NAME: Minnie Quay (Winnie Gray) [Laws G20]
DESCRIPTION: Slandered by a young man, sixteen-year-old (Minnie) finds that her parents have turned against her and wish her dead. She drowns herself in Lake Huron
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: suicide family lie drowning
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws G20, "Minnie Quay (Winnie Gray)"
Beck 77, "Minnie Quay" (1 text)
DT 835, MINIQUAY
Roud #8850
NOTES: [Beck notes that] Minnie Quay's tombstone can be found in the village of Forester, on the shore of Lake Huron. [The author of the song is] possibly William J. Smith, of Port Huron, Michigan. - PJS
File: LG20
===
NAME: Minstrel Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: "The minstrel boy to the war is gone, In the ranks of death you'll find him. His father's sword he has girded on And his wild hard slung behind him." The minstrel falls in battle, destroying his harp so that "no chains shall sully thee."
AUTHOR: Words: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST_DATE: 1813 ("A Selection of Irish Melodies")
KEYWORDS: soldier harp music death
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 279, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 369, "The Minstrel-Boy"
DT, MINSTBOY
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 375, "The Minstrel Boy" (1 text)
Roud #13867
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Minstrel Boy" (on IRClancyMakem03)
Vernon Stiles, "The Minstrel Boy" (Columbia A-2435, 1917)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1037), "The Minstrel Boy", T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also 2806 b.9(243), 2806 c.15(207), Harding B 11(1471), Harding B 16(49c), Firth b.26(434)[some words illegible], Firth b.25(385), Harding B 11(2293), 2806 c.16(197), Firth b.27(457/458) View 1 of 4, Johnson Ballads fol. 26, Harding B 40(2) View 3 of 4[some words cut out], Harding B 19(48), Firth b.26(87)[some words illegible], "The Minstrel Boy"
LOCSheet, sm1879 02687, "The Minstrel Boy", Edw Schuberth (New York), 1879; also sm1882 21694, sm1882 22258, sm1884 25744, sm1885 05300, "The Minstrel Boy" (tune)
LOCSinging, sb30345a, "The Minstrel Boy", H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fisherman's Son to the Ice Has Gone" (form)
NOTES: Usually sung, in these days, as an anti-war song, but originally composed as an Irish freedom piece. The music is said to be "The Moreen," though that song is obscure.
This is another of Moore's "big works"; Granger's Index to Poetry cites it from 13 different anthologies. Ironically, I'm not sure it has ever been found strictly in tradition. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30345a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: FSWB279A
===
NAME: Mione
DESCRIPTION: French cumulative song, in which the singer describes each of the items given by Mione: "If I had the beautiful shoes/stockings/hat/etc. which Mione gave to me...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1919 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad clothes
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, pp. 517-518, "Mione" (1 text, badly defective and conjecturally restored)
File: Beld517B
===
NAME: Mirabeau
DESCRIPTION: "You may talk of equine heroes from Ajax to Grand-van-Ur.... But there's one more worthy of song... [is] Johnson's Mirabeau." The horse is far behind at the three quarters mark, but comes on to win
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: racing horse
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 117-118, "Mirabeau" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA117
===
NAME: Miracle Flower, The
DESCRIPTION: A man murders and buries a girl. A flower grows from her grave and blooms the year round. If anybody plucks the blossom, it blooms again right away. The killer comes to see it. The flower it turns to blood in his hands and reveals his guilt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (Creighton/Senior)
KEYWORDS: murder flowers supernatural
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 188-189, "The Miracle Flower" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #3345
NOTES: [Creighton notes], "Although I have told many singers this story, I have yet to find one who knows the song." [The fragmentary text reads] "And wondered how so fair a flower could bloom and flourish there." - BN
File: CrSe188
===
NAME: Miraculous Harvest, The: see The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)
===
NAME: Miramichi Fire, The [Laws G24]
DESCRIPTION: A great fire covers an area 42 by 100 miles. In less than a day it burns forest, houses, and towns, killing or wounding vast numbers. There is little for the survivors to do but bury the dead
AUTHOR: John Jardine = Thomas M. Jordan (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: fire death disaster
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 1825 - A great series of forest fires sweeps New Brunswick. Popular legend had it that the damage was done by a single fire
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws G24, "The Miramichi Fire"
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 201-202, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 62-64,250-251, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 34, "The Miramichi Fire" (1 text, 3 tunes)
DT 324, MIRAMICH
Roud #2721
RECORDINGS:
Edmund Doucette, "The Miramichi Fire" (on MREIves01)
NOTES: By the early nineteenth century, with the fur trade moving into the Canadian west, the eastern provinces were turning increasingly to logging as a source of income, sending most of their wood products to England.
This had significant effects on the ecology. As the old forests were cut down, second growth invaded, which was naturally more flammable -- and if the fire grew big enough in one of the clear patches, it could spread to the old growth as well. The result was a constant fire danger.
Although none of the fires was as large as the one described in this song, at least one (the "Great Fire") is said to have burned 400 square miles. Adding a zero to that might perhaps have helped inspire this song. - RBW
Ives-DullCare: "Shortly after [the fire], John Jardine of Black River wrote a ballad about it which he almost certainly had printed and sold. Either he or, what is more likely, later singers put tunes to it.... At the moment ... no tune has a better right than the present one to be called, if not the 'original,' at least the most widespread." - BS
Laws cites the _Bulletin of the Folk-Song Society of the Northeast_ (#11) in attributing this song to Thomas M. Jordan. Obviously Jordan and Jardine are oral variants on each other. Jardine is the more likely; Manny and Wilson have a photograph of John Jardine (obviously in later life). - RBW
File: LG24
===
NAME: Miss Aledo: see Powderhorn (File: FCW070)
===
NAME: Miss Bridget Adair
DESCRIPTION: Bridget Adair is a forty year old spinster. One morning a man comes to her door and said "Miss Bridget, I die for you." She likes his demeanour. Then he gives her silks she had sent him to dye "a beautiful mazarine blue." She cries with disappointment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 74-75, "Miss Bridget Adair" (1 text)
Roud #6536
NOTES: The Albert Memorial, cited in the song ["It was just as the Albert Memorial struck nine, And Miss Bridget was just out of bed"], was completed 1876 (source: The Victorian Web site). That puts an earliest possible date on the Hayward-Ulster version. - BS
File: HayU074
===
NAME: Miss Brown: see The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (The Gosport Tragedy; Pretty Polly) [Laws P36A/B] (File: LP36)
===
NAME: Miss Cochrane
DESCRIPTION: "It was on an Easter Monday which happened of late, Young Marg'ret got ready and set on her way." Her boat blows out to sea and she is drowned. Her body is never found. Her father says he warned her against sailing on Logh Foyle
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: death drowning ship father
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H42a, p. 148, "Miss Cochrane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9452
SAME_TUNE:
Eirigh Suas a Stoirin (Kennedy, #34)
File: HHH042a
===
NAME: Miss Dinah
DESCRIPTION: "I wish I was an apple, Miss Dinah was another. And O! what a happy pair we'd make On the tree together." "Oh, I love Miss Dinah so." One day a wind blows them together, then into the water. "Miss Dinah she was raked ashore, But I was never founded"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: love courting river drowning rescue
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 127-128, "Miss Dinah" (1 text)
File: ScaNF127
===
NAME: Miss Fogarty's Cake: see Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)
===
NAME: Miss Forbes's Farewell to Banff
DESCRIPTION: "Farewell ye fields an' meadows green, The blest retreat of peace and love." The singer tells of the beauties of home, and admits, "I'm loath to leave the scene again." The singer bids farewell, hoping all the while to return
AUTHOR: John Hamilton (died 1814) ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: home love emigration
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 358, "Miss Forbes' Farewell to Banff" (1 text)
Roud #5607
File: Ord358
===
NAME: Miss Gordon of Gight
DESCRIPTION: "O, whare are ye gaun, bonnie Miss Gordon... Ye're gauin wi' Johnny Byron To squander the lands o' Gight awa." "Your Johnny's a man frae England just come, The Scots dinna like his extraction ava... he'll spend a' your rent." 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: warning home money marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 390, "Miss Gordon of Gight" (1 text)
Roud #3891
NOTES: According to Ord, Catherine Gordon of Gight married John Gordon on May 12, 1785. The poet Lord Byron was their son -- but the fears of this song did come true: The Byrons did sell her family estate of Gight. - RBW
File: Ord390
===
NAME: Miss Green
DESCRIPTION: Miss Green courted Sean O'Farrell. He left "for the love of old Ireland" and was greeted in New York by a band; he toasted the Yankees. Tomorrow she will follow him and they will marry. She hopes to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage emigration America Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 47, "Miss Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5236
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lea" [Laws O15] (tune, according Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
File: RcMisGre
===
NAME: Miss Julie Ann Glover: see Julia Grover (Miss Julie Ann Glover) (File: Lins224)
===
NAME: Miss Liza
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Miss Liza, oh, mah darlin'! -- hoo ah hoo! Gwine away to leave you... Gwin away tomorrow... Ain't you mighty sorry?" "Oh, miss Liza... Comin' back to you... Won't you be my honey?" "Don't you know I lub you?... Don't you want to marry?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting love
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 227, (no title) (1 text)
File: ScaNF227
===
NAME: Miss Lucy Loo
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "Bend yer backs take in the slack, roll me over, Lucy. To me way, hay, hay, ho, hu! Bend yer backs take in the slack, roll me over, Lucy. We're rollin down to Trinidad to see Miss Lucy Loo" No story line, verses one line each repeated w/choruses.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND_IN: West Indies
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Hugill, p. 397, "Miss Lucy Loo" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 302]
DT, LUCYLOO
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Sing a Song, Blow-Along O!" (chorus lyrics)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Rollin' Down to Trinidad
File: Hugi397
===
NAME: Miss Mary Belle: see Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)
===
NAME: Miss Mary Jane (Riding in the Buggy, Who Moan for Me)
DESCRIPTION: "Ridin' in the buggy, Miss Mary Jane... Long way from home. Who moan for me...." "Sally got a house in Baltimore... And it's three stories high. "Sally got a house in Baltimore, filled with chicken pie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: courting home nonballad nonsense
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 117, "Miss Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 259, "Miss Mary Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LoF259 (Partial)
Roud #11595
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Letter from Down the Road" (lyrics)
NOTES: I know it looks like "Old Joe Clark." But it's not. - RBW
File: LoF259
===
NAME: Miss Mary Mack: see Mary Mack (I) (File: CNFM158B)
===
NAME: Miss, Will You Have a Farmer's Son: see Soldier Boy for Me (A Railroader for Me) (File: R493)
===
NAME: Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare
DESCRIPTION: Three girls civilly compare their county's heroes. "The Limerick people, they were never beaten." Kerry and Clare both claim O'Connell, "that great Lib'rator." Limerick also claims O'Connell: "we have his staue as well as ye" and Parnell besides.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 24, "Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5223
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Misses Limerick, Kerry and Clare" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES: For Daniel O'Connell, see Daniel O'Connell (I) and the myriad songs cross-referenced there; for Charles Stewart Parnell, see notably "We Won't Let Our Leader Run Down." - RBW
File: RcMLiKCl
===
NAME: Missie Mouse: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: Mission Song
DESCRIPTION: The workers at the Mission "get the milk skimmed and de relations de cream." The poor get only rags while the Manager is off spending the proceeds in places like Carboneer or Boston.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Leach-Labrador)
KEYWORDS: greed hardtimes poverty worker
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Leach-Labrador 91, "Mission Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab091 (Partial)
Roud #9973
NOTES: Leach-Labrador: "The Mission referred to is the Grenfell Mission at Red Bay.... This is a local gripe song that not at all expresses the feelings of the people in general toward the Mission. I was told that this song was composed ... by a man .. dismissed from his job at the Mission because of misconduct." - BS
File: LLab091
===
NAME: Missionary's Farewell, The
DESCRIPTION: "Yes, my native land I love thee, All thy scenes I love them well... Can I leave thee, can I leave thee, Far in heathen lands to dwell?" The singer rehearses all that (he) would be leaving, but concludes that preaching the gospel is worth it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: religious separation home
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 641, "The Missionary's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7565
NOTES: Variously, and probably falsely, attributed to William Walker and the Reverend S. F. Smith. - RBW
File: R641
===
NAME: Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues: see The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)
===
NAME: Mississippi Jail House Groan
DESCRIPTION: Singer, in jail, sleeps "with my back turned to the wall." His woman brings coffee and tea -- everything but the jailhouse key. His parents say he has too many women; he looks at his mother, hangs his head, cries; if his woman kills him he's ready to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Rube Lacy)
KEYWORDS: captivity prison floatingverses father lover mother prisoner
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Rube [Reubin] Lacy, "Mississippi Jail House Groan" (Paramount 12629, 1928; on BefBlues1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
 cf. "The Midnight Special" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: Again, the narrative in this song just sneaks under the wire as a ballad, but it does. - PJS
File: RcMJHG
===
NAME: Mississippi Sounding Call: see Sounding Calls (File: BMRF572)
===
NAME: Missus in de Big House: see Missus in the Big House (File: CNFM117)
===
NAME: Missus in the Big House
DESCRIPTION: "Missus in the big house, Mammy in the yard. Missus holdin' her white hands, Mammy workin' hard." "Old Marse ridin' all the time, Niggers workin' round. Marse sleepin' day time, Niggers diggin' in the ground."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: work slave discrimination
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Courlander-NFM, p. 117, (no title) (1 text)
Greenway-AFP, p. 96, "Missus in de Big House" (1 text)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 246-247, "De Black Gal" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss"
NOTES: Metrically, this reminds me very much of "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss." Hard to tell if they are the same without a tune and with only two verses.
The Lomax text does not share the two verses of the Courlander and Greenway versions, but the form and content (contrasting white luxury with Black work and poverty) seem to place the songs together. The Lomax text may be composite anyway; they give no information about its origin. - RBW
File: CNFM117
===
NAME: Mister Boll Weevil: see The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)
===
NAME: Mister Booger: see Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)
===
NAME: Mister Carter
DESCRIPTION: "Mister Cyarter, Mister Cyarter, Won't you be (i.e. buy?) my dawg? He won't bite a sheep But 'e will bite a hog."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: dog nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 110, "Mister Carter" (1 text)
File: Br3110
===
NAME: Mister Costler
DESCRIPTION: Lorn Costler has the mail contract for outports. When he and his engineer, Billy Warren, work, "the day must be fine, the sea must be calm." He "gives out the mail at a terrible rate" in order to leave quickly even with no danger from ice or wind.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1977 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: cowardice commerce storm
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 80, "Mr Costler" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The mail route for Costler's ship, The Packet, is along the south coast about 70 miles east of Port-aux-Basques. - BS
File: LeBe080
===
NAME: Mister Finagan: see Molly McGlocklin (File: RcMolMcG)
===
NAME: Mister Frog Went A-Courting: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: Mister Garfield
DESCRIPTION: Song-story about the assassination of President Garfield. Garfield, shot, tells doctor he's badly wounded. He gives dying advice, and hopes to go to heaven. Sheriff arrests Charles Guiteau for the murder; he says "I'll hang on the 6th day of June."
AUTHOR: Unknown, but much of the text may have been written by Anderson Williams
EARLIEST_DATE: 1949 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Song-story describing the assassination of President James Garfield. Garfield's been shot; tells doctor he's badly wounded. Preacher asks where he'd like to spend eternity; Garfield says "Heaven." His wife asks if he should die, should she remarry? He tells her, "Don't you never let a chance go by." Sheriff arrests Charles Guiteau for the murder; he says "I'll hang on the 6th day of June." Mrs. Garfield brings her husband roses
KEYWORDS: grief marriage questions violence crime execution murder punishment death dying wife doctor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 2, 1881 - James A. Garfield is shot by Charles Guiteau, who thought Garfield owed him a patronage job. Garfield had been president for less than four months
Sept 19, 1881 - Death of Garfield
June 30, 1882 - Hanging of Charles Guiteau
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Mr. Garfield" (on BLLunsford02)
J. C. "Jake" Staggers, "Garfield" (on FolkVisions2)
Art Thieme, "Mister Garfield" (on Thieme04)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (subject)
NOTES: Lunsford is usually thought to have written this, but Art Rosenbaum believes it originated in the Black community. - PJS
File: RcMrGarf
===
NAME: Mister MacKinley: see Mister McKinley (White House Blues) (File: LoF143)
===
NAME: Mister McKinley (White House Blues)
DESCRIPTION: "McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled; The doc says, 'McKinley, I can't find the ball.'" Describing McKinley's assassination by Zolgotz, his poor medical treatment, and his funeral. MacKinley is usually said to be "bound to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Charlie Poole)
KEYWORDS: death murder doctor funeral political humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 6, 1901 - President William McKinley is shaking hands at an exhibition when he is shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who felt McKinley was receiving too much attention.
