probably some form of the traditional British setting, is difficult to identify as it appears below.
In Jersey City where I did dwell,
Lived a butcher boy I loved so well.
He courted me, stole my heart away,
And now with me he will not stay.
There is an inn in that same town,
Where my lover goes and sits him down.
He takes strange girls upon his knee,
And he tells to them what he once told me.
'Tis a grief to me, and I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I.
But her gold will melt and her silver fly,
And in time of need, she'll be poor as I.
I went upstairs to make my bed,
And nothing to my mother said.
My mother she came up to me,
Saying, "What's the matter, my daughter dear?"
Then my father he came home,
Saying "Where is my daughter gone?"
He went upstairs, and the door he broke,
He found her hanging by a rope.
He took his knife and cut her down,
And on her breast these lines he found:
"O what a silly girl am I,
To hang myself for a butcher boy.
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a mark stone at my head and feet.
And on my breast place a turtle dove,
To show the world I died of love.
--------------------
Mountain songs of North Carolina, collected by Susannah Wetmore and Marshall Bartholomew. Arranged with pianoforte accompaniment, by Marshall Bartholomew
New York, G. Schirmer, Inc., c1926
Dearest Billie
Phillips Barry
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 22, No. 83 (Jan. - Mar., 1909), pp. 72-81
[Journal]
THE BUTCHER BOY
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Folk songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains: 50 traditional songs as sung ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=zIU7AQAAIAAJ
Herbert Shellans - 2007 - Snippet view - More editions
way, And then with me he would not stay. The Farmer's Boy This song of tragic romance has had a long and interesting history, having appeared in England as a broadside and then circulated in the United States as a penny song sheet
Bulletin - Volumes 34-37 - Page 84
https://books.google.com/books?id=nEwsAQAAIAAJ
Tennessee Folklore Society - 1968 - Snippet view - More editions
He courted me, my heart away, And then with me he would not stay. 2. He'd take other girls upon hi3 knee And tell them things that he wouldn't tell me. 3 . And Pa come3 home and says to Ma, "Where's that daughter Mary gone? ' ''She's gone
----------------
Hearts and the Diamond - Page 314
https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBxAAAAAYAAJ
Gerald Beaumont - 1921
Lugubriously, his voice rose in the Cowboy's Lament:
"Oh, dig my grave both wide and deep,
Put tombstones at my head and feet,
And on my breast carve a turtle dove
To signify I died of Love.
Fare thee well — "
----------------
Read 'em and weep: a treasury of American songs; the songs you ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=emxLAAAAYAAJ
Sigmund Gottfried Spaeth - 1945 - Snippet view - More editions
Oh! Dig my grave both wide and deep, wide and deep, Put tombstones at my head and feet, head and feet, And on my breast carve a turtle dove, To signify I died of love. [Refrain]
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21. Through the Meadow She Ran- Dusenberry ; variant Butcher boy/Love has Brought Me to depair
Midwest Folklore - Volume 9 - Page 23
https://books.google.com/books?id=Nl_YAAAAMAAJ
1959
In yonders grove I made my way,
Some handsome country to survey,
I heared a damsel sigh and say,
The man I love is far away.
"There is a house in yonders town,
My love he goes and there he set down.
He takes another girl all on his knee,
O, isn't he unkind to me.
"He courts her and I know why;
Because she has more gold than I.
Gold will melt and silver will fly,
But constant love will never die.
Through the meadow she ran,
A-pickin' every flower that sprung
She picked; she pulled of ev'ry hue
She picked; she pulled red, white and blue.
"Down on the flowers I make my bed;
The heavens above my coverlid.
I wish to God my task was done
And set beneath the rising sun.
Go dig my grave on yonders bill;
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast a turtle dove
To show the world I died of love.
"And at my feet a lollar lea[],
To show the world he don't love me.
And at my feet a lollar lea,
To show the world I died of love.
1. Laurel leaf
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Review: British and Irish Tradition
Review by: D. K. Wilgus
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 90, No. 356 (Apr. - Jun., 1977), pp. 236-248
[Journal]
...version of a ballad related to the War of Jenkins' Ear (1740)-but it is in fact only an adaptation of Laws M 1. Similarly "I'm a Rambling Youth" is related to " Rambling Boy " (L 12), but Cinnamond's form has, to my knowledge, not been reported elsewhere. And I have...
