US & Canada Versions: 93. Lamkin
[Although this ballad is relatively rare in North America, it is still well-represented (I have 56 versions in my collection) and is found in Maritime Canada, New England, the Mid-west, Appalachia and points west-- including Arkansas, Oklahoma and Utah.
The age of this ballad in North America is hard to determine, much as its age in the British Isles. Two British versions from around 1765 (Herd; Parsons) date this toward the early 1700s but it certainly can go back at least 100 years there. In North America, it was found in remote areas of the Appalachians which were settled around the time of the Revolution - the same time the versions surfaced in Britain. The ballad was found in the Hicks/Harmon clan in remote areas of Watuaga, NC, who were established in along the James River in Virgina by the late 1600s. Certainly a projected date of the late 1700s is reasonable since it was discovered in NC in the early 1800s (see Child, Additions and Corrections, 1898; Volume X, English and Scottish Popular Ballads.) Newfoundland, England's oldest colony, is another remote area that was settled in the mid-1600s. Karpeles found four versions of the ballad that fit the "Northumbrian" form established by Gilchrist in her 1930s article. The ballad has also been collected in Nova Scotia and again in Newfoundland by Leach and Peacock in the 1950s and Halpert in the 1960s.
Versions of the ballad in north American can be organized by Gilchrist's forms: the Scottish form begins: Lamkins was a good mason --and pay he got none. While the Northumbrian/English forms skip the first stanza and give no real motive for Lamkins murderous behavior.
As noted by Gilchrist, Karpeles versions from Newfoundland all fit the English type, as do the other Canadian versions. Most of the US have the Scottish opening, "Lamkins was a good mason," line and some, missing that line, may simply have forgotten the beginning.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS: (To access individual versions click on highlighted title below or on title attached to this page on left-hand column)
1) John Lankin- Backus (NC) c.1820 Newell/Child -- From Child, Additions and Corrections, 1898 Volume X, English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Communicated by Mr. W. W. Newell, with the superscription (by the original transcriber, Miss Emma M. Backus) "as sung in Newbern, North Carolina, seventy-five years ago."
2) Beaulampkins- Smith/Rayfield (NC) c.1860 Brown A -- From Brown Collection volume 2, 1952 and volume 4. Sent by Thomas Smith of Zionville, Watauga county, in March 1914. "As sung by Mrs. Emma Smith and Mrs. Polly Rayfield, both of whom heard it when children, probably forty or fifty years ago."
3) Lamkin- Morris (ME) c.1868 Eckstorm A -- From: Two Maine Texts of "Lamkin" by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan. - Mar., 1939), pp. 70-74. Text of Mrs. Margaret (McPhail) Morris, of Kingman, Me., August 20, 1934. Mrs. Morris was born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., in 1853, and probably learned the song of her mother, Mrs. Ruth (Hescot) McPhail, who was born in England about 1812.
4) Lamferd- Salley Hubbard (UT) c.1870 Hubbard --
5) False Lamkin- Delorme (NY) c.1878 Flanders F
6) Lamkin- Mace/Anderson (ME) c.1887 Barry A
Mr. Lammikin- Negroes (VA) pre1890 Child
Young Alanthia- Kelley (MA) c.1890s Linscott
False Lamkin- Carlisle (AR) 1912 Randolph
False Lambkin- (MI) 1914 Bertrand L. Jones
Ward Lampkin- Fletcher (VA) 1914 Davis B
Bold Adkins- (NC) c. 1915 Greer Collection
False Lambkin- Goon (OH) 1916 Eddy
Bold Dunkins- Gentry (NC) 1916 Sharp A
Lamkin- Cis Jones (KY) 1917 Sharp B
Lamkin- Carter (KY) 1917 Sharp C
Bold Lantern- Broughton (KY) 1917 Sharp D
Lamkins- Pratt (KY) 1917 Sharp E
Bow Lamkins- Hollon (OK-IL) c1919 Moores
Bow Lamkins- Hart (VA) 1921 Stone/Davis A