MacKinley's wounds should not have been serious, but his inept doctor decided to operate immediately rather than wait for a specialist
Sept 14, 1901 - Death of MacKinley (due more to operative trauma than to his wounds). Theodore Roosevelt becomes President
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 413-425, "Cannonball Blues/Whitehouse Blues" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the first being "Mister McKinley (White House Blues)" and the second the "Cannonball Blues," plus a version of a song called "Mr. McKinley" from _The Week-End Book_, which is so different that I would regard it as a separate though perhaps related song, probably not traditional)
Lomax-FSNA 143, "Mister MacKinley" (sic) (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 56 "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 228 "White House Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer, p. 73, "White House Blues" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 287, "White House Blues" (1 text)
DT, WHITHOU*
Roud #787
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Buffalo, Buffalo (Death of McKinley)" (AFS 4198 B3, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "Whitehouse Blues" (Decca 29141, 1954)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "White House Blues" (Columbia 15099D, 1926; on AAFM1, CPoole01, CPoole05)
Riley Puckett, "McKinley" (Columbia 15448-D, 1929)
Swing Billies, "From Buffalo to Washington" (Bluebird B-7121, 1937)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (tune)
cf. "The Cannonball" (words)
cf. "Joking Henry" (tune)
cf. "White House Blues (II)" (structure, tune, words)
NOTES: I know of three derivative versions of this song: one collected in Kentucky in the 1930s, talking about Herbert Hoover (in this collection as "White House Blues (II)"),  a second recorded by country-and-western singer Tom T. Hall in the 1970s, talking about Richard Nixon. Both share the title "White House Blues." The third is ""Governor Al Smith." - (PJS)
McKinley had been unpopular among farmers, most of whom had supported Democrat William Jennings Bryan, and his passing was not much mourned among country people -- thus the jaunty, humorous tone of this song. - PJS
The reference to McKinley's children earning a pension upon their father's death is completely unhistorical; McKinley married Ida Saxton (1847-1907) in 1871, but his two daughters, Katie and Ida, both died in infancy, and Mrs. McKinley was an epileptic and an invalid by the time her husband was elected President. - RBW
File: LoF143
===
NAME: Mister Rabbit
DESCRIPTION: "'Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail's mighty white.' 'Yes, bless God, been gettin' out of sight...." Mister rabbit similarly explains its coat, ears, and other physical features
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal questions dialog nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 173-174, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 6, "Mister Rabbit" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 240-242, "Cotton Field Song" (1 text, 1 tune, composite; the final portion goes here and the rest is largely floating verses or unidentifiable; some may go with "Fly Around, My Pretty Little Miss")
BrownIII 167, "Old Molly Hare (Mr. Rabbit)" (2 texts plus 4 fragments, 1 excerpt, and mention of 2 more; the "C," "D," and "E" fragments, plus probably "B," are "Old Molly Hare," "I" is "Mister Rabbit"; "A" and "G" mix the two)
ST LxU006 (Partial)
Roud #10058
RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "Hop, Old Rabbit, Hop" [with a couple of verses from "Poor Old Man"] (on Barker01)
Pete Seeger, "Mister Rabbit" (on PeteSeeger08, PeteSeegerCD02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Rattlesnake" (theme)
NOTES: Roud links together several rabbit songs under one number: "Mister Rabbit," "Ole Mister Rabbit (I'll Get You Rabbit)," even "Rabbit Hash." All are about rabbits raiding gardens (something they certainly do) and the attempts to punish them for it (rarely successful, even with modern technology). But the forms are quite distinct, so I split them. - RBW
File: LxU006
===
NAME: Mister Squirrel
DESCRIPTION: "One day Mr. Squirrel went up a tree to bed. A great big hickory nut fell upon his head. 'Although I am fond of nuts,' Mr. Squirrel then did say, 'I'd very much rather that they wouldn't come this way.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal food humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 171, "Mr. Squirrel" (1 short text)
File: Br3171
===
NAME: Mister Stormalong: see Stormalong (File: Doe082)
===
NAME: Mister, Please Give Me a Penny
DESCRIPTION: "Mister, please give me a penny, For I ain't got any Pa, Mister, please give me a penny, I want to buy some bread for Ma."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: orphan money begging
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 729, "Mister, Please Give Me a Penny" (1 short text)
Roud #7392
File: R729
===
NAME: Mistletoe Bough, The
DESCRIPTION: In the castle, beneath the mistletoe bough, the lord's daughter prepares to wed young Lovell. The girl, tired of dancing, decides to hide and have Lovell find her. He never does. Years later, her body is found "in a living tomb," trapped in a chest
AUTHOR: Thomas Haynes Bayly?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1855 (National Temperance Songster)
KEYWORDS: love marriage game hiding death Christmas
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 802, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 466-468, "The Mistletoe Bough" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 802)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 481, "The Mistletoe Bough" (source notes only)
DT, MISTLETO*
Roud #2336
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2462), "The Mistletoe Bough," J. Harness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 15(204b), "Mistletoe Bough," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883 (partly illegible); Harding B 11(2464), "Mistetoe Bough," H. Such (London), 1863-1885
SAME_TUNE:
The Vorkhouse Boy (PBB 102, "The Workhouse Boy"; cf. broadside Bodleian Firth c. 16(311), unknown, no date; a  parody in "Dutch" dialect of this song, with very similar lyrics except that the girl is transformed to a boy in a poorhouse)
Billy Jenkins, or The two houses of parliament (parody per broadside Harding B 11(2462), which also contains the original)
NOTES: Peter Underwood's _Gazeteer of British, Scottish & Irish Ghosts_, pp. 22-23, reports this of Bramshill House near Basingstoke in Hampshire: "An ancient chest in the panelled gallery is said to have been the 'death bed' of a young bride who died on the eve of her wedding." Her ghost is reported to have walked.
Probably unrelated, but a garbled version might perhaps have inspired this song. Alternately, it might come from the same roots as "Ginevra," by Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), which has the same story though the bride is Italian. I do not know the exact date of "Ginevra," but it is said to be part of his massive multi-volume poem "Italy," published 1822-1828 and reissued in revised form in 1830, so his piece probably predates "The Mistletoe Bough."
The final stanza of "Ginevra," as quoted in [no author listed], _The Household Treasury of English Song_, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 133-135, is as follows (the whole poem "Italy" is apparently in blank verse):
Full fifty years were past, and all forgot,
When, on an idle day, a day of search
'Mid the old lumber in the Gallery,
That mouldering chest was notices; and 'twas said
By one as young, as thoughtless as Ginevra,
"Why not remove it from its lurking-place?"
'Twas done as soon as said; but on the way
It burst, it fell; and lo! a skeleton,
With here and there a pearl, an emerald-stone,
A golden clasp, clasping a shred of gold.
All else had perished, -- save a nuptial ring,
And a small seal, her mother's legacy,
Engraven with a name, the name of both,
"GINEVRA."
There, then, she had found a grave.
Within that chest she had concealed herself,
Fluttering with joy, the happiest of the happy;
When a spring lock, that lay in ambush there,
Fastened her down for ever!
Incidentally, the _New Century Handbook of English Literature_ (ed. Clarence L. Barnhart with William D. Haley, revised edition, Meredith Publishing, 1967, entry on "Ginevra") say that this story was told of several English castles.
And, no, I have no idea, Harry Potter fans, if it is significant that Ginny Weasley's real name was Ginevra! - RBW
File: R802
===
NAME: Misty Mountain, The: see Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)
===
NAME: Mitchel's Address: see John Mitchel (File: PGa045)
===
NAME: Mither, I Maun Hae a Man
DESCRIPTION: "Noo mither, I maun tell ye, I'm gaun to be a wife; For I'm sure it's nae pleasure To live a single life." The girl complains of the burdens her mother puts on her, and offers Biblical arguments for marriage, and concludes, "I mean to tak' a man."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid mother children marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, pp. 148-149, "Mither, I Maun Hae a Man" (1 text)
Roud #5554
NOTES: The girl here does not really quote the Bible, except for paraphrasing "be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 9:1, etc.), but her argument is taken largely from 1 Corinthians 7, particularly 7:28, which states that it is no sin for a girl to marry.
The part about the girl being obedient has multiple sources in scripture, including the first part of 1 Corinthians 11 (the key verse here, 11:10, is actually close to making nonsense in Greek, but of course this is clarified -- usually to the detriment of the women -- in most translations). - RBW
File: Ord148
===
NAME: Mo Chraoibhin Aoibhinn Aluinn Og (My Pleasant Beautiful Young Little Branch)
DESCRIPTION: The harper says his true love is "bound and bleeding 'neath the oppressor." Her riches and beauty gone, she is deserted by many "crouching now like cravens" "Arouse to vengeance, men of brav'ry"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (_The Spirit of the Nation,_ according to OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: harp nonballad patriotic
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 85, "Mo Chreeveen Eeven Aulin Og" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OLcM085
===
NAME: Mo Dhachaidh (My Ain Home)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. Our house by the ferry is surrounded with flowers and birds, protected by the hill from snow. My wife is "the star o' my hame ... the bairnies are singin'" We don't need riches.
AUTHOR: Malcolm MacFarlane
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1908 (Moffat)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage lyric nonballad home wife
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
ADDITIONAL:
Alfred Moffat, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands, pp. 48-49 in the soft-cover edition printed c.1960, pp. 92-93 in the hard-cover edition printed c.1908
RECORDINGS:
Malcolm Angus McLeod, "Mo Dhachaidh" (on NovaScotia1)
NOTES: The description is based on Moffat's translation by Alexander Stewart. - BS
File: RcMDMAH
===
NAME: Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig
DESCRIPTION: Singer's fiancee, coming to church, is murdered by ruffians. The wine saved for their wedding is instead drunk at her funeral. The singer wishes he could find those who killed his beloved; he has a sword, and will test the strength of his arm with it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1917 (Kennedy-Fraser)
KEYWORDS: grief love sex wedding violence abduction crime murder revenge beauty death funeral mourning foreignlanguage lament lover wine
FOUND_IN: Scotland(Hebr)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 19, "Mo Nighean Donn a Cornaig [My Dark-Haired Maid from Cornaig]" (1 text in Scottish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
Kennedy-Fraser II, pp. 140-145, "A Tiree Tragedy (Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig)" (1 text in Scottish Gaelic + translation, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
My Bonny Cornaig Lassie
NOTES: Flora McNeil, from whom the song was collected, notes that while she had only heard the song in Barra, it may have come from the island of Tiree, where there is a place called Cornaig. - PJS, paraphrasing Kennedy
Kennedy-Fraser, however, has a very different story: Words (not quite the same!) collected in Eigg, with a tune from Eriskay. The source of the tune was one Annie MacNeill.
According to Kennedy-Fraser, the girl's brothers had wanted to kill he lover, but got her instead; "the lover spent the rest of his years making passionate songs to her who had given her life for his own." - RBW
File: K019
===
NAME: Mo-te A-pe Promene Sur La Rue Commune
DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Mo-te a-pe promene sur la Rue Commune, Quand Mo-te a-pe boire un bon berre la bierre. Voila m'o culotte craquet et fais moin assi par terre." A man has a drink of beer and meets and forces the singer to the ground
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 124, "Mo-te A-pe Promene Sur La Rue Commune" (1 short text, 1 tune)
File: ScNF124
===
NAME: Moanin'
DESCRIPTION: Leader (preacher): "De trumpet sounds in my soul" (congregation echoes). "I ain't got long to stay here."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 579-580, "Moanin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15563
File: LxA579
===
NAME: Moanish Lady: see Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)
===
NAME: Mobile Bay
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "From Liverpool Town we sailed away - CH: John come tell us as we haul away. Outward bound at the break of day - CH. Aye, aye, haul aye - CH." Several verses refer to Mobile Bay and to women. Probably started as a Negro cotton stowing song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938
KEYWORDS: shanty work
FOUND_IN: Britain US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Colcord, p. 118, "Mobile Bay" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Harlow, pp. 86-87, "Mobile Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill, pp. 287-288, "John, Come Tell Us As We Haul Away" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, pp. 210-211]
Roud #4696
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Stow'n' Sugar in de Hull Below" (some verses)
NOTES: Hugill explains that this was one of a very few shanties that would use two singers for the solo lines, alternating verses. - SL
File: Hugi287
===
NAME: Mochyn Du  (The Black Pig)
DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Explains that the black pig is dying, and that now they'll have to do without bacon. Chorus laments the passing of the pig, "Oh, our hearts are very sore...." Based on a Welsh folk song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong foreignlanguage animal food
FOUND_IN: Wales
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 238-239, "Mochyn Du" (2 text-English & Welsh, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Hob-y-derri-dando" (English verses often interchanged with this)
cf. "Cosher Bailey's Engine" (tune)
NOTES: See also notes to "Hob-Y-Derri-Dando." English words often sung to the same tune go "Dave Davy comes from Nevin, an' he's got a little engine, An' he cannot do without it, 'Cos he thinks so much about it. Ch. Wass you effer see (x3) such a funny thing before?" - SL
File: Hugi238
===
NAME: Mockingbird Song: see Hush, Little Baby (File: SBoA164)
===
NAME: Mode o' Wooing, The
DESCRIPTION: "Young men when that they do arrive Between a score and twenty-five... [are inclined] To gang away a-wooing, a woo woo wooing." The singer tells of asking advice on how to court, but the old men's advice is bad. He has better luck asking an old woman
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: youth courting questions
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp.  106-107, "The Mode o' Wooing" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR106 (Partial)
Roud #3151
File: StoR106
===
NAME: Modesty Answer, The: see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: Mole in the Ground: see I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground (File: BAF900)
===
NAME: Mole-Catcher, The
DESCRIPTION: The old molecatcher learns that his wife is carrying on with a young farmer. He catches them in the act, and demands ten pounds of the farmer for "tilling my ground." The farmer says that's a fair price, "For that won't amount t'above tuppence a time."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905
KEYWORDS: adultery sex trick commerce humorous bawdy
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 206, "The Mole-Catcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 268-269, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 38, "The Molecatcher" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MOLECATCH*
Roud #1052
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Molecatcher" (on Lloyd1)
File: K206
===
NAME: Moll Boy's Courtship: see Pretty Polly (I) (Moll Boy's Courtship) [Laws O14] (File: LO14)
===
NAME: Mollie and Willie
DESCRIPTION: When Mollie (?) refuses to marry Willie (?), he sets off to be a soldier. She dresses in soldier's clothes and follows him. He tells his fellow "soldier" of his love for Mollie. She starts to cry, and her identity is revealed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love soldier cross-dressing trick reunion
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 98, "Mollie and Willie" (1 text)
ST BrII098 (Full)
Roud #6571
NOTES: The editors of Brown speculate that this is a defective version of "Polly Oliver." I really don't see it. It looks more like "The Banks of the Nile." But the differences in the (disordered) Brown text are large enough that I treat this as a separate ballad until I find something more similar. - RBW
File: BrII098
===
NAME: Mollie Bond: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Mollie Vaughn: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Agnew
DESCRIPTION: The singer is vexed that the Irish are "forced from their nation." He meets Molly Agnew, a poor servant girl. Her rich father had been slain in 1799, and his family driven "to beg, starve or die." She agrees to marry the singer and go to old Scotia.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1854 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(175))
KEYWORDS: marriage rebellion death servant hardtimes Ireland Scotland father
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 30, "Molly Agnew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2750
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(175), "Molly Agnew"[partly illegible] ("On the nineteenth of July, in the year twenty-nine"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1854; also Harding B 17(196b), "Molly Angew"[sic but only in the title][partly illegible]
SAME_TUNE:
The Girl I Love Best (tune, per broadside Bodleian Harding B 17(196b))
NOTES: The Bodleian broadsides 2806 b.11(175) and Harding B 17(196b) are more complete than Creighton-SNewBrunswick and are the source for the description. - BS
I have to suspect that this is based some other emigration song which lacks the political motif. It reminds me a bit of "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)." - RBW
File: CrSNB030
===
NAME: Molly and Tenbrooks [Laws H27]
DESCRIPTION: In the race between (Molly) and (Ten Broeck), Molly at first takes the lead. Ten Broeck tells his jockey to let him run free, and proceeds to overtake the mare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: racing horse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 4, 1878 - race between Ten Broeck and Miss Mollie McCarthy (won by Ten Broeck)
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws H27, "Ten Broeck and Mollie"
Thomas-Makin', pp. 126-127, (no title) (1 short text, probably of this song although it does little except describe Ten Broeck)
DT 652, MOLLTEN (MOLLTEN2)
Roud #2190
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Hole in the Wall / Timbrooks and Molly" (AFS 4210 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Molly and Tenbrooks" (Columbia 20612, 1949)
Sonny Osborne, "Molly and Tenbrooks" (Kentucky 605, n.d.)
The Stanley Brothers, "Molly And Tenbrooks" (Rich-R-Tone 418, 1948)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Timbrook" (subject)
cf. "Old Timbrook Blues" (subject)
cf. "Liza Jane" (lyrics)
cf. "Run Mollie Run" (lyrics)
cf. "Skewball" [Laws Q22] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Run, Molly, Run
NOTES: The "short description" above mirrors the plot as given by Laws. In my experience, however, almost all versions of this song credit Molly, not Ten Broek, as the winner. Of course, many of these texts may have been influenced by the popularized Bill Monroe version, "Molly and Tenbrooks."
Every version of this piece that Laws was aware of came from two articles by Wilgus (both in _Kentucky Folklore Record_, Vol II, #3 and Vol. II, #4). Wilgus reports that "A match race in Kentucky was arranged at $5,000 a side for a three-heat race, all heats to be four miles each. If either horse was distanced in a heat, the other horse was to be declared automatically the winner."
"The July 4, 1878 match race in which the Kentucky thoroughbred Ten Broeck defeated the mare Miss Mollie McCarthy went into the record books as the last four-mile heat race in American turf history."
As it turned out, Mollie led for much of the first race, then staggered and was distanced, ending the contest. Both sides started trading charges: That Ten Broeck had been poisoned, that the state of the track affected the outcome, etc.
Wilgus sees a relationship with "Skewball" [Laws Q22], and the possibility of a relationship cannot be denied. Laws, however, does not note the connection. As Laws makes the observation that the ballad shows "extreme verbal variation," he may have thought that similarities to "Skewball" either coincidence or later grafts. - RBW
File: LH27
===
NAME: Molly and the Baby
DESCRIPTION: "There's a patient little woman here below, And a little kid that ought to have a show, Now I'll give the whiskey up and I'll take a coffee cup With Molly and the baby don't you know." The singer vows to give up drinking for the sake of his family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Aurora Advertiser)
KEYWORDS: drink family promise
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 338, "Molly and the Baby" (1 text)
Roud #7810
File: R338
===
NAME: Molly Ban: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Baun Lavery: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Bawn (II): see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36]
DESCRIPTION: Jimmy goes out hunting and shoots his true love (Molly, mistaking her for a swan). He is afraid of the law, but is told that the law will forgive him. At his trial Molly's ghost appears and explains the situation; the young man is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1806 (Jamieson)
KEYWORDS: hunting death trial reprieve help ghost
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (27 citations)
Laws O36, "Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear)"
Randolph 54, "Molly Vaughn" (3 texts plus 2 fragments and 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy 77, "Mollie Vaughn (Polly Band)" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 14, "Molly Baun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 274-276, "Polly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 26, "Shooting of His Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 111, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 76, "Molly Bawn" (1 text plus a fragment)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, p. 117, "Molly Vaughn" (1 text, properly titled "The Death of Molly Bender,"  with very peculiar orthography; it looks like it came from a semi-literate manuscript but is said to be from a field recording)
Chappell-FSRA 57, "Polly Bond" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 50, "Shooting of His Dear" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Hudson 32, pp. 145-146, "Shooting of His Dear" (2 texts)
Leach, pp. 700-701, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 26, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
PBB 92, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 96-97, "Molly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 196, "Molly Baun Lavery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 206, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
SHenry H114, p. 143, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 29, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 1, pp. 1-2,99,154-155, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 330, "Polly Vaughan" (2 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 102, "Mollie Vaughn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 33, pp. 78-79, "Mollie Bond" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 133-134, "Molly Bawn"; "Molly Bander" (2 texts)
DT 308, POLLYVON POLLVON1 POLLVON2
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 304, "Young Molly Bawn" (1 short text)
Roud #166
RECORDINGS:
Louis Boutilier, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (on MRHCreighton)
Anne Briggs, "Polly Vaughan" (on Briggs1, Briggs3)
Packie Manus Byrne, "Molly Bawn" (on Voice06)
Sara Cleveland, "Molly Bawn" (on SCleveland01)
Seamus Ennis, "Molly Bawn" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
A. L. Lloyd, "Polly Vaughan"  (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
John Maguire, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (on IRJMaguire01)
Maggie Murphy, "Molly Bawn" (on IRHardySons)
Pete Seeger, "Shoo Fly" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Phoebe Smith, "Molly Vaughan" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(11), "Young Molly Bawn," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.11(131), "Young Molly Bawn"
LOCSinging, as111140, "Polly Von Luther and Jamie Randall," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859 
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Molly Ban
Peggy Baun
Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour
NOTES: Darling compares this to the story of Cephalus and Procris. The standard version is supplied by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (VII.685 and following; it starts on page 174 of the Penguin edition translated by Mary M. Innes). First he tested her love in disguise, and she passed the test. But then she heard a rumor of his unfaithfulness, and set out to watch him. He heard her in hiding, without seeing her, and threw his javelin on the assumption that she was a wild beast. It killed her.