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Pound Nebraska 1911
butcher's boy, but he deserts her "because she has more gold than I." Later it is discovered that she has hanged herself, leaving lines pinned on her breast.
Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
Upon my breast a turtle dove,
To show the world I died for love.
---------------
This is a somewhat stock stanza in older songs. See XII, 3.
-----------
A variant of "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy," "London City" and "The Butcher's Boy."
Likely source: Buell Kazee, Brunswick 213A (032), 1928; reissued as track No. 6 on Harry Smith's compilation "Anthology of American Folk Music" (3 vols., 6 LP) (FA 2951/2952/2953, 1952).
Dylan's performance (Real Audio, 687 KB),
"Minnesota Party Tape," May 1961.
Lyrics as performed by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, Hughes Stadium, Colorado University, Fort Collins, CO, May 23, 1976,
transcribed by Manfred Helfert.
She went upstairs to make her bed
And not one word to her mother said.
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying, "Daughter, oh daughter, what's troublin' you?"
"Oh mother, oh mother, I cannot tell
That railroad boy that I love so well.
He courted me my life away
And now at home will no longer stay."
"There is a place in yonder town
Where my love goes and he sits him down.
And he takes that strange girl on his knee
And he tells to her what he won't tell me."
Her father he came home from work
Sayin', "Where is my daughter, she seems so hurt"
He went upstairs to give her hope
An' he found her hangin' by a rope.
He took his knife and he cut her down
And on her bosom these words he found:
"Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast, put a snow white dove
To warn the world that I died of love."
-------------------------------------------
Cambiare Tenn virg
29. EARLY, EARLY IN THE SPRING
(The Girl I Left Behind)
When so early in the spring
I went on board to serve my king,
A-leaving my dearest dear behind
Who has often told me her heart was mine.
And when i had her in my arms,
i thought I had ten thousand charms,
Ten thousand promises and kisses sweet,
Saying we will get married next time we meet.
And ail the while I sailed the seas
I could not get one moment's ease
For writing to my dearest dear,
And not one word from her could I hear.
Then I sailed to Santler's town,
I walked the streets both up and down,
Inquiring for my dearest dear,
And not one word from her could I hear.
Then I rode up to her father's hall,
For my true love there I did call.
"Your true love is married, she's a rich man's wife,
She has married a man who is better for her life."
I walked straight up and her hand did take
Saying, "All false promises and vows we'll break,
For you've proved false and I've proved true;
Forever and ever, I'll bid you adieu.
"I'll curse all gold and silver too,
And all those girls that won't prove true;
That will marry a man for his riches' sake
And leave their true love's heart to break.''
"Sir, if you've wrote letters to this town,
I've not received one single one.
It's my father's fault as You will find,
Oh, don't blame this poor heart of mine.
"Oh, don't go back on board again,
Oh, don't go back to serve thy king,
For there's plenty of girls as fair as I,
Oh, don't go back where the bullets fly."
"Yes, I'll go back on board again,
Yes, I'll go back to serve my king.
I'll sail the seas and the oceans high ;
On the waters I'll ride till the day I die.
"And when I am ready for my grave,
My body will be found on some ocean wave.
I want to be buried under yonder green tree
Remember, love, I died for thee."
[This ballad is found as the broadside "The Seaman's Complaint" in the British Museum C.22 f14, p. 175), printed circa 1680. Cambiaire, to his credit, found the standard title for it. Melinger Henry's version c. 1930 is also from Tennessee taken from Adria Kiser, a student in Lincoln Memorial University. Also found in Hudson, p. 29; Campbell and Sharp, No. 72; and Cox, No. 111, who points out that The Trail in Mexico (Lomax, Cowboy Songs p. 132) "is an extraordinarily interesting example of an adaptation; it is transformed into a cowboy song."
---------------
45. O BURY ME BENEATH THE WEEPING WILLOW
O bury me beneath the weeping willow
Beneath the weeping willow tree,
And when he comes, he'll find me sleeping
And, perhaps, he'll weep for me.
To-morrow was our wedding day,
But God only knows where he can be.
He's gone, he's gone to seek another;
He no longer cares for me.
They told me that he did not love me,
But how could I believe them true,
Until an angel whispered softly:
" He will prove untrue to you."