Bow Lamkins- Riffey (VA) 1921 Stone/Davis C
We Gave Him Breast Milk- Vest (VA) 1922 Davis D
Lamkins- Belangia (NC) 1924 Chappell
Bolamkin- Baird (NC) c.1927 Burton B
Lamkin- Joyce (ME) 1927 Barry B
Boab King- Harmon (TN) 1928 Henry
Proud Lamkin- McCabe (NL) 1929 Karpeles A
Lord Lamkin- Corbett (NL) 1929 Karpeles B
Lamkin- Mitchell (NL) 1930 Karpeles C
Proud Lamkin- Quann (NL) 1930 Karpeles D
Billie Lamkin- Murphy (MI) 1931 Gardner B
Bolakin- Turberfield (NC) 1933 Matteson
Tumkin- Sullivan (VT) 1933 Barry/ Flanders G
False Linfinn- Harding (ME) 1934 Eckstorm B
Lamkin- Hopkins (IN) 1935 Brewster A
Lamkin- Little (IO-IN) 1935 Brewster B
False Lamkin- Riley (MI) 1935 Gardner A
Lamfin- Shelton (GA) c.1936 Niles
Bo Lamkin- Frank Proffitt (NC) 1937 Brown B
Lord Arnold's Castle- Atwood (MI) 1937 Gardner C
Bolakins- Turbyfill (NC) 1939 REC
Beaulampkins- Prather (NC) 1939 Brown 4-A1
Beaulampkins- (NC) c.1940 Brown 4-A2
False Lamkins- Barry (VT) 1941 Flanders D1 and D2
Squire Relantman- Moses (NH) 1942 Flanders C
False Lamkin- Hoadley (VT) 1946 Flanders E
Lamkin- Mushrow (NL) 1951 Leach
Lamkins- Barnitz (PA-WV) 1957 Musick
False Lamkin- Robinson (AR) 1957 Parler
Beau Lamkin- Clough (VT-NH) 1957 Flanders H
Beau Lampkins- Hedy West (GA) 1967 REC
False Lamkins- Davis (AR) 1968 Max Hunter C
Bold Ankin- Bennett (NL) c.1968 Halpert REC
Bolakin- Aunt Polly Gainer (WV) 1975 Gainer
False Limkin- Harris (NL) 1976 Lehr/Best
Bolamkin- Rena Hicks (NC) 1978 Burton
________________________________
British Ballad From Maine; 1929, Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth notes:
The full story of the ballad narrates how Lamkin the mason had not been paid for his work by the lord for whom he had built a castle. When the lord was away, Lamkin arranged with the false nurse within the castle to be let in by a window which was not "pinned in." He and the nurse, by causing the baby to cry, drew the lady down from her safe upper chamber and then slew her and the babe. "The name Lamkin," says professor Child, "is probably an ironical designation for the bloody mason, the terror of countless nurseries."
The history of the Maine tradition of "Lamkin" is interesting. Textually, Maine A belongs with the following group of variants:
Child F,--as sung in Northumberland about a century prior to 1856;
Child T, --a Killarney, Ireland, version, in tradition before 1867;
A fragment from Virginia (child, III, 515) allied to Child F and child T;
A North Carolina version printed by Campbell and Sharp, pp. 104-105;
An Ohio version printed by Tolman in JAFL, XXIX ,162-164;
A Michigan version, in the MS Collection of Mr. B. L. Jones, said to resemble closely the Ohio text.
A Tennessee version obtained by Mr. M. E. Henry, Ridgefield, N.J. (to be printed in JAFL).
The correspondence of stanzas is shown by the following summary:
Maine A: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
child F: [upcoming]
child T:
Virginia:
N. Car.:
Ohio:
Tenn.:
In the foregoing list, we have indicated, by parentheses, such correspondences of stanzas as are only partial or incomplete. For example, Maine A 14 has:
Lamkin was taken,
hung on a gallows most high,
And the lanterns stood burning
on the posts that stood by.
which corresponds partly to Child F 23:
Then Long Lonkyn was hanged
on a gallows so high,
And the false nurse was burnt
in a fire just by.
since Mr. Mace recalled that his text had originally a stanza, now forgotten, in which Lamkin asked the nurse where the man was, and was told by her where he had gone, the correspondence of texts in the above group is made more exact, for such a stanza is found in Child F, Child T, and in the Ohio and Tennessee texts. Moreover, since both stanzas of Maine B are represented in the Ohio and Tennessee texts, it is not impossible that they, too, may have belonged to the same traditional group.