Incidentally, Michael Grant and John Hazel, _Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary_, article on Cephalus, thinks Ovid's version of the story may conflate legends of two different heroes named Cephalus. In any case, I don't see a particularly strong parallel to the ballad; yes, the hunter kills his lover, but the motivations are very different. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as111140: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LO36
===
NAME: Molly Bawn Lowry: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Bonder: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Brannigan: see Polly Brannigan (File: E153E)
===
NAME: Molly Brooks (I)
DESCRIPTION: "Molly Brooks has gone to the isle (x3), And I hope she'll never return (x3), Molly Brooks has gone to the isle, And I hope she'll never return."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad travel
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Randolph 529, "Molly Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-Whalemen, p. 274, "Moll Brooks" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment which is placed here by the manuscript title; Roud [#2075] files it with "I Lost My Love and I Dinna Ken Hoo," though it has really only one line in common)
Roud #7642
NOTES: This probably springs from the same roots as Molly Brooks (II), a dance to the tune of "Malbrouk." Since, however, Randolph's version has lost the tune (which in this case is diagnostic), I have classified them separately. - RBW
File: R529
===
NAME: Molly Brooks (II): see Malbrouck (File: K108)
===
NAME: Molly Maguires, The
DESCRIPTION: A song "in praise of Molly's sons." "They can root out all Defenders and plant the Laurel Tree." Seeing them in St Patrick's day finery "while the Ribbon Bands did play" the singer prays "That the Lord may enable Molly's sons to tear down tyranny."
AUTHOR: John Maguire (source: Morton-Maguire)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 9, pp. 21-22,103,158, "The Molly Maguires" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2923
NOTES: Morton-Maguire: "Tradition has it that the Molly Maguires were formed in the early nineteenth-century after the Catholic neighbors of a Co. Tyrone widow, Molly Maguire, had successfully foiled an attempt to evict her. The success spurred them to combine to carry out similar defensive action in other areas." Morton continues "I find John's song somewhat confusing for various reasons": The Defenders were a Catholic organization that you would expect to be on the same side as the Molly Maguires but, since there was no great Orange threat in Fermanagh, there could have been conflict between Catholic organizations; on the other hand there was no alliance between the Molly Maguires and the more extreme Catholic Ribbonmen.
Why a "laurel tree"? I don't find any association, for example, between the Liberty Tree and laurel (see "The Liberty Tree," "Ireland's Liberty Tree," "Plant, Plant the Tree" and Zimmermann's discussion of the Liberty Tree: pp. 41-43, 85-86, 255-256). - BS
In classical mythology, and in Roman history, the laurel, or the bay, is associated with victory, and is also said to ward off evil spirits. I don't know of any overwhelming reason to connect that legend with Ireland, but it's probably more likely than a link between "laurel" and "liberty."
The Molly Maguires were not a particularly noteworthy group; I checked seven histories without finding a single mention of them. But they loomed larger in legend. Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_ described them as "An Irish secret society organized in 1843. Stout, active young Irishmen dressed up in women's clothes,blackened faces, and otherwise disguised themselves to surprise those employed to enforce the payments of rents. Their victims were ducked in bog-holes, and many were beaten most unmercifully." And this Irish group inspired the American Molly Maguires, which fought against the Pennsylvania coal bosses -- and largely failed. The American Mollies are the chief subject of "Muff Lawler, the Squealer." [Laws E25].
The Mollies, in both their American and Irish forms, inspired sundry other songs -- e.g. there is one by Phil Coulter in the Digital Tradition. Few if any made it into tradition. - RBW
File: MoMa009
===
NAME: Molly Malone
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of meeting sweet Molly Malone in Dublin, where she sold shellfish from a barrow; her parents were also fishmongers. She dies of a fever; now her ghost wheels the barrow. Chorus: "Singing 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Hoagland; Fireside Book of Folk Songs)
KEYWORDS: death food worker ghost disease commerce
FOUND_IN: US Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 124, "Molly Malone" (1 text)
DT, MOLLYMAL*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 256, "Cockles and Mussels" (1 text)
Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, p. 12, "Molly Malone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16392
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Molly Malone" (on PeteSeeger32)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(82a), "Cockles and Mussels. Aliv, O" (sic.), Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Walnut Girl" (subject)
NOTES: We don't have "peddler" as a keyword -- pity. Meanwhile, I believe this started out as a Tin Pan Alley song? For better or for worse, it seems to have entered tradition -- at least, at every Irish gig I've played, some drunk asks for it. - PJS
Although the Poet's Box broadside is the earliest version I've found, it can hardly be the original; incredibly badly printed (Apart from the title, it can't decide if Miss Malone is Molly or "Melly," and the chorus runs "Alive, alive, O! alive, alive O! Crying Cockles and! alive, alive, O!"), and no tune is indicated. It has to be derivative.
The only source I've ever seen with a listed author was Robert Gogan's _130 Great Irish Ballads_, which says that there is a London printing from 1884 calling it a comic song and attributing it to James Yorkston. I know nothing else about Yorkston.
Gogan also notes that there is actually a statue of Molly Malone in Dublin. Wish I knew who had put the thing up! - RBW
File: FSWB124B
===
NAME: Molly McGlocklin
DESCRIPTION: The marries Molly McGlocklin. She prefers Finnigan who "his gizzard he broke." Molly mourns; the singer hits her and fights the Finnigans. After the burial she attacks him; he throws her in the grave. HeÕs single now and will dance but won't marry again
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2962))
KEYWORDS: marriage fight death funeral burial humorous family
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 42, "Mister Finagan" (1 text)
Roud #5746
RECORDINGS:
Jack Swain, "Finnigan's Wake II" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2962), "Pat Finnigan," J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 26(37), "Barnaby Finegan"; 2806 b.11(184), "Barnaby Finnegan"
NOTES: Leach (NFMLeach notes) says "Finnigan's Wake" "is a local title; it is more generally known as Molly McGlocklin" - BS
File: RcMolMcG
===
NAME: Molly Put the Kettle On (Polly Put the Kettle On)
DESCRIPTION: "(Molly/Polly/Kitty) put the kettle on, Sally blow the dinner horn... We'll all take tea." Often a fiddle tune with the usual sorts of verses for a fiddle tune
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 (Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: nonballad floatingverses food dancetune playparty
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Cambiaire, p. 133, "Jennie Put the Kettle On" (1 text, which looks like a playparty based on this chorus)
Opie-Oxford2 420, "Polly put the kettle on" (2 texts)
Darling-NAS, p. 256, "Molly Put the Kettle On" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #237, p. 153, "(Polly put the kettle on)"
Roud #7899
RECORDINGS:
Leake County Revelers, "Molly Put the Kettle On" (Columbia 15380-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, "Molly Put The Kettle On" (Columbia 15746-D, 1932; on GoingDown)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Pakenham" (form)
SAME_TUNE:
Jennie's Bawbee (so Herd, according to Opie-Oxford2)
NOTES: Opie-Oxford2 re 420: "Around 1810 the song was clearly the rage in London."
The following broadside refers to the original song and quotes it as a chorus.
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4332), "Polly Put the Kettle On" ("I am a merry, happy chap"), C. Sheard (London), 1840-1866 - BS
According to Eric Partridge's _A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_ (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement, Macmillan, 1961), this was a c[atch] p[hrase] from around 1870, since become obsolescent. He attributes it to "the song of Grip, the Raven (Dickens)." Since Dickens was born 1812, the poem would appear to precede him, but he may well have added to its popularity.
The book involved, _Barnaby Rudge_, is based on the anti-Catholic riot of June 1780, but is influenced, e.g., by Sir Walter Scott, so there is no particular reason to think the catch-phrase dates from that era.
Grip is the mentally deficient Barnaby's pet raven, given to phrases such as "I'm a devil," "Never say die," and "Polly, put the kettle on." The latter quote occurs in chapter 17.
According to  John Baynes with John Laffin, _Soldiers of Scotland_, Brassey's, 1988 (I use the 1997 Barnes & Noble edition), p. 105, when arranged for pipes, is known as "Jenny's Bawbee," and is used as a "Tea Call" by several Scottish regiments. - RBW
File: DarNS256
===
NAME: Molly Stewart: see Bonnie Mally Stewart (File: FVS174)
===
NAME: Molly Van: see Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36] (File: LO36)
===
NAME: Molly Was a Good Gal: see Row, Molly, Row (Molly Was a Good Gal) (File: BMRF590A)
===
NAME: Molly, Asthore: see Gramachree (File: HHH204)
===
NAME: Molly, I'm the Man: see The Banks of Claudy [Laws N40] (File: LN40)
===
NAME: Molly, Lovely Molly
DESCRIPTION: Molly hears a voice at her window; it is her old love returned. She bids him leave; he has courted other women. He replies that it was his master's orders which took him away. His ship leaves tomorrow; will she come with him? She agrees to do so
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love separation reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H557, pp. 478-479, "Molly, Lovely Molly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9456
NOTES: Some versions of The Cruel Ship's Carpenter [Laws P36] share a title and/or metrical form with this ballad. The plots are so completely different, however, that I would not even have noted the similarity had not there been a note in the Henry collection pointing out the (lack of) common material. - RBW
File: HHH557
===
NAME: Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir (My Good Friend Will Come This Evening)
DESCRIPTION: French. The singer's good friend comes to see his, undresses and sleeps in his bed.  Near midnight she says Hello. The singer says thanks for the hello, but had hoped for more. To lead quail to corn, you have to know how to serve it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage sex lover
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 300-301, "Mon Bon Ami Va Venir Ce Soir" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: "Quail" -- that is "caille" -- here likely has the same connotation, that is "young woman," in French slang as it does in US slang. See, for example "Suburban slang greets visitors to France" by John Lichfield, June 6, 2001, "In ...verlan -- the ... language of ... French, suburban youth -- there are more than 50 ways of referring to women.  They include "...caille..." from the New Zealand Herald site. - BS
File: Pea300
===
NAME: Mon Cher Voisin (My Dear Neighbor)
DESCRIPTION: French. My neighbor sent me to find a worn out old horse. Let's drink, sharpen our knives and skin it. He soothes the horse: no more demands will be made, no more pulling a master and his luggage.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage execution horse
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 129, "Mon Cher Voisin" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Pawkie Paiterson's Auld Grey Yaud" (theme)
cf. "Poor Old Horse (III)" (theme)
NOTES: The description is based on Alan Mills's translation in Creighton-Maritime. - BS
File: CrMa129
===
NAME: Mona (You Shall Be Free): see Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady) (File: San011)
===
NAME: Moncton Tragedy, The: see John Sullivan (The Moncton Tragedy) (File: Dib057)
===
NAME: Monday Morning: see Next Monday Morning (File: ShH38)
===
NAME: Monday was my Courting Day, A: see My Wife Died on Saturday Night (File: RcMWDOSN)
===
NAME: Mone, Member, Mone
DESCRIPTION: "Tell-a me who had a rod, Mone, member, mone! Hit was Moses, child of God, Mone, member, mone!" A call-and-answer sermon describing the crossing of the Red Sea, listing the order of those who will go to heaven, and calling for repentance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 578-579, "Mone, Member, Mone" (1 text)
Roud #15562
NOTES: One suspects that this was sort of a preacher's "zipper" text -- any story could be zipped in to replace the Exodus account. But I've never seen this in any other form, so I can't say with certainty. - RBW
File: LxA578
===
NAME: Money
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, money is the meat in the coconut, O money is the milk in the jug; When you've got lots of money You feel very funny, You're as happy as a bug in a rug."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: money food
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 112, "Money" (1 short text (perhaps just the chorus), 1 tune)
File: San112
===
NAME: Money, Money, Oh Sweet Money
DESCRIPTION: "Long time ago I had a beau, He came a-courting me, Because he thought that I had wealth...." The girl tests him by informing him she has no money. He drops her at once. She warns others, "Let them find you're minus of gold And you'll be minus of beaux."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love courting money abandonment
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 484, "Money, Money, Oh Sweet Money" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7637
File: R484
===
NAME: Moneygran Pig Hunt, The
DESCRIPTION: "There was racing and chasing in old Moneygran," as pigs bid humans catch them and say they are "Home Rulers and Fenians and Orange pigs too."  The "warhawks" pursue, but "the pigs are the winners in old Moneygran."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: Words: 1924 (Northern Constitution); as a song, 1937 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: political racing animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H731, pp. 22-23, "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13345
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnets o' Bonny Dundee" (tune)
cf. "The Bold Tenant Farmer" (subject)
cf. The Barrymore Tithe Victory" (theme)
cf. "The Sow's Triumph Over the Peelers" (theme)
NOTES: Said to be based on an incident from 1876, when law officials were sent to the Mercers estate to collect back rent. The tenants loosed their pigs, and the police tried to catch them.
The song is said to be associated with the Land Leagues, a group arising out of the complex interactions between Britain and Ireland. The election of 1868 brought Gladstone to power, but also gave Charles Stewart Parnell a decisive voice in parliament. In 1870, Gladstone passed a Land Act, but the House of Lords rejected it.
The Irish reaction was the Land Leagues, tenant organizations intended to curb excessive rents. They were basically non-violent, but they did resist pressure from landlords in all sorts of creative ways.
The Land Leagues finally faded in 1881 when Gladstone managed to get a true rent reform bill passed (though at the cost of a Coercion Act used to suppress the worst radicals). For further details, see the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
The reference to the pigs being "Home Rulers and Fenians and Orange" is an observation on the personal politics of those who wanted relief from rents: They ranged from radical Irishmen (Fenians) to conservatives, often Protestant, who wanted Home Rule, to the Ulster Protestants who wanted to be part of Britain but still needed rent reform. - RBW
File: HHH731
===
NAME: Monk McClamont's "Farewell to Articlave"
DESCRIPTION: In (18)40, the singer prepares to sail for America on the Provincial. The ship being becalmed, he has time to see, and mourn, the land he is leaving behind. He praises the captain and crew of the ship
AUTHOR: Monk McClamont
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: ship emigration farewell
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H65b, p. 166-187, "Monk McClamont's 'Farewell to Articlave'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13542
File: HHH065b
===
NAME: Monk of Great Renown, The
DESCRIPTION: A monk has sex with one or more women until his fellows abruptly put a halt to his misadventures.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy sex death burial
FOUND_IN: Canada Britain(England) US(MW,SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 37-42, "The Monk of Great Renown" (3 texts, 1 tune); a piece to a different tune but with the same sort of plot occurs on p. 265 under "Ditties"
Roud #10137
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singer, "The Monk of Priory Hall" (on Unexp1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Horse Shit"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Squire of Great Renown
File: EM037
===
NAME: Monkey and the Baboon, The
DESCRIPTION: "The monkey and the baboon playing seven-up The monkey won the money And was scared to pick it up." "The monkey and the baboon Running a race. The monkey fell down And skint his face." "The monkey... climbed a tree... threw a cocoanut..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal cards humorous floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 180, "The Monkey and the Baboon" (1 text)
NOTES: The stanza about X and Y playing seven-up of course occurs with many protagonists (white man and black, David and Goliath, Adam and Eve); one wonders a little if its use here is not some sort of allegory. - RBW
File: ScaNF180
===
NAME: Monkey and the Elephant, The
DESCRIPTION: "The monkey and the elephant were riding on a rail, The elephant said, 'Oh, monkey, you look so doggone frail.'" Other animals also fight. So do the singer's Mom and Dad. The singer discusses his history of courting. Many verses float
AUTHOR: probably adapted by John Daniel Vass
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (recorded by Shellans from John Daniel Vass)
KEYWORDS: courting animal humorous mother father rejection humorous nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Shellans, pp. 48-49, "The Monkey and the Elephant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7330
NOTES: The number of floating lines in this song is high: "If I had a scolding wife," "I went to see Miss Annie, I'll never go no more, Her shoes and stockin's in her hand," and references to courting Cindy. Other  portions feel adapted from traditional song. My suspicion is that this is a rewrite by John Daniel Vass of an assortment of traditional songs. Vass gave his treatment to several other songs, producing items which are long, invertebrate -- and, to my mind, not really very good when considered as a whole. - RBW
File: Shel048
===
NAME: Monkey Married the Baboon's Sister: see The Monkey's Wedding (File: San113)
===
NAME: Monkey Motions
DESCRIPTION: "I act monkey motions, too-re-loo, I act monkey motions, so I do; I act 'em well an' dat's a fact -- I act just like de monkeys act." "I act gen'man motions...." "I act lady motions...." Similarly for children's motions, preachers' motions, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 133, "Monkey Motions" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "What's the Lady's Motion? (Skip O'er the Mountain)" (form)
File: ScaNF133
===
NAME: Monkey Sitting on the End of a Rail
DESCRIPTION: "Monkey settin' on de end uf a rail, Pickin' his teeth wid de end uf his tail, Mulberry leaves un' calico sleeves, All school teachers is so hard to please." Rest floats: The redbird shaking 'simmons down, the singer is tired of sleeping alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: animal floatingverses bird food
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 193, (no title) (1 text, with varying stanza forms)
File: ScNF193B
===
NAME: Monkey Turned Barber, The [Laws Q14]
DESCRIPTION: Pat enters the barber's and asks for a shave. A monkey in clothes winks and sets to work. Pat screams with pain; the monkey disappears. The barber enters. Pat accuses his "father" of having cut him. Finally the truth comes out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: animal abuse humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws Q14, "The Monkey Turned Barber"
Belden, pp. 249-251, "The Monkey Turned Barber" (3 texts, but B2 is "The Love-of-God Shave")
Beck 82, "Irishman's Lumber Song" (1 text)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 239-240, "Wild Irishman" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 525, MONKBARB MANKBAR2
Roud #918
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Wild Irishman
NOTES: There is a broadside, NLScotland, F.3.a.13(5), "The Monkey Barber," unknown (Edinburgh), 1825, which tells this story in prose, with rather more substantial detail. It's not clear whether it is the source of this song, or a retelling; I suspect the latter.
File: LQ14
===
NAME: Monkey's Wedding, The
DESCRIPTION: "The monkey married the baboon's sister, Gave her a ring and then he kissed her, He kissed so hard he raised a blister, She set up a yell." Verses, often nonsensical, about the proceedings at the wedding
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal wedding nonsense humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
BrownIII 181, "The Monkey Married the Baboon's Sister" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts)
Gardner/Chickering 197, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text)
Linscott, pp. 241-243, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 113, "The Monkey's Wedding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 180, (no title) (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 68-69, [no title] (1 text, 1 tune)
Gilbert, p. 114, [no title] (1 text)
ST San113 (Partial)
Roud #3123
NOTES: Linscott lists this as being sung to "The Drunken Sailor," and it will fit that tune -- but her tune is not quite the usual "Drunken Sailor." - RBW
File: San113
===
NAME: Monquhitter's Lonely Hill
DESCRIPTION: "I love Monquhitter's lonely hills." The singer was born there and knows "ilka neuk." He describes the heather bells, bonnie "woods and waters o' Auchry," a lovely spot by a mill, "the birdies' evening sang" and trout swimming in the brook.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: lyric home
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 510, "Monquhitter's Lonely Hill" (1 text)
Roud #5994
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchry (510) is at coordinate (h5,v8) on that map [roughly 31 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: GrD3510
===
NAME: Montague, The
DESCRIPTION: "The Montague packet left Wexford at ten, With a fine stock of cattle and a fine crew of men, Hee Ho, Heave away, ho." Montague gets stuck in the sand and the cargo is lost: two cows, six sheep, a goat, and a sow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: sea ship wreck animal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 27, "The Montague" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7355
NOTES: Possibly Montagu, a Liverpool steamship [which] "struck the bar at Wexford" April 25, 1878 (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 51). - BS
File: Ran027
===
NAME: Montcalm and Wolfe, (Ballad of): see Brave Wolfe [Laws A1] (File: LA01)
===
NAME: Month of May, The: see The Merry Haymakers (File: HHH697)
===
NAME: Months of the Year, The
DESCRIPTION: "January is the first month, the sun goes very low... We shall see an alteration, before the year comes round." The song catalogs the months, describing how farmers spend the time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 256, "The Months of the Year" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1954
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Calendar Rhymes"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Seasons
File: K256
===
NAME: Monto
DESCRIPTION: "Well, if you've got a wing-o, Take me up to ring-o, Where the waxies sing-o, all the day."  Various people in Dublin set out to accomplish some end or other, fail, and console themselves by asking, "Take me up to Monto."