Place on my grave a snow white lily,
For to prove my love was true,
To show the world I died to save him;
But his love I could not win.
So bury me beneath the willow,
Beneath the weeping willow tree,
And when he comes he'll find me sleeping,
And perhaps he'll think of me.
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American Revolution Revolutionary War “Maiden’s Lamentation” Printed Poem
c. 1776, Printed Poem, “Maiden’s Lamentation For The Loss Of Her Sweetheart Gone To America,” Very Good or better.
Broadside Poem, “Maiden’s Lamentation For The Loss Of Her Sweetheart Gone To America,” Very Good. 14” x 4.75”. A wonderful poem by a British maiden lamenting that her true love had to go away and fight a war in North America (the Revolutionary War). The paper is soiled and worn and has some paper loss at the upper corners and an edge chip out of the center of the right side. Nevertheless, the vignettes are intact and the complete poem is legible. A fantastic piece that shows the “other side” of the War! Here are but the first, of seven verses:
“Come all you pretty maidens now mourn along with me,
For Johnny he’s gone from me a Soldier for to be,
He’s left his dearest Molly, in grief at home to stay,
While he is gone to battle in North America.”
https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/903800_printed-poem-maidens-lamentation-circa-1776
----------------------------------
American Revolution Revolutionary War “Maiden’s Lamentation” Printed Poem
c. 1776, Printed Poem, “Maiden’s Lamentation For The Loss Of Her Sweetheart Gone To America,” Very Good or better.
Broadside Poem, “Maiden’s Lamentation For The Loss Of Her Sweetheart Gone To America,” Very Good. 14” x 4.75”. A wonderful poem by a British maiden lamenting that her true love had to go away and fight a war in North America (the Revolutionary War). The paper is soiled and worn and has some paper loss at the upper corners and an edge chip out of the center of the right side. Nevertheless, the vignettes are intact and the complete poem is legible. A fantastic piece that shows the “other side” of the War! Here are but the first, of seven verses:
“Come all you pretty maidens now mourn along with me,
For Johnny he’s gone from me a Soldier for to be,
He’s left his dearest Molly, in grief at home to stay,
While he is gone to battle in North America.”
https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/903800_printed-poem-maidens-lamentation-circa-1776
-------------------------------------------
Recorded Sound - Issues 41-48 - Page 67
https://books.google.com/books?id=Z5HkAAAAMAAJ
1971 - Snippet view - More editions
He stole my heart with a free good will : I must confess I love him still There is a ale-house in yonder town Where my love goes and sits him down. He takes a strange one on his knee. And is not that a grief to me? A grief to me and I'll tell you for .
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The Butcher Boy Wehman Brothers, Harry Tofflin - 1880
Good Old-time Songs, Issue 3 By Wehman bros., firm, publishers, 1914
Good Old-time Songs - Issue 3 - Page 72 Wehman bros., firm, publishers - 1914
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Bessie Mae Eldreth: An Appalachian Woman's Performance of Self
https://books.google.com/books?id=kUYeAQAAMAAJ
Patricia Sawin - 1993 - Snippet view - More editions
Butcher Boy (Mrs. Eldreth calls this "London City;" also known as "Railroad Boy") Eldreth recordings: 7-26-88 A (c) Mrs. ... Boys (Malone 1985:57, 115); recorded by Bradley Kincaid (Jones 1980:147); sung by Buna Hicks (Koon 1966:135-6).
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Highway robber L12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vISC_Wc74Ck
In Dublin City by Lee Monroe Presnell,
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This variant recorded by The Dorymen (Tiny Red Light, trk#6, 1980, The Great Canadian Music Co, Toronto, Ontario); and (Tiny Red Light, trk#12, 1999, Heritage Music, Scarborough, Ontario); and (Tiny Red Light, trk#12, 2003, Heritage Music, New Market, Ontario).
A man came home from work one night
To find his house without a light.
He went upstairs to go to bed
When a sudden thought came to his head.
He walked into his daughter's room
And found her hanging from a beam.
He took his knife to cut her down
And on her breast this note he found:
My love was for that sailor boy
Who travels far across the sea
Sometimes I often thought of him
But I know he never thinks of me.