The relative antiquity of the tradition of Maine A may be indicated further. We have in Child B, C, E, F, the ironical address of the nurse to the lady that she may use the sheen of her clothes or jewelry to light her way down the dark stairs. In the North Carolina [Sharp A] text the stanza reads:
"You've got five golden mantles
As bright as the sun.
Bewore ye fair lady,
You must come by the light of one."
The savage humor of the nurse's slur on the lady's love for gay raiment is the best proof that Child F and the North Carolina text belong to an earlier stage of tradition, at least as far as this particular detail is concerned, than Maine A, Child T, and the Ohio version, which have instead of "mantles," respectively, "lanterns," "lamps," and "lanterns." On the other hand, Maine A has preserved a quaintly archaic conceit in the stanza:
"Oh, Lamkin, Please Lamkin,
spare me but one hour,
And you may have my daughter Betsy,
she's the branch of all flowers."
The formula "branch of all flowers" is distinctly an Irish term of endearment, similar to the more familiar expression "mo chraoibhin cno," that is, "my little branch of nuts" or "nut-brown maiden." we have actually in an Old-Irish hymn of the seventh century, the formular "in chroib co mblathib," "the branch with the flowers," applied to St. Brigid. The other texts of "Lamkin" allied to Maine A all show the wearing down of this formula. Child F has "she is a sweet flower"; Child T, "the flower of the flock"; the Ohio text, "the queen of the bower." See also JFSS, V, 83.
The close relationship of Maine A and the Ohio version is also clearly indicated by the music. The Ohio melody (JAFL, XXXV, 344) is a defective variant of the charming air to which Mr. Mace sings our A-text of "Lamkin."
_____________________________________________
Flanders; Ancient Ballads, 1961, notes by Coffin
Lamkin (Child 93)
Although child printed twenty-six versions of "Lamkin" and although it is still known in British-American tradition, the story of the revengeful mason who murders a woman and child because he has not been paid is much the same wherever it is found. The fact that the crime is so weakly motivated has made scholars suspect much of the plot to be lost. Phillips Barry (see JAF, LII, 70-74) offers an appealing explanation in connection with the "False Linfinn" text (Flanders B) collected in Maine. "The Linfinn" was Irish for "the white man who lives by the Stream," the outcast who was a leper forced to live alone. A cure for leprosy could be had through the blood of an innocent human collected in a silver container, and this fact offers a real motive for the crime. Barry felt that the identification of Linfinn with masonry came later, possibly because Irish masons had a recipe for making cement with blood. However, other scholars have identified the name Lamkin as a Flemish form of Lambert and noted that Flemish masons were well-known in Britain in the Middle Ages. In America, one Virginia informant noted by Arthur K. Davis in his Traditional Ballads of Virginia (Cambridge, Mass., 1929), 357, claimed there had been a love affair between the lady and the mason prior to the opening of the story. Whatever the answer, the crime seems rather extreme as a retaliation for failure to pay a debt.
Flanders A has the false window built by the irate mason (Child E), and A, B, and C contain the offer of the daughter's hand as a bribe (Child F, T, X). In D1, D2, E, and F only gold is proffered. A, B, D1, D2, and F include the basin of blood, and all the Flanders texts find the false nurse or maid executed with Lamkin at the end. These points generally ally the New England tradition printed here with the Child B, C, F group and the material discussed in Barry, British Ballads from Maine, 203-6, although the Flanders H fragment, where the nurse actually lets the murderer in, recalls the Child A story. For other discussions and bibliography, start with Coffin, 94-96 (American); Dean-Smith, 83 (English); and Greig and Keith, 7l-72 (Scottish). The Flanders G text, "Tumkin" (Tom King), with its relationship to Dick Turpin legends, is interesting, if hard to explain.
All of the tunes for Child 93 are members of the same family. The Moses and Delorme tunes are slightly removed from the rest, the Delorme tune being related primarily at the first line. For melodic relationship to the entire group, see FCB4, 74-76 (a11 tunes for Child 93); Sharp 1, 202, 204, 205; EO, 59; DV, 583, No. 26 (B); BES, 201 (especially related to the Delorme tune); and GCM, 313 (distant).