AUTHOR: George Hodnett
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982 (Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book)
KEYWORDS: whore Ireland political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
DT, MONTO*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 60-61, "Monto" (1 text, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Take Me Up to Monto
NOTES: I have never seen definitely-traditional version of this song. But Irish bands seem to sing it without any knowledge of its origin, and the two versions I've seen (Harte's and those in _Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book_ and Robert Gogan, _130 Great Irish Ballads_ (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), 42) are somewhat different, with the differences being almost always clear errors of hearing, so it possibly belongs here.
The song is intensely political, but you have to know the code to realize what is going on. For starters, "Monto" is Montgomery street, Dublin's red light district. _Soodlum's_ says that 1600 prostitutes once worked there, before it was closed down in 1925; Gogan, which is prone to folkloric exaggeration, gives the number of prostitutes as 1800.
"Buckshot" Forster ("Butcher Foster" in _Soodlum's_ and Gogan) is W. E. Forster, known as "Buckshot," a one-time British Chief Secretary for Ireland. According to Robert Kee, _The Bold Fenian Men_, being Volume II of _The Green Flag_ (Penguin, 1972, 1989), p. 86, Forster was given his name because, during his tenure, the police were sometimes given buckshot for ammunition, rather than the more dangerous ball cartridges. This was not his decision, however, and he came to have a bad reputation for violence. Forster resigned his post in the 1880s when Prime Minister Gladstone released Charles Steward Parnell from arrest (for this, see e.g. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"; also "Home Rule for Ireland" and the songs cited under those two).
"Carey" and "Skin-the-Goat" were two of those involved in the deadly Phoenix Park murders of 1882 (for which see especially "The Phoenix Park Tragedy"; also "Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" and "Skin the Goat's Curse on Carey").
These two mentions would seem to set the song in the mid-1880s. This fits with the mentions of Queen Victoria, who ruled 1837-1901 and who repeatedly visited Ireland (though I doubt she ever weighed eighteen stone even in her later years when she did become stout; she just wasn't tall enough). Countering this is the mention of sending the Dublin Fusiliers overseas, which sounds like a reference to the Boer War which began in 1899; more than 20,000 troops were eventually sent to South Africa. But maybe it's a reference to some other small colonial conflict. There were certainly plenty to choose from. - RBW
File: Hart060
===
NAME: Monymusk: see The Monymusk Lads (File: Ord068)
===
NAME: Monymusk Lads, The
DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by Monymusk And doun by Alford's dale," the singer goes "to see my Maggie dear." He visits at night, but the auld wife detects him and sounds an alarm. The auld man forces him out; he vows to return when the old man snores
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit courting age escape
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
GreigDuncan3 375, "Monymusk" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 68-69, "Rural Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONYMUSK*
Roud #5568
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Monymusk Lads" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "The song was probably composed before 1876 when the farmer Robert Wilson died and left the farm to his daughter. The full song relates the attempts by a farm servant to court his sweetheart by entering her bedchamber at night." 
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Lethenty (375) is at coordinate (h3,v5-6) on that map [roughly 25 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: Ord068
===
NAME: Moody to the Rescue
DESCRIPTION: "Word came down to Derby town in the spring of '59: McGowan's men had smashed the pen & left for the Hill's Bar Mine." Col. Moody finds the miners do not wish to fight on Sunday. Moody says "Things look all right, so where's the fight?" and heads home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1969 (Fowke/MacMillan)
KEYWORDS: mining gold Canada political humorous
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1859 - Ned McGowan's War
FOUND_IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/MacMillan 5, "Moody to the Rescue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17698
SAME_TUNE:
The Keach i' the Creel (File: C281)
NOTES: In 1856 gold was discovered near on Fraser River (Vancouver Island), and subsequently the area was host to a massive influx of gold-seekers not only from Canada but America, Europe, and even Australia.
In 1859 two American miners were accused of assault by a man named Dixon. The local magistrate at Fort Yale, named of Whannell, put Dixon in jail for safe keeping and issued a warrant for the two Americans. When they were caught they were put into the jail at Hill's Bar, under the jurisdiction of another magistrate, Perrier. Perrier decided he was going to handle the case and sent a constable to Fort Yale to retrieve Dixon. Whannell refused to release Dixon and instead jailed Perrier's constable. When Perrier heard about this, he deputized Ned McGowan and sent him after Dixon and the constable.
McGowan arrived at Hill's Bar with a dozen armed men and arrested Whannell, charging him with contempt of Perrier's court. The exaggerated account of the proceedings that reached the capital indicated that American miners at Hill's Bar had broken into the jail and were attempting to overthrow the British authority. Colonel R.C. Moody and a force of Royal Engineers and marines were sent out. They arrived, arrested McGowan, and charged him with assault on Whannell. The presiding judge, Begbie, fined McGowan five pounds and lectured all parties (and Whannell and Perrier in particular) on the impartiality of British law. American miners were to receive the same treatment under British law as British citizens, and at the same time the American miners had to understand that on British soil they were to abide by local laws.
This incident became known as 'Ned McGowan's War.'
From Fowke/MacMillan - Collected from Patrick Graber of Vancouver in 1970. Graber says he got the words from 92-year-old Henry Hawkins, who said he had heard it fifty years earlier. Hawkins could only recite the words, not the tune and Graber set the words to 'The Keach i' the Creel' (Child 281). Another source, Billy Wardell of New Westminster, said he had heard "old Harry Wiltshire" sing the song in 1927, and claimed the opening line should be "word came down to Sappertown." - SL
File: FowM005
===
NAME: Moon Shines Bright, The (The Bellman's Song)
DESCRIPTION: "The moon shines bright And the stars give a light." Listeners are told to awake that they may hear the life of Jesus and of the passion: "We ne'er shall do for Jesus Christ as he hath done for us." Listeners are reminded that life is short
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(200))
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus death resurrection warning
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,West))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Leather, pp. 193-194, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text plus an excerpt, 2 tunes)
OBC 46, 47, 48, "The Bellman's Song" (1 text, 3 tunes)
DT, BELLMAN*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #80, "The Moon Shines Bright" (1 text plus sundry loose stanzas)
Roud #702
RECORDINGS:
Jasper Smith, "The Moon Shine Bright" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(200), "The Moon Shone Bright," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Douce adds. 137(66), Douce adds. 137(8), Johnson Ballads 1392C, Johnson Ballads 1485, "The Moon Shines Bright"; Harding B 7(31), "St. John's Day"; Johnson Ballads 2456, "Carol 2" ("The moon shines bright"); Harding B 25(379), "Christmas carol. III. ("The moon shone bright, & the[sic] gave light")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "May Day Carol" (lyrics)
cf. "Christ Made a Trance (God Made a Trance)" (lyrics)
cf. "Awake Awake (Awake Sweet England)" (lyrics)
cf. "Here We Come A-Wassailing"
cf. "Somerset Wassail"
NOTES: This song in its current form seems to have originated in broadsides. It has some material in common with May carols, but whether the lyrics originated there (so A. L. Lloyd) or moved from this piece to the May songs is not clear.
The initial lines, "The moon shines bright The stars give a light" are found in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, volume II, from around 1744 (see Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #55), but this is yet another separate piece:
The moon shines Bright
The Stars give a light
And you may kiss
A pretty girl
At ten a clock at Night.
The Baring-Goulds connect the above item with "Now I Am a Big Boy"; this appears possible but not certain.
A second stanza also occurs in nursery tradition: "God bless the master of this house, The Mistress bless also..." (see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #423, p. 196).
Ravenscroft also printed a "Bellman's Song"; it is not the same thing.
Bradley  in _The Penguin Book of Carols_ says "This is not, as might appear from its first line, a song about Charlie Chaplin." Don't ask me what that is supposed to mean; I have no clue. - RBW
File: DTbellma
===
NAME: Moonlight: see Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight (File: R746)
===
NAME: Moonlight and Skies
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, come hear my story of heartaches and sighs, I'm a prisoner who's lonely for my moonlight and skies." The singer leaves his girl (daughter?) and sets out on a robbery. His partner is killed and he is taken. He wishes he were free and with the girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: love separation robbery death prison
FOUND_IN: US Canada(West)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 21, "Moonlight and Skies" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13922
RECORDINGS:
Gene Autry, "Moonlight and Skies" (Conqueror 8002, 1932)
Hank & Slim "Moonlight and Skies" (Vocalion 02852, 1934)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Moonlight and Skies" (Victor 23574, 1931/Regal Zonophone [Australia] MR 2200, 1931; rec. 1930)
Stanley G. Triggs, "Moonlight and Skies" (on Triggs1)
SAME_TUNE:
Jimmie Davis, "Moonlight and Skies - No. 2" (Decca 5104, 1935) 
NOTES: This was item #170 in the first edition of Randolph, but was deleted in the second edition. It is item dE36 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Triggs found a logger's version of this song while working in a lumber camp at Salmo, BC; evidently it had already entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Ohr021
===
NAME: Moonlight Attack on Curtin's House
DESCRIPTION: "Moonlighting heroes of late made a raid Down in Castlefarm in John Curtin's place" and shot Curtin and his son. "May those boys that's in jail be home before long." "Not forgetting Thady Sullivan," an assailant shot and killed in the raid. 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1885 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: murder prison Ireland political
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Nov 13, 1885 - John O'Connell Curtin killed by "Moonlighters" at his farm in Molahiffe, County Kerry (source: Zimmermann)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann 88, "Moonlight Attack on Curtin's House" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The ballad recalls "His grandfather ... brought to the gallows in the year '98 Four dozen of croppies ... For which he was highly rewarded." Zimmermann notes "The Land War [roughly 1879-1885] took a particularly violent form in County Kerry where a secret agrarian organization revived the methods of the Whiteboys and Ribbonmen. John O'Connell Curtin was killed by some of these "Moonlighters."... Curtin was described by _The Nation_ as a staunch nationalist.... The verses were sung at fairs and other gatherings, and much applauded." - BS
File: Zimm088
===
NAME: Moonshine
DESCRIPTION: "Come all you booze fighters, if you want to hear, 'Bout the kind of liquor that they sell around here...." The great power of the product is described: "One drop'll make a rabbit lick a hound dog." The large number of 'shiners and revenuers is mentioned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Warner)
KEYWORDS: drink talltale
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Warner 131, "Moonshine" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 42, "Moonshine" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 230, "Kentucky Bootlegger" (1 text)
ST Wa131 (Partial)
Roud #3126
RECORDINGS:
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Kentucky Bootlegger" (Paramount 3113, 1928)
Buell Kazee, "Moonshiner Song" (on Kazee01)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
Red Fox Chasers, "Virginia Bootlegger" (Champion 15790 [as Virginia Possum Tamers]/Supertone 9492, 1929)
File: Wa131
===
NAME: Moonshine Can, The
DESCRIPTION: Informers report Pat's whiskey still to the Mounties. He is called to court. His still is dumped in the bay. At a neighbor's house a health is drunk to all but the informers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956 (NFOBlondahl01)
KEYWORDS: drink police
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Peacock, pp. 75-76, "The Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 39, "Moonshine Can" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9949
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "The Moonshine Can" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blockader's Trail" (subject)
cf. "Ewie Wi' the Crookit Horn" (subject)
File: Pea075
===
NAME: Moonshine Informer, The
DESCRIPTION: John Snow "informed on those people for making moonshine" around Bonavista Bay and is driven from town by the women of Southern Bay.
AUTHOR: Moses Harris
EARLIEST_DATE: 1976 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: crime punishment revenge drink
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 79, "The Moonshine Informer" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Southern Bay is near Bonavista Bay on the east coast of Newfoundland. - BS
File: LeBe079
===
NAME: Moonshine Steer, The
DESCRIPTION: Two cowboys come across a still whose owner, thinking they are sheriffs, has fled. They get well and truly drunk, and see a steer with two heads, 12 legs, and 14 tails. At last they manage to give it a drink, and it disappears -- flying, according to them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: drink cowboy talltale
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 73, "The Moonshine Steer" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11202
File: FCW073
===
NAME: Moonshiner
DESCRIPTION: "I've been a moonshiner for sev'nteen long years, I've spent all my money for whiskey and beer, I'll go to some holler, I'll put up my still...." "I'll eat when I'm hungry and drink when I'm dry; If moonshine don't kill me I'll live till I die...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
BrownIII 291, "Cornbread When I'm Hungry" (2 fragments; the "A" text combines "Moonshiner" with "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor"; "B" mixes "Moonshiner" with what appears to be a minstel song)
Sandburg, pp. 142-143, "Kentucky Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Combs/Wilgus 187, p. 189, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
Ritchie-Southern, p. 38, "God Bless the Moonshiners" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 134, "Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 229, "Moonshiner" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 29, #3 (1983), p, 1, "God Bless that Moonshiner" (1 text, 1 tune, from Currence Hammons)
ST San142 (Full)
Roud #4301
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Moonshiner" (on IRClancyMakem01)
Daw Henson, "Moonshiner" (AFS, 1937; on KMM)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Moonshiner" (on Holcomb-Ward1, HolcombCD1)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Moonshiner" (on NLCR08)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Country Blues" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Wild Rover No More" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: An early 1960s recording of this song by Bob Dylan, long circulated as a bootleg but released in the 1990s, became justly famous in the folk revival as one of his finest performances, and inspired multiple covers of his version. Listening to the Daw Henson field recording, it seems very likely that this was Dylan's source. - PJS
File: San142
===
NAME: Moonshiner's Dream
DESCRIPTION: "Las night as I lay sleeping I dreamed one pleasant dream...." "Making blockade whiskey And selling at retail; But I woke up sad, broken-hearted In the Fulton County Jail." He laments the conditions, dreams of better, and warns others
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (recording, Riley Puckett)
KEYWORDS: prison drink dream
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 355, "Moonshiner's Dream" (1 text)
Roud #11729
RECORDINGS:
Riley Puckett, "The Moonshiner's Dream" (Columbia 15324-D, 1928)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Logan County Jail (Dallas County Jail)" [Laws E17] (theme, lyrics)
NOTES: This shows clear signs of borrowing from "Logan County Jail" or a relative. But the dream motif seems important enough for me to list it separately. - RBW
File: Br3355
===
NAME: Moorlough Maggie
DESCRIPTION: Singer owns sheep, cattle, and ships at sea. He offers each to Moorlough Maggie if she will go with him. She rejects each offer: "Tae gie consent, love, I darna gie Tae herd your sheep high in yon heathery hills"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (recording, Stanley Robertson)
KEYWORDS: love rejection nonballad
FOUND_IN:  Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #12939
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "Moorlough Maggie" (on Voice15)
NOTES: I have to suspect this is a fragment of something like "Lizie Lindsay." - RBW
File: RcMooMag
===
NAME: Moorlough Mary
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls meeting Mary in Strabane, and being stricken. He describes how lovely it is to see her. He wishes he had education so he could wed and entertain her. Having no hope of wedding her, he departs Moorlough's banks forever
AUTHOR: James Devine ?
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 b.11(223))
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection nonballad shepherd
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
SHenry H173, pp. 250-251, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 85, "Moorlug Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 59-61, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text)
OBoyle 17, "Moorlough Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2742
RECORDINGS:
Brigid Tunney, "Murlough Mary" (on IRTunneyFamily01)
Paddy Tunney, "Moorlough Mary" (on IRPTunney02)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(223), "Moorlough Mary" ("The first time I saw young Moorlough Mary"),  H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also 2806 c.14(18)[some words illegible], "Moorlough Mary"; Firth b.27(232), "Moorlouch Mary"[text uses "Moorlough Mary"]
NOTES: Credited to James Devine by Sam Henry. Devine's one other song known to me ("The Pride of Glenelly") is a dreadul literary contraption; there is little real evidence that it went into tradition. This song is better-known, and not nearly as pretentious; it makes me wonder if Devine really wrote it. - RBW
Tunney-SongsThunder: "It seems that Mary Gormley or Moorlough Mary was no great beauty at all." Peter Boyle's notes to IRPTunney02: "Local tradition has it that, though they were never married, he [Devine] remained in love with her until they both were very old." - BS
File: HHH173
===
NAME: Moorlough Shore, The: see The Maid of Mourne Shore (File: HHH034b)
===
NAME: Moorlug Mary: see Moorlough Mary (File: HHH173)
===
NAME: Moorsoldaten, Die (Peat-Bog Soldiers)
DESCRIPTION: German: The prisoners, trapped in a concentration camp, carry their spades to work in the moors and bogs. There is no escape; they can only keep working. But the winter (of despair) will eventually end, and they can reclaim their corrupted homeland
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939
KEYWORDS: war prisoner hardtimes abuse political foreignlanguage
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Scott-BoA, pp. 354-355, "Die Moorsoldaten (Peat-Bog Soldiers)" (2 texts (1 English, 1 German), 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 307, "Peat Bog Soldiers" (1 text)
NOTES: This is properly a German folksong, but the English translation has become so popular in revival circles that it probably belongs here. - RBW
File: SBoA354
===
NAME: Moose Song, The
DESCRIPTION: Izzie Walters sees a moose. The boys kill it. An informer sees them divide the meat. The magistrate says "Five dollars ... or fourteen days in jail." Next time I'll "pay the squealer b'y to keep his big mouth closed."
AUTHOR: George Croucher?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: hunting animal police punishment
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 77-78, "The Moose Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9950
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Terry Toole's Cabbage" (plot)
File: Pea077
===
NAME: Moosehead Lake
DESCRIPTION: "In eighteen hundred and ninety-two, Bant Breau and George Elliot they started a crew." Life in the camp, and the various characters there, are described. The singer talks about the combative men and the long hours
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Creighton-Nova Scotia)
KEYWORDS: logger work
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 58, "Moosehead Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 122, "In the Month of October" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1825
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Blue Mountain Lake (The Belle of Long Lake)" [Laws C20] (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This song as found in Lomax shares several verses with "Blue Mountain Lake" (with which Roud lumps it) as well as the "Derry Down" tune, and may well have sprung from the same roots. The overall feeling is just different enough, however, that I have very tentatively decided to keep them separate.