I wish my baby had been born
That all my troubles would be over
But tell my love we'll meet again
Over yonder on that golden shore.
So dig my grave and dig it deep
And place white lillies at my feet
And on my breast a turtle dove
To show that I have died for love.
We dug her grave and we dug it deep
We placed white lillies at her feet
And on her breast a turtle dove
To show that she had died for love,
To show that she had died for love.
— Johnny Drake of the Dorymen, "A maiden's prayer", after the
------------------------------------
A farmer's daughter you may understand (The Beam Of Oak). Leach, 1965:62.
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I Wish in Vain
Roud Folksong Index (S148659)
First Line: I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
Source: Korson, Pennsylvania Songs & Legends pp.48-49
Performer: Provanc, <F.P.
Date: 1943
Place: USA : Pennsylvania : Fayette County
Collector: Bayard, Samuel P.
Roud No: 495
=============
When I Wore My Apron Low
Roud Folksong Index (S373208)
First Line: When my apron it hung low
Source: Smithsonian-Folkways SFW CD 40159 ('Dark Holler')
Performer: Norton, Dellie
Date: 1967
Place: USA : N. Carolina : Sodom
Collector: Cohen, John
Roud No: 495
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I Wish I Was a Child Again
Roud Folksong Index (S276732)
First Line: I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
Source: Sharp, Twelve Songs for Children from the Appalachian Mountains 2 [n.d.] pp.6-7
Performer:
Date:
Place: USA
Collector: Sharp, Cecil J.
Roud No: 495
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28
The Butcher's Boy
Aug 2, 2015
Bailey, Virgie
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, Hyden, Leslie
Source: 1446A1
12
The Butcher's Boy
Oct 13, 2015
Jackson, Aunt Molly
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: ballad, New York, New York, New York City
Source: 0827B1
30
The Butcher's Boy
Aug 2, 2015
Collett, J. F. (Farmer)
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, "Marrowbone Creek, Gardner"
Source: 1422A
40
The Butcher's Boy
Aug 3, 2015
Morris, Jimmy
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, Hazard, Perry
Source: 1548B2
15
The Butcher's Boy
Oct 13, 2015
Caldwell, Irving David
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: ballad, Ashland, Kentucky, Boyd
Source: 1023B2
21
The Butcher's Boy (part 2)
Aug 3, 2015
Stewart, Liza
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, Hazard, Perry
Source: 1545B1
30
The Butcher's Boy (part 1)
Aug 3, 2015
Stewart, Liza
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, Hazard, Perry
Source: 1545A2
60
The Butcher's Boy (part 1)
Aug 3, 2015
Hampton, Nell
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, Salyersville, Magoffin
Source: 1572A2
27 The Butcher's Boy (part 2)
Aug 3, 2015
Hampton, Nell
audio
The Library of Congress owns the original Alan Lomax recordings, but holds no copyright or intellectual property rights to these recordings. Some rights are held by the performers, and other rights may exist. For publication use, the American Folklife Center asks patrons to make a good faith effort to contact rights holders and deposit written permission at AFC. AFC facilitates this process, providing what contact information it has. AFC recommends that queries relating to publication be...
Topics: Ballad, Salyersville, Magoffin
Source: 1572B1
--------------------------
The Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S140013)
First Line: In Jersey City where I did dwell
Source: Peters, Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin (1977) p.204
Performer: Hankins, Mabel
Date: 1923
Place: USA : Wisconsin : Gordon
-------------
The Butcher's Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S140055)
First Line: In London town where I did dwell
Source: Rounder 0017 (`Ballads & Hymns from the Ozarks')
Performer: Riddle, Almeda
Date: 1972 (May)
--------------
Butcher Boy- Paul Lorette (VT) 1931 Flanders REC
by Flanders, Helen Hartness, 1890-1972
Published 1931
Topics Helen Hartness Flanders, Ballads, Folksongs, Folk music, New England, Field recordings, Ethnography, Wax cylinders, IRENE scans
Box 2, Cylinder 15 of the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College Special Collections & Archives, digitized from the original phonograph cylinder using IRENE optical scanning.
All songs performed by Paul Lorette of Manchester Center, VT.
Contents (by label):
"Butcher boy";
1. In Jersey Town where I did well
A butcher boy I loves so well
He courted me my heart away
And now with me he will not stay.