________________________________
Notes from Davis, Traditional Ballads of Virginia, 1929.
LAMKIN
(Child, No. 93)
The first evidence that this ballad survived in America came from Virginia. Child's Additions and Corrections (III, 515) report that "the negroes of Dumphries, Prince William County, Virginia, have this ballad, orally transmitted from the original Scottish settlers of that region, with the stanza,
Mr. Lammikin, Mr. Lammikin,
Oh, spare me my life,
And I'll give you my daughter, Betsy,
and she shall be your wife."
It is to be noted that all the Virginia variants, except, of course, the fragment D, have the stanza which makes this unnatural offer (A 14, B 7, C 5). Of the twenty-six versions printed by Child, this stanza.is found in only three (I 19, T 15, K 16), but the resemblance is not otherwise close to any one of these three, or indeed to any Child version. The Virginia texts seem to represent at least two separate version, (A and B) not found in Child.
The story, however, does not differ materially from that of the Child versions, thus summarized by Child: " A mason has built a castle for a nobleman, cannot get his pay, and therefore seeks revenge. The name given the builder is Lamkin [in Virginia, also Lampkin, Ward Lampkin, Beaulamkins, or Bow Lamkins] . . .The Lord, having occasion to leave his family fears mischief from the man whom he has wronged, and enjoins his wife to keep the castle well fastened. Precautions are taken, but nevertheless his enemy effects an entrance through some apperture that has not been secured or by connivance with a nurse. Most of the servants are away. To get at the lady, Lamkin, as we may call him, by advice of the nurse afflicts some hurt on the babe in the cradle stabbing it, or 'nipping' it, and the cries bring the mother down. The lady proffers large sums of gold to save her life, but Lamkin does not care for gold now. [She also offers her daughter. See above.] He gloats over his opportunity, and bids the nurse, or maid-servant, or even one of the daughters of the house, to scour a silver basin to hold the lady's noble blood. The
lord has a presentment of calamity at home, and returning, finds his house red with the blood of his wife and child. Lamkin is hanged, or burned, or boiled in a pot full of lead. The nurse is burned, or hanged, or boiled in a cauldron." In Virginia texts, Lamkin is always hanged, the nurse always burned.
The tale has been localized in various parts of Scotland, as pointed out by Motherwell in his Minstrelsy, p. lxx, note 27, and p. 291. The name Lamkin Child explains a either (1) a soubriquet applied in derision of the meekness with which the builder had submitted to his injury," or (2) "a simply ironical designation for the bloody mason, the terror of countless nurseries."
Four Virginia texts and one tune are here, given. Of these, A and B are new and different versions, C is a badly mangled variant of A, and D is a fragment corresponding to Child D 13. The tune to B is conjecturally interpreted, but the original notation is also given.
____________________________________
Notes from Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan - Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner, Geraldine Jencks Chickering - 1939
127 LAMKIN (Child, No. 93)
Michigan A is so fragmentary that it is difficult to tell which of the Child versions (II, 320-342) it most resembles. In only two Child versions, E and W, and in no other American version noted, does Lamkin construct an entrance for himself. It is notable that in Michigan B the lady is not actually murdered, nor is Lamkin punished, as he is in most other texts, by hanging, burning, or boiling in a pot full of lead. For additional texts see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, pp. 200--06; Davis, pp. 354-359; Fuson, pp. 71-72 [not in Fuson]; Henry, JAFL, XLIV, 61-63; Mary Ella Leather, The FolJ-Lore of Herefordshire (London, 1912), pp. 199-200; Sharp, I, 201-207; Tolman, JAFL, XXIX, 162-164; and Tolman and Eddy, JAFL, XXXV, 344. Version A was sung and recited in 1935 by Mrs. Sol Riley, near Kalkaska
_______________________________________
Notes: Ballads and Songs of Indiana by Paul G. Brewster; Indiana University Publications Folklore Series 1940
16 LAMKIN (Child, No. 93)
This ballad is rare in Indiana. Only two variants have been recovered, one of eight stanzas, the other of three. Both appear to belong to the F version of Child, stanzas 21, 22, and 23 of the latter being almost identical with corresponding stanzas of Indiana A. Much has been lost from the Indiana texts. They lack the lord's parting injunction to his lady to beware of Lamkin, "who lives in the wood," the planning of Lamkin and the nurse for revenge, the torturing of the baby, the attempt of the lady to "buy off" Lamkin, the scouring of the basin to catch the lady's blood, the question of Lamkin as to whether he shall kill the lady, and the nurse's reply: "Kill her, dear Lammikin, she was never gude to me."