Laws offers another explanation: "Lomax seems to have added some stanzas from [Blue Mountain Lake] to... 'Moosehead Lake.'" - RBW
Creighton-NovaScotia begins "In the month of October eighteen-eight-two, Billy Williams from Bangor he scared up a crew, And forty brave fellows of us he did take, And he landed us over across head Moose Lake" - BS
File: LoF058
===
NAME: More Pretty Girls Than One
DESCRIPTION: Singer is a rambler who likes women; his mother told him to settle down, but he won't. He cries, thinking of pretty girls, and hopes he'll never die; he leaves us this lonesome song: "Every town I ramble around/There's more pretty girls than one."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: loneliness rambling nonballad lyric floatingverses love separation travel farewell courting parting family
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Randolph 734, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shellans, p. 10, "Hush, LIttle Bonnie" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownIII 284, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (2 text plus 1 fragment and 1 excerpt);  also 301, "High-Topped Shoes" (2 texts, both mixed; "A" is mostly "Pretty Little Foot" with verses from "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" while "B" is a hash of "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down," ""More Pretty Girls Than One," "In the Pines," and others)
Cambiaire, pp. 23, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 170, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 192, "More Pretty Girls Than One" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 142, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" (1 text)
Roud #11505
RECORDINGS:
[Richard] Burnett & [Leonard] Rutherford, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (Challenge 423 [as Crockett & Cannon], 1929)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Goodbye My Bonnie, Goodbye" (Victor 21193, 1928, rec. 1927)
The Carter Family, "Bonnie Blue Eyes" (Decca 5304, 1936)
Cranford & Thompson, "Goodbye Little Bonnie" (Supertone 2594, c. 1932)
Woody Guthrie, "More Pretty Gals" (Folk Tunes 150, n.d., prob. mid-1940s)
Ken Marvin, "More Pretty Girls" (Mercury 6366, 1951)
Ozarkers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (OKeh 45573, 1932)
Prairie Ramblers, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" ((Perfect 6-10-58/Melotone 6-10-58/Conqueror 8713, 1936)
Riley Puckett, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Parts 1 & 2" (Decca 5439, 1937)
Ridgel's Fountain Citians, "Little Bonnie" (Vocalion 5389, 1930)
Rutherford & Foster, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" (prob. Brunswick, 1930; on KMM)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One" Montgomery Ward M-4822/Bluebird B-6322, 1936)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Goodbye, Little Bonnie, Blue Eyes" (on DownYonder)
Fields Ward and the Grayson County Railsplitters, "Good Bye Little Bonnie" (Gennett, unissued, 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ten Thousand Miles Away from Home (A Wild and Reckless Hobo; The Railroad Bum) [Laws H2]" (words, tune)
cf. "The Lass of Roch Royal" [Child 76] and its various offshoots (tune)
cf. "Lonesome Road" (words)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (theme)
SAME_TUNE:
Dixon Brothers, "Bonnie Blue Eyes - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6691, 1936)
Arthur Smith Trio, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 2" (Bluebird B-6889/Montgomery Ward M-7155, 1937)
Arthur Smith Trio, "Answer to More Pretty Girls Than One" (Bluebird B-7437/Montgomery Ward M7476, 1938)
Howard Dixon & Frank Gerald (The Rambling Duet), "More Pretty Girls Than One - Part 3" (Bluebird B-7484/Montgomery Ward M-7464, 1938)
NOTES: This song and "Danville Girl" [one of the various forms of Laws H2 - RBW] are siblings. - PJS
And the whole family is rather a mess. "More Pretty Girls Than One" is reasonably well-known. The Silber text "Goodby, Little Bonnie, Goodbye" has been found with this tune. Since both are largely floating verses, we decided to lump them.
Randolph's text also has a similar tune, and it shares the basic form of the Silber text, as well as some lyrics:
""Goodbye, little bonnie blue eyes (x2), I'll see you again, But God knows when, Goodbye, little...." "I'm going on the railroad train... 'Cause I love you, God knows I do." "I'm goin' on the ocean blue...." "Lay your hand in mine...."
Brown's two substantial texts ("A" and "B") are similar: Most of the same verses, but no chorus. Note the absence of the "more pretty girls" verse, which originally caused us to classify separately.
After some discussion, Paul Stamler and I decided to lump the lot, even though it's against our general policy, simply because none of the variations are really well-attested enough to be regarded as independent songs. But it should be noted that almost anything can be grafted onto this stalk.
The "Goodbye, Little Bonnie Blue Eyes" family, which includes Shellans's "Hush, Little Bonnie," is Roud #762. These texts often end with the singer coming back. - RBW
File: CSW192
===
NAME: Moree Spider, The: see The Spider from the Gwydir (File: MA204)
===
NAME: Moreton Bay (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a prisoner. The prisoner, an Irish transportee, describes the various prisons he has been in, ending with Moreton Bay, which had no equal for harshness. He rejoices at the death of the sadistic commander, Captain Logan
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1879 (quoted the "Jerilderie Letter" of Ned Kelly; see Hughes, p. 444)
KEYWORDS: abuse prison transportation injury Australia
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1824-1842 - Period during which Moreton Bay served as a prison colony
1830 - Murder of Captain Patrick Logan by an aborigine
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 38-39, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 16-18, "Moreton Bay" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 52-54, "Moreton Bay" (1 text)
DT, MORETONB*
ADDITIONAL: Robert Hughes, _The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding_, Knopf, 1986, pp. 443-444 (1 text)
Roud #2537
NOTES: According to Robert Hughes, _The Fatal Shore: The epic of Australia's founding_, Knopf, 1986, p. 443, "Between his arrival at Moreton Bay and his violent death there four years later, Logan became a legend among the convicts -- so much so that he was the only commandant of an Australian penal station to have a whole ballad dedicated to him." Specifically this song, which he quotes in full.
Logan (1792-1830) was a Scotsman who joined the 57th Regiment in 1810, coming to Australia in 1825 (Hughes, p. 445). Hughes believe that Logan's brutal regiment was shaped by the experience of the British army, which -- being composed mostly of those who could find no other work -- was controlled largely by the lash.
Hughes, p. 446, reports that "Although the punishment registers for Moreton Bay in Logan's time are lost, it seems clear that Logan habitually worked prisoners in irons, whatever their sentences. He was also a relentles flogger. One sample record... show[s] that from February to October 1828, Logan ordered 200 floggings, for a total of 11,100 lashes."
Few reports of what was going on escaped the colony, since prisoners could not escape and Logan had to endorse any papers that were sent out. It has been speculated that what reports did reach the world were actually leaks intended to make people fear transfer to Moreton Bay (Hughes, p. 447). But at last a manuscript by Thomas Matthew emerged detailing the brutalities (Hughes, p. 449) -- and Logan's caprice in applying them.
Paterson/Fahey/Seal notes that, during Logan's tenure as commander of Moreton Bay, the death rate among the prisoners exceeded ten percent per year; there was a time when it exceeded 3% per month (cf. Hughes, p. 4460. This is not entirely Logan's fault; there was a famine and an epidemic at the time. On the other hand, a pretty good way to kill a sick man is to flog him unmercifully. No wonder prisoners celebrated his death!
Eventually Logan was ordered to India, but he stayed at Moreton Bay for some time to show his successor the ropes (Hughes, p. 450) and to testify to the state of things in Queensland. While waiting for the call to testify, he did some exploring, and waylaid (Hughes, pp. 450-451).
Moreton Bay is located in what is now southern Queensland. The penal colony there was founded in 1824 (though relocated slightly in 1825), and deliberately placed far away from the settled areas of Australia. Moreton Bay was intended for "doubly convicted felons," and it was thought that its remoteness would make it more secure.
Governor Brisbane, who gave his name to the local river and to the town which later arose on the site, wrote that "Port Macquarie [is] for first grave offenses [in Australia], Moreton Bay for runaways from the former, and Norfolk Island as the *_ne plus ultra_" (Hughes, p. 461).
This policy of "security through distance" didn't work; squatters were settling near Moreton Bay by 1840. In 1842, the government gave in and opened the area to settlement.
The list of settlements the prisoner has inhabited seems unlikely. For one thing, Norfolk Island should have been his last stop -- unless he had been on Norfolk Island in its first incarnation. But the island was closed in 1814 and not reopened until 1825, when it was determined that Moreton Bay was not sufficient to handle the die-hards (see manning Clark, _A Short History of Australia_, Pengion, 1963; fourth edition, 1995l p. 54). And convicts sent there were not allowed to leave for at least ten years!
In addition, Norfolk Island (in both its incarnations) was as bad as Moreton Bay (the death rate was prodigious; some men received over a thousand lashes a year, and the most common reason for murders was that men would do anything to be sent to Sydney for trial).
Of the other sites mentioned:
Toongabbie is one of the farming areas near Sydney, and was the easiest, not the worst, of the settlements.
Castle Hill probably refers to Newcastle (which was so called because it was near a Castle Hill); founded in 1821, it was another place destined for incorrigibles, but was close enough to Sydney that it didn't last long.
The reference to Moreton Bay as part of New South Wales is correct; although it is now in Queensland, all the settled regions of Australia, save Van Diemen's Land, were initially called "New South Wales," and Queensland did not become a separate territory until 1859.
The reference to men dying of starvation in Moreton Bay also has its truth; the British were incredibly inept about organizing colonies, and prison colonies were the worst; they didn't even allow plows to till the soil. A crop failure in 1828/1829 caused Logan to cut the minimal rations in half. He also kept prisoners in irons whatever their punishment status; this can only have lowered their productivity
A "triangle" was actually a tetrahedron, three sticks lashed together from which a man was hung to be flogged.
Logan (1792-1830) was assigned to Moreton Bay in 1826, and since he was judge, jury, and tribune, no word came out for some time; Governor Darling (who succeeded Brisbane in 1825) wanted it that way. But eventually a prisoner was brought to Sydney for trial, and though he was hanged, a manuscript he left behind revealed some of the truth.
Logan was assigned to other duties, outside Australia, in 1830. But he stayed on for a time to show his successor the ways of the colony.
During this period, Logan did some private exploration. On one such trip, he became separated from his party. His body was eventually found, partly buried; the physical evidence seemed to indicate that an aborigine had killed him. (Relations with the local natives had turned bad almost instantly, and they killed any intruders they could.) But there isn't much doubt that most of his prisoners would have murdered him given the slightest opportunity.
As with most such historical figures, there have been attempts to whitewash him (see Hughes, p. 444). The attempts strike me as ludicrous.
Paterson/Fahey/Seal notes that this song is usually attributed to Francis Macnamara, but observes that other authors have also been suggested. - RBW
File: FaE038
===
NAME: Moreton Bay (II): see The Boston Burglar [LawsL16] (File: LL16)
===
NAME: Mormon Cowboy (I), The
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a Mormon cowboy, is invited to a grand ball. He meets all the girls and enjoys the music. After dancing a few sets, he steps out for rest; later, a fight starts, with gunplay, but is quickly quashed. The cowboy rides off, vowing nevermore to roam
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (recording, Carl T. Sprague)
KEYWORDS: fight dancing music party cowboy
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #11523
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Mormon Cowboy" (Victor V-40246, 1929; on AuthCowboys, WhenIWas1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The High-Toned Dance" (plot)
File: RcTMorCw
===
NAME: Mormon Cowboy (II), The
DESCRIPTION: The singer sings "Concerning Archie Barber and his unhappy state." At 22, he marries, but he has "no tool at all" and can't satisfy the girl. Her mother tells her to try him before a female jury. The marriage is annulled; the girl marries a Mormon cowboy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1976 (collected by Logsdon from Riley Neal)
KEYWORDS: marriage sex abandonment cowboy humorous
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Logsdon 3, pp. 38-41, "The Mormon Cowboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Logs003 (Partial)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "No Balls at All" (theme) and references there
NOTES: Logsdon treats this as a version of "No Balls at All." I really don't see it; the lyrics are almost entirely different, the boy is young, the girl puts him on trial before a jury of women, and she goes on to remarry a Mormon cowboy. That surely qualifies as enough reason to split the songs. - RBW
File: Logs003
===
NAME: Mormond Braes
DESCRIPTION: A (lass/lad) laments a lost sweetheart, (who promised to marry but proved fickle). At last (she) says she will find another sweetheart elsewhere. "So fare ye weel, ye Mormond braes, Where after I've been cheerie... Sin I hae lost my dearie."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment rambling
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 171-173, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 62-63, "Mormond Braes" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MORMBRAE*
Roud #2171
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "Mormond Braes" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(124b), "Fareweel tae Blairgowrie," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
File: FVS171
===
NAME: Mormons, The
DESCRIPTION: "Some folks talk about the Mormons, and I think it is very sad...." Most people try to make the Mormons look bad for having many wives, but the singer thinks "they have lots of fun, Do the Mormons!" He described the loose Mormon customs
AUTHOR: Herbert W. Taylor?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: marriage wife sin humorous
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 500, "The Mormons" (1 text)
Roud #7638
NOTES: Ordinary Christians viewed Mormons as scandalous because they had multiple wives, and this song portrays a very flirtatious Mormon girl. In fact Mormons, except for being polygynous, were sexually strict; public nudity was unacceptable. And in fact the church had abandoned multiple marriage by the time this song was collected. Today the Mormons' primary difference from Protestant Christianity is their acceptance of several books by Joseph Smith as scripture. There are other theological differences, to be sure (including some over how salvation is achieved) which are of great importance to scholars -- but they generally don't interest ordinary people much, and are not widely published. - RBW
File: R500
===
NAME: Morning After, The
DESCRIPTION: "Sometimes, old scout, in the morning, when the dawn looks cold and gray," the singer ponders life's troubles and wonders 'Is it really worth the while?" He lists various problems. Then he gets serious about the day, for "tomorrow you may die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: nonballad death
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, pp. 131-132, "The Morning After" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, pp. 621-622, "Is It Really Worth the While?" (1 text)
Roud #9588
File: Dean131
===
NAME: Morning Dew, The
DESCRIPTION: "The pink, the lily, and the blooming rose Grow in the garden where my true love goes. The little birds they do rejoice When they think they hear my love Jimmy's voice. O James Machree, I do love you well; I love you better than tongue can tell...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 86, "The Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 148-149, "The Morning Dew" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ148 (Full)
Roud #2307
File: FJ148
===
NAME: Morning Fair: see The Butcher Boy [Laws P24] (File: LP24)
===
NAME: Morning of the Fray, The
DESCRIPTION: Frank Gardner leads his gang against a coach at the Eugowra Rocks. The outlaws scatter the escort and take the rich prize. Chorus: "You can sing of Johnny Gilbert, Dan Morgan, and Ben Hall, But the bold and reckless Gardiner he's the boy to beat them all"
AUTHOR: Music supplied by A.L. Lloyd
EARLIEST_DATE: 1984
KEYWORDS: outlaw robbery battle money
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1830 - Birth of Francis Christie in New South Wales. He later took the name Frank Gardiner, and was known as "the Darkie" for his part-Aborigine ancestry
FOUND_IN: Australia?
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 84-85, "The Morning of the Fray" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "The Hold-Up at Eugowra Rocks" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd10)
NOTES: Although the song implies Gardiner was separate from Gilbert, Morgan, and Ben Hall, in fact Gilbert and Hall were associated with Gardiner's gang. Ben Hall was shot in 1865; Johnny Gilbert met his fate in 1866. Gardiner was eventually taken and imprisoned, but was released and sent into exile after serving ten years of a 32 year sentence. - RBW
File: FaE084
===
NAME: Morrisey and the Russian Bear: see Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18] (File: LH18)
===
NAME: Morrisite Massacre, The
DESCRIPTION: "We'll see Morris, Banks, and others, Joseph, Hyrum with the Martyrs, On Mount Zion in great glory With the savior and his army." "Slain by Burton, cruel Mormon," the song tells of the coming joys for the believers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: religious murder
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 13, 1862 - The Morrisite Massacre
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 121-122, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: The Morrisites are, as best I can tell, an extinct sect, largely because of the actions described in this song. Joseph Morris in 1860 had received a series of revelations; he gathered followers among the Mormons and founded his own community. Being a rather poor organizer, and expecting the second coming at any moment, he was unable to control dissension among his followers.
Eventually some disgruntled followers called on the Utah authorities, who -- being left largely free of federal control due to the Civil War -- moved in quickly to settle the dissident faction. Salt Lake County sheriff Robert T. Burton gave the Morrisites 30 minutes to surrender, then moved in. Burton moved in, killed a few people including Morris and his assistant Banks, and took the rest prisoner.
Burton would be placed on trial in 1879, but was acquitted.
Joseph and Hyrum are, of course, the brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who were slaim by a mob near Nauvoo, Illinois, one of the key events in Mormon history. - RBW
File: Burt121
===
NAME: Morrissey and the Benicia Boy
DESCRIPTION: The Benicia Boy -- Heenan -- challenges Morrissey saying "no man from Ireland before him could stand." They agree to fight for $5200 in North America. Morrissey wins in the eleventh round and takes the championship belt.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: fight gambling sports
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 20, 1858 - American Heavyweight Championship fight between John Morrissey and John C Heenan at Long Point, Canada. Heenan broke his hand during the fight. This is Morrissey's last fight
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
O'Conor, p. 44, "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More, pp. 252-253, "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (1 text, tune referenced: OLochlainn 26)
Roud #9781
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (tune)
NOTES: Source: Re historical references--"Troy Boxing -Round Two" by Don Rittner on The Mesh site.  I have not been able to find which Long Point in Canada was the site of the fight. - BS
John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so _DAB_ and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine. - RBW
America Singing at the Library of Congress American Memory site does not have this ballad but has another about Morrissey and Heenan:
LOCSinging, sb10143a, "The Great Prize Fight Between Morrissey and Heenan, the Benicia Boy, at Long Point, Canada, Oct 20, 1858 for $5000," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue does not have this ballad among its "prizefighting" broadsides. However, among the broadsides at that site, there are many celebrating Heenan. For example:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(229), "Heenan's Challenge to Mace," unbknown, n.d.; also Harding B 19(62), "Heenan's Challenge to Mace"
Bodleian, Firth b.25(587/588), "Heenan and King," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899 [could not be downloaded]
Bodleian, Harding B 13(12), "Sayers' and Heenan's Struggle for the Championship and GBP400," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861
Bodleian, Harding B 13(7), "The Bold Irish Yankee Benicia Boy," J.O. Bebbington (Manchester), 1858-1861 [tune: "Irish Molly"]
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2161a, "Coburn's Challange to Heenan," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; also 2806 c.8(234), "Coburn's Challenge to Heenan"
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2705, "The Boxing Match Between Sayers and Heenan," unknown, n.d.
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 1448B, "Maugh Bonamalath" or "Charles Heenan, the Champion of the World," W. Pratt (Birmingham), c.1850
Bodleian, Firth c.19(12), "The Fight with Heenan and the Black," H. Disley (London), 1860-1883
Bodleian, Harding B 26(247), "Heenan's Arrival in England," unknown, n.d.
There is a different broadside there for this fight:
Bodleian, Harding B 40(15), "The glorious victory of John Morrissy, of Templemore, Ireland, over the Yankee Buffalo boy, on Long Island, North America," J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 [could not be downloaded]
Morrissey has many fewer but at least two have been collected (see cross-references above)
Broadside LOCSinging sb10143a: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon033
===
NAME: Morrissey and the Black [Laws H19]
DESCRIPTION: Morrissey agrees to fight "Ned the black of Mulberry town" for a stake of ten thousand pounds. By the fourteenth round Morrissey is unconscious or nearly, but he is revived and knocks out his opponent in the twenty-fifth round
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: fight
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws H19, "Morrissey and the Black"
Greenleaf/Mansfield 175, "John Morrissey and the Black" (1 text)
Mackenzie 136, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 186-187,251, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 30-32, "Morrissey and the Black" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 706, MORRBLK
Roud #1884
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" [Laws H18] (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
cf. "The Napan Heroes" (theme)
NOTES: John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so _DAB_ and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine. - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield says Morrissey was also a Congressman and State Senator for New York.