There is an inn in our town
where my love goes and sets him down
He takes a strange girl on his knee
And tells to her what he won't tell me
A grief, a grief I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I
Her gold will melt her silver will fly,
Till she will be, as poor as I.
Thne she went up to go to bed,
And not a word to mother said
Oh mother mother you do not know,
The grief and pain and sorrow, woe.
When her father came in at night
Where is my daughter where has she been
and the door he broke
He found her hanging to a rope
He took his knife and cut her down,
And in her bosom this note was found
To hang myself for the butcher's boy.
Must I go bound wihile he goes free,
must I love a boy who done't love me
Oh no, oh no that can never be,
Till apples grow on an orange tree
Oh make my grave both wide and deep
Place marble stones at my head and feet
And on my breast, a turtle dove,
To show this world, I died for love.
Collector: Rickaby, Franz
Roud No: 409
Title: Butcher's boy
Performer: Ford, Warde H.
Date: 1937-07
LCSH Subjects: Songs
Place: Forest County (Wisconsin) / Crandon, Wisconsin
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WiscFolkSong/data/audio/MmBib/CranRhineFolk/reference/005307r.mp4
Title: Butcher's boy
Performer: Ford, Warde H.
Date: 1937-07
LCSH Subjects: Songs
Place: Forest County (Wisconsin) / Crandon, Wisconsin
Rights: Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law.
In yonder town where I did dwell
Was a butcher's boy I loved so well
He courted me my heart away,
And then with me he would not stay.
Oh mother oh mother what's become of me
I love a boy who don't love me.
Title: Garçon d'un boucher
Creator: Belisle, Ernest Joseph, b. 1901?
Date: 1946-08-08
Subjects: French-Canadian / Voice / Love
Place: Somerset (Wis.)
Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S230516)
First Line:
Source: Gwilym Davies Collection
Performer: Lahew, Russell
Date: 1998 (22 Mar)
Place: USA : W. Virginia : Mannington
Collector: Davies, Gwilym
Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S230517)
First Line:
Source: Gwilym Davies Collection
Performer: Richards, Dick
Date: 1998 (18 Jan)
Place: USA : New York : Rexford
Collector: Davies, Gwilym
Roud No: 409
Storytellers: Folktales & Legends from the South - Page 192
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0820312673
John A. Burrison - 1991 - Preview - More editions
It was late one night when her father came home, Inquiring where his daughter had gone. She's gone away her life to destroy; She's hung herself for the butcher boy. He ran upstairs and the door he broke, And found her hanging on a rope
Western Folklore - Volumes 27-28 - Page 92
https://books.google.com/books?id=1IoLAAAAIAAJ
1968 - Snippet view - More editions
Crying, "what a foolish girl she are,
To hang herself for a butcher boy."
Upstairs she went, a door she broke,
And found her hanging on a rope.
He drew his knife and cut it down,
And in her bosom feel — I was found.24
Oh, dig his grave both wide and deep,
That I and he might bury there.
A marble stone to his
-----------------
The Butcher Boy
Roud Broadside Index (B93604)
First Line: In London city where I did dwell
Source: Pack, Old Time Ballads & Cowboy Songs (c1933) p.69
The Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S200700)
First Line: Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Source: Pound, Folk-Song of Nebraska ... Syllabus p.18
Performer:
Date:
Place: USA : Nebraska
Bernard B. Smith and Brax Combs, Spider. 8%. (Contains ^ stanza not printed in Folk-Songs of the Kentucky Highlands.) b. "The Brown-Eyed Boy."
The Brown-eyed Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S230297)
First Line:
Source: Kentucky Folklore Record 6:4 (1960) p.129 item 32(b)
Performer:
Date:
Place: USA : Kentucky : Knott County
Collector: Combs, Josiah H.
-------------
The Butcher's Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S200718)
First Line: In London city where I did dwell
Source: Owens, Texas Folk Songs pp.89-90
Performer:
Date:
Place: USA : Texas
Collector: Owens, William A.