For American texts, see Brown, p. 9; Campbell and Sharp, No. 23; Jones, p. 301 (fragment); Journal, XIII, 117; XXIX, 162; XXX, 318; XXXV, 344 (fragment and melody); XLIV, 61; Sandburg, pp. 72, 385; Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands, p. 91; Henry, Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians, p. 62. British: JFSS, I, 212; II, 111; V, 81; Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 61. Additional references are to be found in Journal, XXX, 318.
___________________________
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
93. LAMKIN
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me> 200 / Brewster, Bids Sgs 2nd, 122 / Brown Coll / Bull Tenn FLS, VIII, # 3, 75 / ChappeU, F-S Rnke Alb, 76 / Child, III, 5 1 5 ; V, 295 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 354 / Eddy, Bids Sgs Ohio, 59 / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 313 / Marion H. Gray, The Flight of the Ballad A Woman's Department Club Ballad, Terre Haute, Part 3, 4 10 '30, 4 I Henry, Beech Mt F-S, 20 / Henry, F-S So Hgblds, 91 / Henry, Sgs Sng So Aplclns, 62 / Jones, F-LMich, 5 / JAFL, XIII, 117; XXIX, 162; XXXV, 3445 XLIV, 61; XL VIII, 316; LII, 70 / Lmscott, F-S Old NE, 303 / E. H. McClure, McClures and Mayers
(private), Detroit, '42, 3 / N. J, Journal Educ., XIX, 4J= i, 9 / Perry, Carter Cnty, 205 / Randolph, 0% F-S, 1, 141 / SharpC, EngF-S So Aplchns, #23 / SharpK, EngF-S So Aplchns, I, 201 / SFLQ, V, 13.7 / V* FLS Bull, #s 3, 9.
Local Titles: Boab King, Bolakin, Beau (Bow, Bo) Lamkin(s), Bold Lantern (Dunkins, Hamkins), (The) False Lambkin, False Linfinni Lamkin, Lampktn, Ward Laznpkin, Young Alanthia,
Story Types: A: Lamkin, a mason, does some work for a lord and is not paid. The lord, leaving home for a time, fears trouble. He orders his house sealed to protect his family. Lamkin, seeking revenge, gets in through some opening left by accident or with the assistance of a nurse. Most of the servants are away. At the nurse's advice, he hurts the baby in order to get the mother downstairs. When the lady of the house comes, Lamkin seizes her. She offers him gold and even her daughter in marriage to save her own life. But Lamkin scorns these bribes and gloats over his plan to murder her. He makes the
nurse or the servants clean a silver basin to hold the lady's blood. The lord returns to find the house red with gore and only his daughter, who was warned by the mother to stay hidden, surviving. Lamkin is hung or burned, and the nurse, burned or hung.
Examples: Davis (A), Linscott, SharpK (B).
B: The story is the same as that of Type A 5 but Lamkin, when not paid, builds a false window in the house. He enters through this window to commit the crimes.
Examples: Gardner and Chickering (A); JAFL, LII, 70; Randolph.
C: The story is abbreviated so that only the baby is slain, and it is his blood that is caught in the silver bowL
Examples: JAFL, XIII, 117.
D : The story is the same as that of Type A, except that it is suggested that there was a love affair between Lamkin and the lady before the marriage. Thus, Lamkin had sworn revenge on the lord for winning his girl. Lamkin gets in by persuading the nurse the baby is crying, and the nurse becomes innocently suspected and punished.
Examples: Davis (B).