Ives-DullCare: .".. there is no record of a fight between Morrissey and anyone with a name remotely resembling 'Ned the blackman' from Melbourne or anywhere else." - BS
There had been, however, a tendency to recruit Black boxers in the early nineteenth century (see Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hanover_, pp. 142-143). This was apparently due to the success of one Molineaux, called "The Moor." This may well have been remembered. - RBW
File: LH19
===
NAME: Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18]
DESCRIPTION: A Russian sailor in Tierra del Fuego challenges Morrissey to a duel. Morrissey takes on the challenge to uphold the honor of Ireland. The fight, for a large stake, takes 38 rounds, and each knocks the other down, before Morrissey is victorious
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor)
KEYWORDS: fight patriotic
FOUND_IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (11 citations)
Laws H18, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor"
Rickaby 48, "Morrisey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 4-5, "Morrisy and the Russian Sailor" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 216-217, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, pp. 398-399, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 325, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 135, "Morrissey and the Russian" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 30, "Morrisey and the Russian" (1 text)
OLochlainn-More, pp. 255-256, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (1 text, tune referenced: see OLochlainn 26)
Leach-Labrador 38, "Morrisey and the Russian Bear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 694, MORRRUSS MORRRUS2*
Roud #2150
RECORDINGS:
Joe Heaney, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on Pubs1, Voice08)
Johnny McDonagh, "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" [Laws H19] (subject)
cf. "Donnelly and Cooper" (subject, tune)
cf. "Heenan and Sayers" [Laws H20] (subject, tune)
cf. "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy" (subject)
NOTES: John Morrissey was born in Ireland in 1831 but was raised in New York and apparently went to California at the time of the Gold Rush. In 1852 he gained fame as a boxer by defeating George Thomson. The climax of Morrissey's career came in 1858 (so _DAB_ and other sources; I've seen a date of 1860 cited), when he defeated champion John C. Heenan and promptly retired. In the years that followed his gambling resort in Saratoga Springs proved very successful, and Morrissey was twice elected to congress. He died in 1878.
In addition to his boxing prowess, he is said to have been a "hatchet man" for the New York Tammany Hall machine.
There is no record of Morrissey ever fighting a Russian sailor -- and certainly not in Tierra del Fuego! On the other hand, he did fight some very long matches; in 1853 it took Morrissey 37 rounds to defeat James Sullivan.
(That win, incidentally, made Morrissey arguably the American champion; Sullivan in 1849 had beaten Tom Hyer in what the February 2006 issue of _American History_ magazine says was "considered to be the [first[ American championships prizefight") - RBW
O'Conor's last verse refers to other fights. Specifically, "Our hero conquered Thompson, the Yankee Clipper, too, The Benicia Boy, and Sheppard he nobly did subdue."
We have a ballad for "Morrissey and the Benicia Boy", at least.
"Thompson" was George Thompson, California champion, who lost a controversial fight to Morrissey in 1852.
The "Yankee Clipper" refers to Morrissey's controversial victory over Yankee Sullivan to become "Champion of America". See "The Fight at Boston Corners" and "The Great Prize Fight Which Took Place at Boston Corners, Oct 12, 1853" broadsides at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
There is also a broadside "Rough and Tumble, or the Amos Street Fight between Poole & Morrissey" at the Library of Congress American Memory site.
Sources: Biography of John Morrissey on the International Boxing Hall of Fame site; Biography of John Morrissey on the HarpWeek Explore History site; "Yankee Sullivan (James Ambrose)(alias Frank Murray)" at Cyber Boxing Zone site. - BS
File: LH18
===
NAME: Morrisy and the Russian Sailor: see Morrissey and the Russian Sailor [Laws H18] (File: LH18)
===
NAME: Moses Donohoe
DESCRIPTION: "The news from Rome ... our Pope he was in danger." April 29, 1869 Irish volunteers leave Dublin on the Avatuskey. They are rammed in a gale on May 10 and sink, deserted by the crew. Moses Donohue of Killincooley is among those drowned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck soldier war
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, pp. 123-124, "Moses Donohoe" (1 text)
NOTES: Did some ship, possibly named _Avatuskey_ -- or some more Polish name -- sail on April 29, 1869 to sink following a collision on May 10, 1869?
Ransom says "I have not been able to check up the correctness of the name 'Avatuskey,' nor have I been able to verify the statement that Irish volunteers went to the defence of the Papal States in 1869." Rome was all that was left of the Papal States in 1869 and it fell to Italy in "The Battle of Porta Pia" on September 20, 1870. Newspapers in Galway and London for the dates may reveal the facts. - BS
We might note that the Papal States were annexed rather than directly conquered by Italy; Porta Pia was more demonstration than battle. Of course, if the Papacy had had an Irish regiment at hand, who knows what it might have tried? - RBW
File: Ran123
===
NAME: Moses in the Bulrushes: see Little Moses (File: R662)
===
NAME: Moses of the Mail
DESCRIPTION: "It was a dark and stormy night, The snow was falling fast, I stood on Thorpbridge Junction Where the reckless Moses passed." Although there is no description of a wreck, the song ends with the dying words of Moses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954 (MacColl-Shuttle)
KEYWORDS: train death storm
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(West))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacColl-Shuttle, pp. 8-9, "Moses of the Mail" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Although the text in MacColl-Shuttle is described as composite, it doesn't make much sense: It is never made clear if there was a serious accident, or if engineer Moses retired after a minor injury, or if the whole thing is just a talltale. The song is said to refer to an actual engineer, Henry "Moses" Poyser, who worked in the 1880s. - RBW
File: MacCS08
===
NAME: Moses Paul
DESCRIPTION: "My kindred Indians, pray attend and hear... This day I warn you of that cursed sin That poor despised Indians wallow in."  The preacher warns Indians against drink, which led Moses Paul to murder; he bids them turn to Christ
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: drink murder Indians(Am.) religious
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1772 - Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian, for the murder of Moses Cook. 
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 152-153, "(Moses Paul)" (1 excerpted text)
NOTES: Supposed to be based on the words of one Reverend Samson Occom, himself an Indian, who gave the funeral sermon for Moses Paul. Occom correctly noted the poverty in which the Indians lived, and noted the effects of drink -- but rather ruined the effect, I would say, by blaming these faults on Sin. - RBW
File: Burt152
===
NAME: Moses Ritoora-li-ay
DESCRIPTION: A policeman sees a man peddling in the street and hauls him in. A trial ensues in which the court tries to find out if Moses Ri-too-ral-i-ay is Irish. He turns out to be a Jew related to the judge. Moses is released, and the unhappy policeman fired
AUTHOR: (attributed to Brian O'Higgins in the Digital Tradition, but see NOTES)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (recording, Margaret Barry)
KEYWORDS: police Jew humorous trial punishment
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MOSESRIT*
Roud #5197
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "Moses Ritoora-li-ay" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Vilikens and his Dinah (William and Dinah) [Laws M31A/B]" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "The Sergeant's Lamentation" (theme)
NOTES: In the period around the Easter Rising, it was a crime in Ireland to preach rebellion. Apparently many revolutionaries got around this by preaching in Irish (though this raised the possibility that the listeners couldn't understand them!). The police, who were often English and almost always anglophone, were told to learn Irish to try to figure out what was going on.
This didn't work out all that well. (Gee, where have we heard that story before? The Habsburg Empire? Iraq?) The amused Irish created songs like this to celebrate the problem.
Brian O'Higgins wrote a song about this topic, according to Frank Harte. But Harte believes the song on this topic is "The Limb of the Law", found in _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 36-37. Could he have written two such songs? I don't know.
Robert Kee, on p. 48 of _Ourselves Alone_ (being volume III of _The Green Flag_) cites a Sinn Fein speech from 1918 claiming that "there were by then five hundred people in Ireland imprisoned under the Defence of the Realm Regulations on chrages ranging from singing a song written seventy years before to presenting their names in Irish when accosted by a policeman." Unfortunately, he does not cite a precise source. - RBW 
File: DTmosesr
===
NAME: Moss o Burreldale, The
DESCRIPTION: Description of a rowdy gathering of Travellers at the market of Burreldale. A piper's bag bursts, and he's launched into the air; another man plans to fight but his Annie knocks him over, etc. (Some versions describe the participants and their trades)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (collected from Jimmy McBeath)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Description of a rowdy gathering of Travellers at the market of Burreldale. A piper's bag bursts, and he's launched into the air; another man plans to fight but his Annie knocks him over then challenges him to fight some more; a showoff horseman is thrown (I think). Another man challenges a Catholic to fight. Eventually all leave, but vow they will always remember the fracas. (Some versions describe the participants and their trades)
KEYWORDS: bragging fight commerce drink music party moniker worker Gypsy migrant
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Kennedy 351, "The Moss o' Burreldale" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 127, "The Moss o' Burreldale" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #1876
File: K351
===
NAME: Mossback, The: see The Farmer and the Shanty Boy (File: Wa033)
===
NAME: Mossie and His Mare
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mossie was a cunning man, A little mare did buy; For winking and for jinking There was few could come her nigh." After telling how Mossie captures her, various folks are warned against bad behavior; they will be punished "as Mossie catch'd his mare."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1813 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 22(179))
KEYWORDS: horse humorous warning Jacobites
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 39-42, "Mossie and His Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig 171, p. 1, "Mossie and His Meer" (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan3 677, "Mossie and His Meer" (2 fragments, 3 tunes)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #234, p. 152, "(Moss was a little man, and a little mare did buy)"
Roud #6104
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 22(179), "Moss and his Mare" ("Moss was a cunning man a little mare did buy"), J. Evans (London), 1780-1812
NOTES: The keyword "Jacobite" may be strange for this song, but Ford's text, after warning "gilpy lasses," "crafty ale wives," "lousy tailors," and "pettyfoggers," turns its attention to "A' ye Whigs about the land, Wha deny our lawfu' King." - RBW
There is no reference to Jacobite politics in broadside Bodleian Harding B 22(179), the earliest text I have seen. Ford's second notion, "that [it] was rejuvenated in the first half of the last century," may explain "the Jacobitish dirl that occurs in the concluding stanza." - BS 
File: FVS39
===
NAME: Mossie and His Meer: see Mossie and His Mare (File: FVS39)
===
NAME: Most Done Ling'rin' Here: see notes under Run, Nigger, Run (File: R264)
===
NAME: Most Done Suffering: see Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)
===
NAME: Most Done Traveling: see Rough, Rocky Road (Most Done Suffering) (File: Br3632)
===
NAME: Most Unconstant of Young Men, The: see Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)
===
NAME: Moth and the Flame, The
DESCRIPTION: Two old sweethearts meet. He says he still loves her; she says she is to be married to another. He tells the fable of the Moth and the Flame to reveal her lover is already married. At the wedding, the fiance kills his wife. The girl turns to her old love
AUTHOR: Words: George Taggart/Music: Max S. Witt
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation murder wedding adultery
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 818, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 156-158, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Geller-Famous, pp. 155-160, "The Moth and the Flame" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7433
NOTES: Should be an opera. - PJS
It comes close. It's based loosely on an 1898 play by Clyde Fitch with the same title. Taggart wrote the words after seeing the play, then sought someone to write the music. - RBW
File: R818
===
NAME: Mother Carey's
DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound... for Frisco Town.... Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Hugill)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Capstan shanty. "The brave west wind it filled our top-s'ls and bore us out-ward bound, out-ward bound across the Western, out-ward bound for Frisco Town. Chorus: Sheet it home- that big main top-s'l, sheet it home- boys, good and true, For we're bound to Mother Carey's, where she feeds her chicks at sea."
KEYWORDS: shanty ship travel return
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, p. 192, "Mother Carey's" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hugill: "'Mother Carey's chickens' was a sailor name for stormy petrels, seabirds found flying close to the crests of the great seas of the high latitudes." - SL
The origin and use of this name is the subject of some dispute. Numerous sources agree that Mother Carey's chickens are stormy petrels. Benet's _Reader's Encyclopedia_, in the article on mothers, adds that Mother Carey's goose is "the  great black petrel or fulmar of the pacific." (Interestingly, the centennial edition of _Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable_, edited by Ivor H Evans, has these definitions almost verbatim. I don't know who stole from whom, though.) Both sources also agree that the phrase "Mother Carey is plucking her goose" means that it is snowing.
Eric Partridge's _A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_ (combined fifth edition with dictionary and supplement, Macmillan, 1961) dates the use of Mother Carey's Chickens as a name for snowflakes to 1861, citing Hotten's slang dictionary. This usage is also supported by the  Simpson/Roud _Dictionary of English Folklore_. Partridge also cites a usage, "faring alike and paying the same, ca. 1820-1850," an lastly notes that Bowen's _Sea Slang_ applies it to "a small gun."
But who is Mother Carey? Barbara G. Walker, in _The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets_, states that the name is an "English sailor's version of Mater Cara, 'BelovedMother' [or 'Dear Mother'], the Latin Sea-goddess." She notes that the French call the petrels the "Birds of Our Lady." Similarly, Benet notes that the French call them "oiseaux de Notre Dame" or "aves Sanctae Mariae."
Walker's equivalence is wrong, I checked four classical dictionaries, and not one mentions "Mater Cara" as a Latin goddess. There is a "[Mater] Matuta," identified in J. E. Zimmerman's _Dictionary of Classical Mythology_ as a "goddess of sea travel," or perhaps of harbors, but Lucretius (_De Rerum Natura_, B. 656) credits Matuta with bringing the dawn; she is also associated with childbirth. In any case, it's obviously a different name.
Of course, Mater Cara as a name for the Virgin Mary -- frequently addressed as the Mother of God in Catholic tradition, and often invoked as an intercessor -- is quote common. But would nineteenth century English sailors be addressing Mary for help? (Indeed, if we're trying Latin for a goddess of sailors, how about "Mater Carina," which can mean "Mother of hulls/keels." I don't believe it, though.)
The real problem with the Mother Carey=Mater Cara equivalence, though, is noted by the Simpson/Roud _Dictionary__: It has no support. We nowhere find references to Mother Carey without her birds.
The Simpson/Roud _Dictionary_ mentions that the name "Mother Carey's chickens" also refers to snowflakes. They speculate that Mother Carey is the Old Woman of the Storms -- the hag who brings foul weather. This strikes me as quite reasonable but beyond proof.
The phrase is certainly famous, though. Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), best known for writing _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_, also wrote a book called _Mother Carey's Chickens_, which was made into a movie in 1938. As best I can tell from reading excerpts, though, it's just a book about chickens. - RBW
File: Hugi192
===
NAME: Mother Dear, Goodbye
DESCRIPTION: "I'll not be long with you, mother, I soon must say goodbye, But, mother, we shall meet again, In God's bright home on high." The singer rejoices that she(?) will join sister in heaven, and taste the joys there; she promises to pray for mother
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: death mother children
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 177, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: Thomas reports this to have been composed by Anna Messer on her deathbed, and that it was still being sung in 1936, 63 years after Messer's reported death. It's insipid enough to come from a dying girl -- but much too cutesy, I think. - RBW
File: ThBa177
===
NAME: Mother Jones (I): see The Death of Mother Jones (File: Grnw154)
===
NAME: Mother, He's Going Away
DESCRIPTION: Mother: Don't cry for that liar Barney; remember "how he served poor Kate Kearney." Nelly: He's going away; I dreamed of his ghost. Mother: All the better; remember you protested when he courted Jinny M'Cray last week. Nelly: He's going away ...
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1885 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.28(5a/b) view 2 of 8)
KEYWORDS: dialog love separation mother rake ghost
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
O'Conor, p. 71, "Mother, He's Going Away" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.28(5a/b) view 2 of 8, "Mother, He's Going Away", Richard March & Co (London), 1877-1884 
File: OCon071
===
NAME: Mother, Is the Battle Over?
DESCRIPTION: The boy asks, "Mother, is the battle over? Ten thousand have been slain, they say. Is my father coming? Tell me, Have the rebels gained the day?" The boy sees his mother crying, and assumes his father is dead. At last mother admits the truth
AUTHOR: Henry Werner
EARLIEST_DATE: 1863
KEYWORDS: father battle death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 243, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (1 text)
JHCox 75, "Mother, Is the Battle Over?" (1 text)
DT, BTTLOVER*
Roud #5462
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Does Your Mother Know You're Out" (floating lyrics)
File: R243
===
NAME: Mother, May I Go to Swim
DESCRIPTION: "Mother, may I go out to swim? Yes, my darling daughter. Hang your clothes on a hickory limb But don't go near the water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses clothes nonballad river
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
BrownIII 325, "Mother, May I Go to Swim" (1 text)
Randolph 873, "The Alphabet Song" (6 texts, 6 tunes, the "A" text has this verse)
Opie-Oxford2 360, "Mother may I go and bathe?" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #879, p. 327, "(Mother, may I go out to swim?)"
DT, (DRLDAUGH -- probably a composed song borrowing this stanza)
Roud #3303
RECORDINGS:
May Kennedy McCord, "The Singing Alphabet" (AFS; on LC12 -- the recording cited by Randolph)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Alphabet Songs" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is primarily a floating verse, but apparently exists also independently (as in Brown), so here it files. Most of the entries listed are songs borrowing the verse.
The Baring-Goulds quote Ditchfield to the effect that this goes back to the sixth century writer Hierocles. The joke may be the same, but I strongly doubt literary dependence. - RBW

File: Br3325
===
NAME: Mother, Mother, Make My Bed
DESCRIPTION: A young woman, dying, sends for her true love. He hastens home, but finds her already dead. He kisses her, and dies the next day. They are buried side by side, and a rose and briar twine over their grave.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Vaughan Williams/Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: love death dying magic lover burial
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Bronson 65, "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, of which #4, #5, #7, #8, #10, and perhaps #9 and #11 are this piece)
MacSeegTrav 22, "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 71, "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 137-139, "Laidy Maisry" (1 text, which despite the title appears closer to this than to "Lady Maisry," though it lacks the "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" verse)
ST VWL071 (Partial)
Roud #45
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lady Maisry" [Child 65] (floating verses)
cf. "Lord Lovel" [Child 75] (floating verses)
cf. "Bonny Barbara Allen" [Child 84] (floating verses)
NOTES: This ballad shares verses with the cross-referenced titles; it's essentially a composite of floating verses and plot elements. -PJS
The problems with this song are myriad, though enough versions exist that it must be treated as a separate piece (at least; *I* say so; Roud lumps it with "Lady Maisry"). It shares material with many ballads (MacColl & Seeger see contacts with no fewer than ten Child ballads in their version, though some of these are stretched or verses found floating in several Child ballads -- e.g. the contact with "Little Musgrave" is the stanza "The first two miles the little boy walked, and the next two miles he run," which is an element which can float easily).
The real difficulty is, every version seems fragmentary. We don't know why the young woman is dying. If the ultimate source were "Lady Maisry," she is to be executed; if "Lord Lovel," she is dying for love. But neither explanation gains any support from the extant texts, implying that the cause of death was never stated. Paul Stamler suggests the possibility of plague. I doubt we'll ever know.