Roud No: 409
---
The Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S230526)
First Line: In London city where I did dwell
Source: Pack, Old Time Ballads & Cowboy Songs (c1933) p.69
Performer: Pack, Loye
--------
Monroe County Folklife - Page 17
https://books.google.com/books?id=4WXYAAAAMAAJ
1975 - Snippet view - More editions
He went upstairs and, the door he broke / He found her hanging by a rope He took his knife and cut her down / And in her hands these words he found. Go dig my grave both wide and deep / Place a marble stone at my head and feet On my
The Butcher's Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S171081)
First Line: In Jersey City, where I did dwell
Source: Shay, My Pious Friends & Drunken Companions (1927) pp.33-34
Performer:
Date:
Place: USA
Collector: Shay, Frank
Roud No: 409
The Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S140036)
First Line: In London city where I did dwell
Source: Edith Fowke Coll. (FO 25)
Performer: Clark, LaRena
Date: 1961 (Nov)
Place: Canada : Ontario : Richmond
Collector: Fowke, Edith
The Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S200703)
First Line: In London city where I did dwell
Source: Boette, Singa Hipsy Doodle p.121
Performer: Knicely, Dena J.
Date:
Place: USA : W. Virginia : Greenbrier County
Collector: Richardson, Vivian
One Morning Fair
Roud Folksong Index (S217781)
First Line: As I awoke one morning fair
Source: Folktrax 925-90 ('Frank Proffitt 2')
Performer: Proffitt, Frank
Date: 1962
Place: USA : N. Carolina : Watauga County
Collector: Warner, Anne & Frank
Roud No: 409
The Butcher Boy
Roud Folksong Index (S140037)
First Line: In London city where I did dwell
Source: Fowke, Family Heritage (1994) pp.92-93
Performer: Clark, LaRena
Date:
Place: Canada : Ontario
Collector: Fowke, Edith
-----------------------------
I Died My Petticoat Red
Roud Folksong Index (S268289)
First Line: I wish and I wish and I wish in vain
Source: Helen Creighton collection (Nova Scotia Archives) AR 5346 / AC 2294 / 1814
Performer: Brigley, Porter
Date: 1951 (Jul)
Place: Canada : Nova Scotia : Queensland
Collector: Creighton, Helen
Roud No: 495
------------------
[This is a variant of "Early, Early in the Spring" (Laws M1 Roud #152), a different ballad with Died for Love ending]
Harper's Magazine, Volume 35
edited by Henry Mills Alden, Lee Foster Hartman, Frederick Lewis Allen, Thomas Bucklin Wells 1867
was this behavior of old Tom Perlitcr's, that the camp became full of mutterings about illluck and the evil-eye; and, lest it should ripen mto mutinous discontent, Mr. Storace took Tom home to the Valley Farm again when returning from his last superintending visit to his loggers.
This was nowise to the disturbance of the children, who had now become sufficiently familiar to cluster round old Tom and beseech his songs and stories; und the maids themselves loved a mournful ditty now and then, since the men were all gone to the woods. Tom know how to please them, and oftentimes the pausing ilat-iron hissed to its fallen tear while the preposterous tune and words of his "Heart's Delight" echoed up the chimney und into the outside stars.
"Oh then I resolved to the army I would go,
To see if I could forget my love or no;
But when I got there with my armor shining bright
I couldn't take any comfort for my dear Heart's Delight.
"So then I resolved to her father's house I'd go,
To see if my love were yet alive or no:
Sat when I got there both her parents up and cried,
'Oh, our daughter loved you dearly, Sir, and for your sake she died!'
"So dig me a grave. Dig it long, wide, and deep,
And plant a marble slab at my head and at my feet,
Just over my heart there place a turtle-dove,
And let the whole creation know that I died of love."
-----------------
The Vocal Encyclopædia; comprising a variety of popular songs,
https://books.google.com/books?id=FTVYAAAAcAAJ
1808
also
The Apollonian Wreath, Or, Mirth and Glee. Being a Selection of Choice Songs 1810
THE MAID WHO DIED FOR LOVE,
THE night was dark, the rain did pour,
And bitterly did blow the wind,
When a lorn damsel at the door,
Willows wreathing, ...
Deep sighs breathing, All on the cold damp reclin'd. ..."
No more she said, but droop'd her head,
Death’s curtains clos'd around her eye;
Her spirit from its mansion fled
Unrevealing,
Silent stealing, -
And breath'd its flight in one short sigh!
Now where her cold remains are laid,
Her sad song coos the turtle dove,
And willows hang their pendant shade,
Fondly weeping,
Where she's sleeping,
Record the maid who died for love!