Discussion: The American story is similar in basic outline to the Child B, C, F group (see Child, II, 320 I), although certain differences should be noted. The offer of the daughter's hand as a bribe, and the large role given the daughter (Child F, T, X) are common in America. The false window built by the mason (Child E) can also be found with: some frequency (Type
B), while the. catching of the baby's blood in the bowl (Type C) seems to occur as a result of combined story degeneration and reconstruction. The Type D text does not appear much different from the usual Type A story. However, Davis, Trd Bid Va y 357 (headnote) makes clear that the singer believed that there had been- a love affair between the lady and the mason,
although this conception is not consistent with the normal opening line, "Why need I reward Lampkin?" The idea that the daughter, Betsy, is away at school and has to be sent for was also added as a footnote by the singer of this version. See Barry, Brit Bids Me, 204 for a textual study of seven American and British variants of the Child F version.
Two American texts are worth particular attention. The Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 315, B version never gets as far as the murder or the hanging of Lamkin, and, although certainly not complete, is unusual as the most dramatically active portion is the forgotten portion. The Chappell, F-S Rnke All, 76 text contains a splice between the "spare me" lines of the lady and some love song on the general theme of the opening scene of Young Hunting (Child 68). The seven resultant stanzas are pointless.
Fannie Eckstrom (J4FL, LII, 74) offers Phillips Barry's explanation of the source of this song by means of the False Linfinn title. In Irish folklore, a leper (called "white" man) could be cured by the blood of an innocent person collected in a silver bowl. Barry feels that the Irish mason, who was reputed to use human blood in the mixing of his cement, was rationalized
into the ballad after the fear of lepers had vanished.
For a discussion of the change in names from Bold Lamkin to Boab King, see Henry, F-S So Hghlds, 91.
______________________________
Missing versions
LAMKIN
Source Creighton, Maritime Folk Songs (1961) pp.20-21 (version b)
Performer Power, Mrs. H.H.
Place collected Canada : Nova Scotia : Little Harbour
Collector Creighton, Helen
BOLD LAMKIN
Source Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports 3 (1965) pp.806-807
Performer Bennett, Jim
Place collected Canada : Newfoundland : St. Paul's
Collector Peacock, Kenneth
BOL' LAMPKIN (See Rena Hicks version )
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2855 B1
Performer Hicks, Mr. & Mrs. Nathan
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Rominger
Collector Halpert, Herbert
FALSE LAMKIN
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.204 item 27
Performer Tomblin, George
Place collected USA : W. Virginia : Rudkin
Collector Combs, Josiah H. / Woofter, Carey
FALSE LAMKIN
Source Helen Hartness Flanders Collection (Middlebury College, Vermont) T11 A 03
Performer Eldred, Mrs. Bertha
Place collected USA : Vermont : Belvidere
Collector Flanders, Helen Hartness
BOLENKIN
Source Library of Congress AAFS recording 2869 A&B
Performer Hampton, Mrs. Sabra Bare
Place collected USA : N. Carolina : Morgantown
Collector Halpert, Herbert
Roud number 6 | Roud number search
LAMKIN
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.205
Performer Edwards, Hassie
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
Collector
LAMKIN
Source Perry, A Sampling of the Folklore of Carter County, Tennessee (1938) p.207
Performer Potter, Anne
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Carter County
Collector
LAMKIN
Source Anderson: Tennessee Folklore Soc. Bulletin 8:3 (1942) p.75
Performer Clark, G.B.
Place collected USA : Tennessee : Blount County
Collector
Roud number 6 | Roud number search
LINCOLN WAS A MASON
Source Helen Creighton collection (Nova Scotia Archives) AR 5446 / AC 2309 / 2026
Performer Hatt, Nathan
Place collected Canada : Nova Scotia : Middle River
Collector Creighton, Helen
Roud number 6 | Roud number search
Lincoln Was A Mason (from HATT, Nathan of Middle River, Victoria County, Nova Scotia
first line of song: Lincoln was a mason...) — May 1952
------------------
A variant Bold Lamkin was also collected in 1958 from Jim Bennett of St. Paul's NL, by Kenneth Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.806-807, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved. [Also collected from Clarence Bennett- Halpert.]
--------------------
The Flight of the Ballad; by Marion Hunter Gray; 1930
------------------
Maritime folk songs
Author: Helen Creighton; Kenneth Peacock
Publisher: Toronto : Ryerson Press, 1962. ©1961