It is worth noting that Bronson has thirteen tunes listed under "Lady Maisry," and that eight of them (#4-11) belong to his "C" group, and that *all* of the texts of "Mother, Mother" are in the C group, and *every* song in the C group is either "Mother Mother" or a fragment which could be either song. Thus "Mother Mother" in fact appears to have its own distinct tune group. - RBW
File: VWL071
===
NAME: Mother's Admonition, The: see As I Roved Out (I) (Tarry Trousers II) (File: LoF014)
===
NAME: Mother's Malison, The, or Clyde's Water [Child 216]
DESCRIPTION: Willie wishes to visit his lover. His mother bids him stay, and curses him to drown in Clyde if he goes. Willie, trusting in his horse, goes anyway, but his lover's mother bids him away. Returning, he drowns in Clyde; his lover drowns as she seeks him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1800
KEYWORDS: river death love drowning curse horse
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Child 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (3 texts)
Bronson 216, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (14 versions+2 in addenda)
Leach, pp. 572-575, "The Mother's Malison, or, Clyde's Water" (1 text)
OBB 90, "Clyde Water" (1 text)
DT 216, CLYDWATR*
Roud #91
RECORDINGS:
Stanley Robertson, "The Clattering of the Clyde Waters" (on Voice03)
John Strachan, "Clyde's Water (The Mother's Malison)" (on FSBBAL2) {Bronsons #12.2}
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Annan Water"
cf. "Lord Derwentwater" [Child 208] (lyrics)
cf. "Ballad of the Drover (Death of Harry Dale)" (theme)
cf. "Martha Dexter" (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Drowned Lovers
File: C216
===
NAME: Motherless Child: see Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (File: LxU107)
===
NAME: Motherless Children
DESCRIPTION: "Nobody treat you like mother will when mother is dead." (Various surrogate parents are suggested, but the children "have no place to go." "Motherless children have a hard time when mother is gone.")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Recording, Blind Willie Johnson)
KEYWORDS: orphan mother nonballad family
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Botkin-SoFolklr, p. 761, "Motherless Children Sees a Hard Time" (1 text, 1 tune -- a lyric piece, but with enough common lyrics to apparently belong here)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 143-144, "(Motherless Children)" (1 text); pp. 269-270, "Motherless Children" (1 tune, partial text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 58, "Motherless Children" (1 text)
DT, MOTHRLSS*
Roud #16113
RECORDINGS:
Bessemer Melody Singers, "Motherless Children" (Victor V-38606, 1930; Bluebird B-5041 [as Bessemer Melody Boys], 1933)
The Blind Pilgrim, "Motherless Children" (Anchor 380, n.d.)
Carter Family, "Motherless Children" (Victor 23641, 1932; Bluebird B-5924, 1935; Montgomery Ward M-5010, 1936; rec. 1929)
Roscoe Holcomb, "Motherless Children" (on Holcomb2, HolcombCD1)
Joe, John & Janey Hunter & Mable Hillery, "Motherless Child" (on JohnsIsland1)
Blind Willie Johnson, "Mother's Children Have a Hard Time" (Columbia 14343-D, 1928; Vocalion 03021, 1935; rec. 1927; on BWJ02)
Blind Gussie Nesbitt, "Motherless Children" (Decca 7131, 1935)
Joshua White, "Motherless Children" (Banner 32859/Melotone 12786, 1933) (Musicraft 250 [as Josh White Trio], c. 1944)
File: BSoF761
===
NAME: Motherless Children Sees a Hard Time: see Motherless Children (File: BSoF761)
===
NAME: Mountain Dew, The: see Good Old Mountain Dew (File: LxA180)
===
NAME: Mountain Meadows Massacre, The [Laws B19]
DESCRIPTION: A wagon train is attacked by (Mormons disguised as) Indians. They surrender, but are slaughtered the moment they lay down their weapons. The assault is blamed on Brigham Young
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: fight death Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 11, 1857 - The assault at Mountain Meadows. All members of the caravan except 17 small children are said to have been killed. John D. Lee, reported to have led the assault, was executed Mar 23, 1877
FOUND_IN: US(NW,Ro,SW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws B19, "The Mountain Meadows Massacre"
Burt, pp. 117-120, "Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1 composite text, 1 tune, plus a loose stanza about the punishment of Lee)
DT 386, MTMDOW
Roud #3240
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lee's Ferry" (character of John D. Lee)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Ballad of John D. Lee
NOTES: Almost from the moment Joseph Smith announced his first revelation, the Mormon Church suffered persecution. After all, they added new sacred scriptures (something no significant sect had tried for roughly 1500 years), and they produced a doctrine of salvation completely unlike anything in orthodox scripture.
And this was even before polygamy became an issue! Gradually, after their colonies headed west; where, in 1833, they became victim of a massacre organized by Missouri's then-Lieutenant Governor Lilburn Boggs (see Fawn M. Brodie, _No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith_, second edition, 1971; I use the 1995 Vintage books edition; pp. 136-137). Moving once again, they had built a city in Nauvoo, Illinois, where leader Smith was lynched. This, even more than the massaacre at Independence, was psychologically very significant; as Wallace Stegner writes (p. 17  of _The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail_, University of Nebraska Press, 1964, 1981), it "made zealots out of men and women who might otherwise have been only die-hards," while  Dale L. Walker, _Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West_, Forge, 1997, p. 209, observes that it "set in stone the Mormon hatred for the Gentile and gave the Saints a thirst for revenge that found a slaking thirteen years later."
Smith had also established a dangerous precedent of authoritarianism; although Stegner, p. 24, cites Fawn Brodie to the effect that the problems the Mormons had in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois all arose from different causes, he goes on on pp. 25-27 to tell how Smith harassed and persecuted some of his own follower who disagreed with him. It was one of these internal quarrels that resulted in Smith's imprisonment and thus led to his lynching.
Smith was succeeded by Brigham Young (for whom see "Brigham Young"), and his solution was to head farther west, away from the rest of America, to the Great Salt Lake area, which would become the land of Deseret. The reasoning was that no one would want to follow them there; not only was it a remote and inhospitable land, it was at that time Mexican rather than United States territory.
It wasn't far enough. The Mexican War gave the United States control of that land. And whereas Mexican control had been lax (indeed, non-existent), the United States wanted to use the land. They sent the explorer John Williams Gunnison to survey the area. In the process, he met and observed the Mormons in Deseret. And he published a book: _The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, In the Valley of The Great Salt Lake: A History of Their Rise and Progress, Peculiar Doctrines, Present Condition, and Prospects, Derived from Personal Observation, During a Residence Among Them_.
The book came out in 1852 (see Sally Denton, _American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 11, 1857_, Secker & Warburg, 2003, p. 65). Denton believes that Gunnison was relatively sympathetic to the Mormons: If left alone, he expected their church to decay due to its internal contradictions. (Obviously he hadn't met many fundamentalists.)
But Gunnison's book changed the whole debate. The Federal governor had made Brigham Young governor of Utah Territory (Denton, p. 66), but it didn't know much about the Mormons. Gunnison's publication made it clear: Mormons were polygamous. It didn't sit well with the regular population.
Gradually the Mormons and the government started heating up their own cold war. In 1853, the Federal Government sent Gunnison on another surveying expedition in Utah. He thought the Mormons would let him work as before. They didn't. Someone shot him down, along with most of his party, at the Sevier River on October 26, 1853 (Denton, p. 87, has no question that it was the Mormons. However, Harold Schindler, _Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God/Son of Thunder_ (with illustrations by Dale Bryner), University of Utah Pres, 1966, 1983 (I use the 1993 paperback edition), p. 202, attributes the deed to "Pahvant braves." Schindler notes several other sources who, like Denton, attribute the crime to Mormons, citing only one contrary source, but it appears to me that all the claims are a bit vague).
This by itself did not cause war between the Mormons and the United States. But as gory details emerged (some of them perhaps exaggerated), the federal government decided it had to act. With the Mormons giving trouble for other reasons, they became the target: By 1857, federal authority had almost ceased to exist in Utah, and the president Buchanan ordered the army to suppress Brigham Young's government (Denton, p. 108; Walker, p. 210). Unfortunately, the army would prove singularly ill-equipped for this task.
As this was going on, discipline among the Mormons was becoming more vigorous, in part because of bad harvests and the unrest they brought; to backslide was to risk death (Denton, pp. 104-107). And in 1857, Brigham Young declared that he would decide which Federal laws were enforced in his domain (Denton, p. 108). As the government became more insistent, Young would make what amounted to a declaration of independence (Denton, p. 113).
To be fair, his authoritarianism "was strongly approved by the Mormons when they found President Pierce [who served 1853-1857] appointing political hacks of bad personal character, prejudiced and quarrelsome, to executive and judicial offices in the Territory" (see Allan Nevins, in _The Emergence of Lincoln, Volume I: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos 1857-1859_, Scribner's, 1950, p. 317). But Young's declaration was still an obvious attempt to block enforcement of Federal law in Deseret (Nevins, p. 318). Even Schindler, who thinks the whole thing was a case of Federal misinterpretation, admits that Young said, "Give us ten years of peace, and we will ask no odds of Uncle Sam or the devil" (Schindlet, p. 248.
Many think that Young's declaration was just a negotiating ploy. But Young was too smart to run a pure bluff. Young sent out orders to leaders in other communities to count up their arms and prepare to fight (Denton, p. 116); all able-bodied men were drafted into a militia. Many, including John D. Lee, would take this very seriously indeed, calling the instructions "sacred commands" (Denton, p. 117). The stage was set for the Mormon War (or, as it is also known, the Utah War).
Denton's account of what follows is somewhat confusing, because she describes the Mountain Meadows Massacre before she really explains the Mormon War. But the Mormon War is crucial: At the time of the Massacre, the Mormons were threatened with assault from the east, and any "Gentiles" among them might be spies, and any supplies they gave them would not be available during the coming fight. Indeed, even as the Massacre was starting, Brigham Young was negotiating with a federal officer, knowing full well that the U. S. Army was coming -- and that it had a very big supply problem (Denton, pp. 164-165). On September 15, Young declared a scorched earth policy against the Federals. By the end of the month, Mormon guerillas were attacking army outposts (Denton, p. 168)
It was just too bad that one of the wagon routes to California ran right through the heart of Mormon territory.
One of the wagon trains taking the so-called "Southern Trail" through Mormon territory was the Fancher party, bound from Arkansas to California. The Fancher brothers, Alexander and John, had moved to California as early as 1850 and started a ranch (Denton, pp. 95-96). They made several trips to ferry cattle to California. Alexander's 1857 expedition was expected to be their last.
We don't have exact details on the Fancher party, but it included a number of families, and property estimated to be worth over $2500, plus cash on the order of $100,000 (Denton, p. 100; Walker, p. 213). There were at least 30, and perhaps more than 40, wagons in the train. There are estimated to have been about fifty men, forty women, and fifty chldren (Walker, p. 212), and perhaps close to a thousand cattle.
There were several overland routes to California, all difficult due to the dry and deserted nature of the lands west of the Mississippi. The Fancher party from Arkansas could have taken the "California Trail," but instead chose to head up the Arkansas River, then north to meet the Platte at Fort Kearney, following the North Platte to Fort Laramie, then through South Pass to Salt Lake City and down through the Great Basin. The latter part of the route was all Mormon territory -- which meant, on the one hand, that there was water and forage available, but on the other hand, that there were a lot of chances for conflict. (See the map in Denton, pp. 12-13).
The Fancher party hoped to simply pass through Mormon territory, purchasing supplies along the way -- but quickly found that the Mormons closed their doors (Denton, p. 119). We don't know precisely what happened in this period (and, according to Denton, p. 121, most of the reports we do have are somewhat propagandistic). It appears they were forced to resort to eating the cattle they had hoped to use to make their fortunes in California (Denton, p. 123). They circled their wagons at night to guard against attack, even as some Mormons, frightened of the Church's strict regimentation, tried to join them.
Nonetheless, the party almost made it through. Mountain Meadows is in southern Utah; the area is now a national forest, near the town of Enterprise, just east of the Nevada border and almost due north of Saint George, which is on the Arizona border.
They picked a bad place to camp. Mountain Meadows is just what the name implies, a relatively open field surrounded by high rocks on all sides; there are only two exits, and the rocks provided excellent cover for an attack on a train in the meadow (Denton, p. 129). There is water, but the Fancher train inexplicably camped at some distance from it. The camp simply could not be defended for an extended period (Walker, p. 218).
On September 7, 1857, the Fancher Train was attacked by people who apparently were dressed as Indians. Twenty or so members of the expedition were killed or injured in the first assault. The Fancher party then circled their wagons (Denton, p. 128), but they had no water supply, little food, limited ammunition, and no way to escape. When they tried to send out young girls to get water, the attackers shot them (Denton, p. 130). They tried to send out messengers seeking help; the only result of that was that several ended up dead and one returned to the camp wounded (and, according to Denton, pp. 130, 132,  with news that the attackers were Mormons, though it's not clear how she could possibly know this). Those who were left prepared to die; even if one of the messengers made it through, it would be a week or more before rescue arrived.
John D. Lee then came into the camp under a flag of truce. Denton, p. 134, says that he claimed the train needed to appease the Indians, and could survive by surrendering their weapons and cattle. (This even though the local Indians, the Paiutes, were relatively peaceful and ill-armed. The Mormons would later blame them even so. The Indians admit to having taken some of the artifacts, but deny participation in the actual assault. Their actual role remains disputes; Denton seems to think they were not involved, but Walker and others think they were) After much discussion, seeing no alternative, the survivors gave in (Denton, pp. 135-136).
The Mormon leaders, including Lee, broke them up into smaller parties -- and slaughtered them (Walker, p. 221). It was pure and simple murder; the only survivors were children under the age of eight, most of whom saw their parents and older siblings killed before their eyes. Supposedly 121 people were killed (Walker, p. 222). Who gave the order for the murders is not clear -- it may well have been Lee -- but the Mormon soldiers instantly obeyed (Denton, p. 137-143, which gives brutal details of the treatment of the prisoners).
Who was this man who was responsible for what Denton, p. 241, calls "the largest civilian atrocity to occur on American soil" prior to 1995 and the Oklahoma City bombing? (A disputed claim, but it probably does qualify as the largest white-on-white civilian atrocity in that time.) John D. Lee (1812-1877) had joined the Mormon church in 1838 after fighting in the Black Hawk War (Walker, pp. 208-209). He was recruited into the Danites, the society of vigilantes who fought the Mormon's enemies (for other tales of the Danites, see "Old Port Rockwell").
Lee was one of Brigham Young's earliest lieutenants, who gave his allegiance to the prophet at the time when Young's power was still uncertain. Lee was in effect Young's adopted son (Walker, p. 214), for a time signing himself "J. D. L. Young." Despite some minor quarrels (e.g. over a woman both wanted as a wife) he would surely obey the prophet almost without question (Walker, p. 215) -- a significant point in assessing the conflicting blame for the Massacre.
When word of the Massacre came out, the government had to figure out how to respond. There were two basic questions: Who was responsible for the initial attack (Indians or Mormons)? And who was responsible for the Massacre (John D. Lee or someone higher in the church)?
There isn't much evidence. Federal officers took testimony from the surviving children, but all were very young, and many were traumatized; it is very likely that their testimony would today be considered tainted. The Mormon participants reportedly swore vows of secrecy.
Opinions have shifted over the years. The very first investigator was appointed by Brigham Young himself, who had promised the incoming governor that he would look into the Massacre (Denton, p. 182) -- but Young chose as his investigator George A. Smith, was one of those who had helped whip up the people behind the Massacre (Denton, p. 186). Smith's report is so far off the mark that it dates the massacre to September 21-25 rather than September 7-11, and it places almost the entire blame on the Indians (Denton, pp. 186-187).
A non-Mormon investigator, Jacob Forney, set out to investigate further. He recovered 17 children and much property in Mormon hands, and his 1859 report placed the blame squarely in the hands of the Mormons (Denton, pp. 192-194). And, indeed, forensic examination from that day to this show that firearms caused most if not all the deaths, confirming that the Indians were not responsible for the slaughter.
As for what historians have written, the earliest description of the massacre in my library is from J. Franklin Jameson, _Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895_, Puritan Press, 1894 (yes, it was copyrighted a year before the last year it allegedly covered!), p. 433, reports that the emigrants "were brutally murdered at Mountain Meadow, Utah, by a band of Indians, who were incited thereto by Lee, a Mormon fanatic." Note the complete absence of mention of anyone other than Lee!
Nevins, p. 322, reports that "In September, a party of one hundred and thirty-seven California-bound emigrants passing through southern Utah had been all but wiped out by a Mormon-Indian attack in the Mountain Meadows massacre." He as in a footnote, "Neither Young nor the Mormon church approved this murderous attack on the Missouri emigrant train."
Stegner, p. 277, comments, "The massacre of the Fancher party at Mountain Meadows in 1857 may have been, though it probably was not, planned with the knowledge of Brigham Young."
Walker's is the strangest account of all: On p. 216, he tells of the killers sending to Brigham Young for instructions, but then going ahead with the killings -- even as Young sent orders to leave the settlers alone. This makes no sense, unless it was a way for Young to establish plausible deniability. Walker, p. 224, adds that Young certainly knew about the massacre before he officially acknowledged guilt.
Juanita Brooks, probably the most careful historian of the event, admits that we simply can't be certain about what happened; there just isn't enough information.
Yet Denton seems to possess no doubts whatsoever that Mormons did it -- and with the full knowledge of Brigham Young (presenting her arguments on pp. 153-159). This even though she confesses that the local leaders argued long and hard about what to tell him (Denton, pp. 147-148). And the planning seems to have been imperfect; while many of the attackers disguised themselves as Indians, there was no scheme to hide the bodies, except to leave them to the crows and wolves (Denton, pp. 149-150).
(I wonder a bit about Denton's motives. The dust jacket says she is "of Mormon descent" -- but she is not a practicing Mormon. She seems to have a strong prejudice against the church.)
Part of Denton's case seems pretty airtight: The massacre was the action of the Mormons, not the local Indians. Modern examination of the bodies -- though it was quickly halted by Mormon authorities -- seems sufficient to establish this.
The case against Young, though, rests on a very slender basis: The testimony of John D. Lee, published after his death and possibly fiddled with by its editor. There is also a "John D. Lee scroll," which if authentic would seem to confirm his guilt (Denton, pp. 242-243), but all that can be proved about it is that it seems to be the right age.
It is of course possible -- even likely -- that there is additional information in Mormon records, which are not accessible to the public; this would explain why the Mormons seem always to try to quash investigations into the matter. These may even include the journals of John D. Lee, which he reported giving to the church for safekeeping, and which they did not return when asked.
The only conclusion I can make is that it would be very hard to convict Young based on Denton's evidence; at best, he might be labelled an accomplice after the fact. And I would hate to be the prosecuting attorney on that one (even if you ignore the likelihood that Young's followers would have lynched any lawyer who brought the case).
In any case, President Buchanan had offered a near-blanket amnesty for all events of the Mormon War if the Mormons would just back down (Denton, p. 179). Which, for the most part, they did. Buchanan then took away the rights of the military investigators to seek information, stalling any investigation (Denton, p. 202). National dislike of polygamy, and other details, meant that Utah was kept a territory for decades after it had met the normal criteria for statehood, but once the Mormons eliminated polygamy and obtained guarantees of religious autonomy, statehood followed.