---------------
Robert W. Gordon, Folksongs of America (National Service Bureau, New York, 1927).
------
Sung in French:
Butcher's boy (part 1)
AFC 1939/007: AFS 02452 B
Baraga, MI, None 1938, 10
Sung in French
Un pitite c'est un broullion (part 1)
CLOUDLANDS (Tenn) CLC-008 1992 CASS-1356 "Morning Fair"
Missing Versions:
Belden only print parts of several texts and none of his E version below (Ballads and Songs 1940)
E. 'The Butcher Boy.' Secured in 1912 by Miss Frances H. Miller from Mrs. Charles Opel of Jefferson City, who 'was brought up in Missouri, and learned many of the ballads from her mother.' A somewhat abbreviated text, with no distinctive features.
Missing Versions:
______________________
Cox, Folk Songs of the South [no text given]
C. "In London City." Communicated by Mr. C. R. Bishop, Green Bank, Pocahontas County, 1917; obtained from Miss Valera Ervine. A fragmentary text.
------------------------
Pound B, 1922 cover of sheet music [not entered]
(B) THERE IS A TAVERN IN THE TOWN
There is a tavern in the town, in the town,
And there my dear love sits him down, sits him down,
And drinks his wine mid laughter free,
And never, never thinks of me.
Fare thee well for I must leave thee,
Do not let this parting grieve thee,
And remember that the best of friends must part, must part.
Adieu, adieu, kind friends, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you,
I'll hang my harp on the weeping willow tree
And may the world go well with thee.
He left me for a damsel dark, damsel dark,
Each Friday night they used to spark, used to spark,
And now my love once true to me
Takes that dark damsel on his knee.
O dig my grave both wide and deep, wide and deep,
Put tombstones at my head and feet, head and feet,
And on my breast carve a turtle dove
To signify I died of love.
-----------------------------------------------
E. 'In Boston Town.' Still another text from Stanly county, contributed this time by Merle Smith. It does not differ from D except that it has "a milk-white stone" in place of "a milk-white dove" in the penultimate line.
N. 'The Forsaken Lovers.' From the Reverend L. D. Hayman, then of Durham, about 1915. The final stanza only. [Brown Collection- no text given]
--------
[From: Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, by Chickering and Emelyon Elizabeth Gardner, 1939. Texts not given ]
D. Obtained in 1912 from Miss Jean Smith, Detroit, who was then a student in Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti. She said that she had known the song ever since she could remember, from hearing it sung by her family and friends. A good text of eight stanzas.
E. The manuscript of Mrs. Russell Wood, Kalkaska; Mrs. Wood had learned the song from her mother. A good text of seven stanzas.
F. Sung in 1934 by Mrs. Jim Fisher, near Kalkaska, who learned the song in Fulton County, Ohio, when she was very young. A good text of seven stanzas.
G. Communicated by Miss Marjorie Howcroft, a student at Wayne University, Detroit; she had heard the song sung by her German mother, who was living in New Orleans when she memorized it. A good text of eight stanzas
-----------------------------------------------
[From Brewster, Ballads and Songs of Indiana, 1940. Text not given]
D. "The Butcher Boy." Contributed by Miss June Falls, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. Secured from her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mason, of Mifflin, Indiana. Crawford County. May 12, 1935. Eight stanzas.
E. "The Butcher Boy." Contributed by Mrs. Dora Ward, of Princeton, Indiana. Gibson County. April 26, 1935. Eight stanzas.
F. "The Butcher Boy." Contributed by Mrs. Harry Holderbaugh, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. February 10, 1935. Three stanzas.
G. "The Butcher Boy." Contributed by Mr. James McGregor, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. January 29, 1935. Two stanzas.
H. "The Butcher Boy.n Contributed by Mrs. Hiram Enlow, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. March 3, 1935. Four stanzas.
I. "The Butcher Boy." Contributed by Mrs. Elvira Ihirham, of Oakland City, Indiana. Gibson County. March SO, 19S5. Six stanzas.
---------------------------------
[text is not confirmed]
She Died In Love (Kenneth Peacock) Walters version- this is one stanza:
"When I carried my apron low
My love followed me through frost and snow,
But now my apron is to my chin,
My love passes by and won’t call in."
Although Peacock grouped Walter’s performance (as "A") with a version of "The Butcher Boy" sung by Mrs. Kinslow (as "B"), these are two different — though closely related — songs. Laws gave "She Died in Love" the standard title of "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" and assigned to it the identifying number P25 ("The Butcher Boy," a much more widely known piece, is P24) (Laws 1957, 260-261).8 Walters’s "She Died in Love" includes three verses that also appear in versions of "She’s Like the Swallow."
Also selected for recording in a compilation album of various artists (Songs of the Newfoundland Outports and Labrador/Chansons de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador: Mrs Thomas (Annie) Walters [1896-1986] of Rocky Harbour, NL, trk#3, 2003 CD, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec).
email ryder@robertwilliston.com
There is an ale-house in this town
Where my love goes in and sits himself down,
He takes some strange girl on his knee,
And don't you think it's a grief to me.
A grief to me and I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I,
But her gold will waste and silver fly,
There's a time she'll have no more than I.
When I carried my apron low,
My love followed me through frost and snow,
But now my apron is to my chin,
My love passes by and won't call in.
Down in yon meadow I hear people say,
There grows a flower so costly and gay,
If I could chance one of them to find
'Twould cure my heart and ease my mind.
Down in the valley this fair one did go,
Picking those flowers so fast as they'd grow,
Some she plucked and more she pulled,
Until she gathered her apron full.
She carried them home and she made a bed,
A stony pillow for her head,
She laid herself down and never more spoke
Because, poor girl, her heart was broke.
When she was dead and her corpse was cold
This sad news to her true love was told,
"I'm sorry for her, poor girl," said he,
"How could she be so fond of me?"
Dig her a grave wide, long, and deep,
A tombstone at her head and feet,
And on her breast lay a turtle dove
So the world may know that she died in love.
----------------------------
3. Go Dig My Grave (Railroad Boy), Tom Carter , “From the Great American Songbook”
4 .Died For Love, Jasper Smith, from “Hidden English”
9.Butcher’s Boy, Damien Jurado, from “Holding His Breath”
10.The Butcher Boy, Dave Van Ronk, from “The Mayor Of MacDougal Street: Rarities 1957-1969”
12.Butcher Boy, Hank Schwartz, from “Notes Along The Way”
13.Butcher Boy, Steve Camacho, from “Folk and Other Songs”
16.Go Dig My Grave, Jean Ritchie, from “Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City”
18.Railroad Boy, Joan Baez, from “Joan Baez, Vol. 2”
19.Died for Love, Martin Carthy, from “Prince Heathen”
20.In London City, Roscoe Holcomb , from “Close To Home”
21.The Fatal Courtship, Ephraim Woodie, from “Music from the Lost Provinces” [not butcher boy
22. Butcher Boy, Almeda Riddle, from “Ozark Folksongs”
Henry Whitter "Butcher Boy" 1925.
Vernon Dalhart "The Butcher's Boy" 1927. As Jeff Calhoun "The Butcher Boy" 1927.
Carson Robison "The Butcher Boy" 1928.
The Blue Sky Boys "The Butcher's Boy" 1940.
Peggy Seeger "The Butcher Boy" on Songs of Courting and Complaint 1955.
Tommy Makem "The Butcher Boy" on Songs of Tommy Makem 1961.
Vern Smeiser "The Butcher's Boy" 1963 on Art of Field Recording Volume 2.
The Goldebriars "The Railroad Boy" 1964 on The Goldebriars.
Tommy Makem with The Clancy Brothers "The Butcher Boy" on Recorded Live in Ireland.1965.
Sarah Makem "The Butcher Boy" 1967 on The Voice of the People: Sarah Makem: The Heart Is True.
Caroline Hughes "The Butcher Boy" 1968 on The Voice of the People: I'm A Romany Rai.
Ryan's Fancy "The Butcher Boy" on Newfoundland Drinking Songs 1973.[7]
Kirsty MacColl "The Butcher Boy" on Caroline 1995.
Sinead O'Connor "The Butcher Boy" on The Butcher Boy (soundtrack) 1997.
Dave Van Ronk "The Butcher Boy" on Dave Van Ronk: The Mayor of MacDougal Street 2005.
Lau "Butcher Boy" on Lightweights and Gentlemen 2007.