Which does not mean that the participants of the massacre were entirely safe. The Mormon church, after all, had every reason to want to clear its name. And once the trasncontinental railroad was completed, it was much easier for journalists and others to head west and see what they could learn. For many years, Brigham Young remained close to John D. Lee (Denton, pp. 209-211), but eventually started to distance himself from Lee and the other leaders of the massacre. Lee and another Massacre leader, Isaac Haight, were excommunicated in 1870 (Denton, p. 214; Walker, p. 224).
Eventually Lee was pushed out of Utah altogether, spending some time with John Wesley Powell as the latter explored the Colorado River. He went on to found and operate Lee's Ferry (yes, the Lee's Ferry of the song of that name; Denton, p. 218). He was forced to sell his property in Utah  (Denton, p. 215).
When, in 1874, the federal government took over direct control of justice in Utah (Denton, p. 219), it was the beginning of the end for Lee. He was arrested in that year. Initially, he stated that the Church, and Brigham Young, had no role in the massacre (Denton, pp. 219, 221).
What happened next is fascinating. Even though Lee had been excommunicated, the Mormon Church provided two lawyers for his 1875 trial. Lee himself had three (Denton, p. 221).
Denton thinks these two groups were at cross-purposes. The church lawyers had as their chief purpose to protect the church. Lee's lawyers wanted to keep him alive -- which would be very hard to do unless they could implicate the church. (After all, Lee had already given a partial confession.)
The 1875 trial was defective in many ways. No testimony was taken from Indians. Many Mormons were subpoenaed; fewer than half appeared. One of those who avoided testifying was Brigham Young (Denton, p. 225). There was conflicting testimony about who did what. Eventually the trial went to the jury, which -- being part Mormon, part Gentile -- deadlocked (Denton, p. 226); the Mormon jurors apparently wanted Lee acquitted, the Gentiles wanted him convicted (Walker, p. 226).
If Denton is right (p. 228), the next step was simply despicable. A new U. S. attorney reached a deal with Brigham Young: Young would supply all needed witnesses to convict Lee -- as long as the attorney didn't do anything which would implicate the greater church. Since even Denton admits there are no records of this deal, we can hardly be sure of it. We can be sure that Lee's church-appointed lawyers withdrew from the case, and that the U. S. attorney would earn a reprimand over the matter (Denton, p. 232). We also know that none of the others we know to have taken part in the massacre was ever brought to trial (Walker, p. 226).
In 1876, Lee's second trial began -- this time with an all-Mormon jury. It was a much briefer trial: Seven prosecution witnesses, all Mormons, all of whom testified voluntarily. The defence called no witnesses at all (Denton, p. 229). Not surprisingly, Lee was found guilty of first degree murder, with the jury needing only three and a half hours to convict. The judge sentenced him to execution (Denton, p. 230; Walker, p. 226); Lee chose a firing squad as a method of execution (Walker, p. 227).
Denton notes the interesting point that, at this time, the Mormons practiced beheading as a means of "blood atonement" -- a sort of release from sin. She thinks that Lee, by rejecting the option of beheading, was stating that he did not think his actions needed atonement. In support of this, we note that Lee would write while in prison, I have been treacherously betrayed and sacrificed in a most cowardly manner by those who should have been my friends" (Walker, p. 227).
(I must admit to extreme disquiet about the whole affair. There can be no doubt that Lee was a mass murderer, and that he defiled the names "Christian," "American," and "human being." So Lee deserved everything the law could do to him, and more. Still, the Mormon practice of "blood atonement" -- ritual beheading -- surely made it easier to induce the attackers to massacre their victims; a church that's run like a Mafia shouldn't be surprised that its people turn into barbarians! Certainly Lee's trial should not have been conducted in Utah, there should have been no Mormons on the jury, and the parties involved should have taken real testimony. If there is a Hell, I can only hope Lee and the prosecuting attorney are confined together....)
Lee would write various statements about his actions as the appeals process worked itself out.  Eventually, he delivered a large manuscript to his lawyer W. W. Bishop; in it, Lee would aim the blame directly at Brigham Young (Denton, p. 237). Lee was executed March 23, 1877 at the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
In an interesting coincidence, Lee predicted before his end that Brigham Young would die within six months of his own execution. On August 23, 1877, Young took sick with an illness that killed him six days later (Denton, p. 238).
Fred W. Allsopp, _Folklore of Romantic Arkansas_, Volume II (1931), pp. 323-324, does not offer a text of this song, but reports the Arkansas belief that the Massacre was "the sequel to the killing in Arkansas of the Mormon Elder, Parley P. Pratt." Pratt had become involved with an already-married women, Elenore McLean. After a long and complicated pursuit across the country, McLean's husband succeeded in killing Pratt near Van Buren, Arkansas. It was extrajudicial -- but it was also popular; the locals had already hauled Pratt before the law on trumped-up charges (Denton, pp. 110-111). The basic reason for the hullabaloo was polygamy, but Denton, p. 112, says that the Mormons viewed it as religious persecution. Hence their particular anger with the Arkansans of the Fancher party.
(Denton does not say so, but this is, I think, an argument against the guilt of Brigham Young. He was too smart a politician to let things like that influence him.)
This song appears to be generally accurate in its details: The Fancher train of "thirty wagons" was attacked by "Lee's Mormon bullets" and by people "In Indian garb and colors." ÒWhile Lee... his word to them did give That if their arms they would give up He'd surely let them live." "When once they had given up their arms... They rushed on them." "Their property was divided Among this bloody crew." The one interesting element is found in what is the final stanza of Burt's and Fife's texts: "By order of their president This awful deed was done... His name was Brigham Young." This, of course, is the point still in dispute -- but this verse has been sung by Mormons themselves!
Sundry references appear in the literature to a song, "The Ballad of John D. Lee." Denton, for instance, has a scrap of it on pp. 209-210. But almost all of her words are found in either the Burt or the Fife text of "The Mountain Meadows Massacre." Until something clearer comes along, I am assuming these are the same song. - RBW
File: LB19
===
NAME: Mountain Men, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer is one of Dwyer's mountain men. The Yeos can't trap us, he says. "The people all bless us, for many a cabin's left safe and secure" We are few but we control the mountains and, while we have strength, "we'll keep the old cause living still"
AUTHOR: William Rooney (source: Moylan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1887 (Madden's _Literary Remains of the United Irishmen of 1798_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS:  rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic 
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 146, "The Mountain Men" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Michael Dwyer (I)" (subject of Michael Dwyer) and references there
NOTES: Moylan: "Michael Dwyer was a Wicklow man, a member of the United Irishmen, who fought during the 1798 rebellion, and who waged a guerilla war in the Wicklow mountains for several years afterwards." - BS
"Yeos" = yeomen, the British militia. Contrary to this song, they did catch up with Dwyer -- or, at least, put him under so much pressure that he gave in and allowed himself to be transported. For more details, see "Michael Dwyer (I)" or Michael Dwyer (II)." - RBW
File: Moyl146
===
NAME: Mountain Stream, The: see Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun) (File: K136)
===
NAME: Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow, The
DESCRIPTION: 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: 
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Where the Moorcocks Grow (The Mountain Stream; With My Dog and Gun)
File: K136
===
NAME: Mountaineer's Courtship: see Buffalo Boy (File: LoF162)
===
NAME: Mountains of Mourne, The
DESCRIPTION: The Irishman in London writes home to Mary to tell her of the city. He describes how the local women dress (or, rather, don't dress). He watches the King of England. He wishes he were home with Mary "where the Mountains of Mourse sweep down to the see"
AUTHOR: Percy French (died 1920)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Peter Dawson)
KEYWORDS: love home separation homesickness clothes royalty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1903 - Visit of King Edward VII to "Erin's Green Shore" (mentioned in the song)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MTMOURNE*
RECORDINGS:
Peter Dawson, "The Mountains O' Mourne"(HMV [UK] B-3772, 1931; HMV [UK] B-9114, 1940)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Green Hills of Antrim" (tune, lyrics)
cf. "Canny Newcastle" (plot)
SAME_TUNE:
The Green Hills of Antrim (File: HHH606)
NOTES: Several sources say that the tune to this is properly known as "Carrighdhoun," but it is now much better known under French's title. The tune is reported by Robert Gogan, _130 Great Irish Ballads_ (third edition, Music Ireland, 2004), p. 12, to have been supplied by one Houston Collison.
The dating of the poem is more problematic. Gogan says that French is "reputed to have written it in 1896 on a very clear day when he could see the Mountains of Mourne from the Hill of Howth in North Dublin."
And yet there is the mention of England's King having "visited Erin's green shore." Now note that, in 1896, England *had* no King; the ruling queen was Victoria, and her husband Albert had died in the 1860s, when French was still a boy too young to notice girls. The first English King to visit Ireland in modern times was Edward VII, who did not ascend until 1901.
Edward VII did visit Ireland, but the year was 1903. So how could this song have been written in 1896?
Whatever the explanation, Edward's visit had little real effect; five of six histories I checked had no mention of the event (and some other reference apparently had the wrong date, since earlier versions of this Index gave the date as 1905).
But his trip did show an interesting change in Irish attitudes: quite a few radical nationalists were very upset about the visit, but the ordinary people seem to have loved it; Robert Kee (_The Bold Fenian Men_, being volume II of _The Green Flag_, p. 154) calls it an "outstanding success," and cites newspaper accounts of how he was greeted. Compare the song's mention of the singer "cheer[ing] with the rest."
Too bad the Easter Rebellion, and the British over-reaction, did such a find job of messing that up.
There was an interesting article about Percy French, who was an Irish-born engineer and entertainer, in _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 32, #4 (1987), pp, 18-20, It quotes extensively from James N. Healy, _Percy French and His Songs_, 1966, a book which I have not seen. - RBW
File: DTmtmour
===
NAME: Mountains of Pomeroy, The
DESCRIPTION: A maid meets "her gallant Reynardine, on the mountains of Pomeroy." He is an outlaw "but keeps the flag of freedom safe." She is afraid for him. Her kinsmen would kill him. She leaves "her cruel kin and home" to go to him but drowns in a storm
AUTHOR: George Sigerson (1838-1925) (source: Celtic Lyrics site)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1991 (Tunney-SongsThunder)
KEYWORDS: love drowning storm Ireland patriotic outlaw derivative
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 146-147, "The Mountains of Pomeroy" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Reynardine" [Laws P15] (subject)
NOTES: This version is almost exactly George Sigerson's as quoted at "The Mountains Of Pomeroy" at The Celtic Lyrics site, copyright The Celtic Lyrics Collection 2000-2004. Steve Roud's _Folk Song Index_ reference for "Renaldine" makes it appear that this version is also in Flanders, Ballard, Brown and Barry _The New Green Mountain Songster_.
Pomeroy is in County Tyrone, Ireland. - BS
The description of Reynardine immediately made me think of the resistance fighter Michael Dwyer, who after the collapse of the 1798 rebellion organized a resistance movement in Wicklow, then was transported to Australia after giving up to the British. (For more background, see "Michael Dwyer (I)").  would explain why the girl has to cross the ocean to see him. The problem is that Wicklow is in the southeast of Ireland, Ppmeroy is in Ulster, about ten miles northwest of Dungannon or twice that from Armagh.
On the other hand, Pomeroy is not mountainous. (Fermoy, mentioned in some other versions of "Reynardine," is in south Ireland, on the Blackwater a few dozen miles north of Cork, an is in a much more hilly region.) So I think we have to conclude that this song is not intended to be "real" -- but it may have been meant to remind listeners of both Reynardine and Dwyer. - RBW
File: TST146
===
NAME: Mountblairy
DESCRIPTION: "Mountblairy thy woods and walks are green ... Thy pleasant scenes in after years I'll lovingly review ... when I am far from you." The singer says Mountblairy's "trees can tell a tale ... but keep thee ever silent ... And I will ever love you."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: lyric home
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 509, "Mountblairy" (1 text)
Roud #5993
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mountblairy (509) is at coordinate (h5-6,v7) on that map [roughly 35 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: GrD3509
===
NAME: Mountsandel
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the "soft sylvan splendour" of Mountsandel. Wandering the land reminds him of childhood. He says that friendships grow in the central town of Coleraine
AUTHOR: George Graham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H817, p. 169, "Mountsandel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13483
File: HHH817
===
NAME: Mourner, You Shall Be Free (Moanish Lady)
DESCRIPTION: A complex family, with no clear dividing line, known by the key chorus line "You shall be free When the good lord sets you free" (or "calls you home"). Verses can be serious or silly ("Oh! there was a moanish lady Lived in a moanish land...")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious nonsense parody humorous floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Sandburg, p. 11, "Moanish Lady!" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadWeep, pp. 110-112, "Mona (You Shall Be Free)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 254-258, "When de Good Lord Sets You Free" (1 text, 1 tune -- an immense composite containing elements of "Moanish Lady," "Talking Blues," and probably other materials, to the tune of "Mourner, You Shall Be Free")
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 163-164, "Old Marse John" (1 text, 1 tune, with this chorus and sundry floating verses: Ole Marse John and the mule he is riding till it dies; the singer standing on the corner doing no harm; the singer in the henhouse hearing the chicken sneeze); p. 172, "Po' Mournah" (1 fragment); p. 176, "Great Big Nigger Sittin' on a Log" (1 text, with this chorus and floating verses: Jakey hunting coons, the Big Nigger shooting at a hog; an humorous description of an ususual girl); p. 194, "Fragment from Pore Mournah" (1 text); p. 197, "There Was an Old Nigger, His Name Was Dr. Peck" (1 text, which uses this chorus); pp. 224-225, (no title), with this chorus and the "My old mistus promised me" and "Some folks say a nigger won't steal" lyrics; p. 235, with a variant on "Ain't no use me working so hard"
Roud #11685
RECORDINGS:
The Blue Chips, "Oh! Monah!" (ARC 6-09-55, 1936)
Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers, "You Shall Be Free, Monah" (Bluebird B-6694, 1936)
Carolina Tar Heels, "When the Good Lord Sets You Free" (Victor 20931, 1927)
Four Dusty Travelers, "Po' Mourner" (Columbia 14477-D, 1929; on VocalQ2)
Lions Quartet, "Moanin' Lady" (Columbia 1167-D, 1927)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Shout Mourner, You Shall Be Free" (Vocalion 5007, 1926)
Bill & Belle Reed, "You Shall Be Free" (Columbia 15336-D, 1928)
Frank Stokes & Dan Sane, "You Shall" (Paramount 12518, 1927; on Cornshuckers2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. ""Uncle Eph" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Talking Blues" (sometimes sung to a tune similar to this)
cf. "Some Folks Say that a Preacher Won't Steal" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Deacon's Calf" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: This is a complicated group, and the problem is not lessened by the way editors have handled it. The first three text I indexed, for instance, were all messed with by editors. Sandburg, e.g., derived his "Moanish Lady" from the spiritual "Mourner, You Shall Be Free," but printed only one verse because "the music is too superbly serious to have cheap lines."
It appears, however, to be the same as Spaeth's song about a no-count who hangs around rail yards and sponges off his girl, giving us a whole family of knock-offs.
Fred W. Allsop, in _Folklore of Romantic Arkansas_, Volume II, p. 161, says Moanish Lady "has been heard often in negro barber shops." Whatever that tells us. - RBW
"Moanish Lady" is derived from "Mourner, You Shall Be Free," and so is "You Shall," but the latter is quite a different song, with a different melody, having in common only the derivation.... [The hymn] seems to have spawned quite a few [parodies], mostly in African-American tradition, but even Bob Dylan created one. - PJS
For the moment, I'm still lumping the family. It's just too messy. - RBW
File: San011
===
NAME: Mourner's Comfort, The: see Boundless Mercy (Drooping Souls, No Longer Grieve) (File: Br3528)
===
NAME: Mourning Souls
DESCRIPTION: "Ah, poor souls, why cast you down, And why art thou so sad?" The sinner confesses being bound down by his body and his sins; his soul confesses "its ruined state," it prays to Jesus, and is set free
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Belden, p. 466, "Mourning Souls" (1 text)
Roud #7955
File: Beld466
===
NAME: Mouse's Courting Song, The: see Frog Went A-Courting (File: R108)
===
NAME: Move Along, 'Gator: see Haming on a Live Oak Log (Mister Gator) (File: JDM240)
===
NAME: Move, Members, Move
DESCRIPTION: "Move members move Daniel (x4)! Move till I get (there/home), Daniel (x4) Got on my little John shoes, Got on my little John shoes Daniel (x3), Shoes gonna rocka me home Daniel... Who want to buy this land Daniel...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1950 (recording, Rosie Hibler & family)
KEYWORDS: playparty
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 230-233, "Move, Members, Move" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #10958
RECORDINGS:
 Rosie Hibler & family, "Move Members Move" (on NFMAla2, NFMAfAm)
NOTES: The form of this song, and the references to Daniel, would seem to imply a religious theme. But there are no religious references, and none of the phrases are reminiscent of the Biblical stories of Daniel. - RBW
Despite the fact that Rosie Hibler's version appears in the series of recordings "Negro Folk Music of Alabama," she and her family were recorded in Mississippi. Just thought I'd mention it. - PJS
File: CNFM230
===
NAME: Moving On (The Bug-Out Ballad)
DESCRIPTION: "Hear the patter of running feet / It's the old First Cav in full retreat. / They're moving on; they'll soon be gone." The singer describes the unpleasant conditions in which he is fighting, and the many enemies approaching. He intends to head out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: Korean War
KEYWORDS: soldier war battle escape
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1950-1953 - Korean War
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 412-414, "Moving On" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, BUGOUT*
Roud #10360
NOTES: This parody was inspired by Hank Snow's immensely popular recording "Moving On." - EC
File: EM412
===
NAME: Moving Picture Cowboy: see Cowboy Again for a Day (File: FCW116)
===
NAME: Moving-On Song
DESCRIPTION: "Born in the middle of the afternoon In a horse-drawn wagon on the old A5." Wherever travelers stop, they are ordered away -- they lower the price of property, they have no work. "You'd better get born in someplace else, so move along, get along, SHIFT!"
AUTHOR: Ewan MacColl
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1961 (radio ballad, "The Traveling People")
KEYWORDS: Gypsy travel childbirth rejection money
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MOVEON
Roud #6852
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Stewart, "The Moving-On ong" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
NOTES: Although this is obviously a modern composed song, I was surprised to find what amount to two "field collections" -- by Sheila Stewart and Johnny Connors. Does that make it traditional? It would seem to imply at the very least that it touched a nerve. I am, very hesitantly, indexing it. - RBW
File: RcMovOn
===
NAME: Mower, The
DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a young woman; she has a small meadow needing mowing, it has never been mowed before. He mows all afternoon, but the grass remains standing; she tells him to sharpen his scythe, for the work's not finished
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (recording, Warde Ford)
KEYWORDS: sex virginity farming harvest work
FOUND_IN: Britain(England) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, THEMOWER
Roud #833
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "The Mowing of the Hay" (AFS 4200 B2, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
A.L. Lloyd, "The Mower" (on Lloyd 1) (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Next Market Day" (plot) and references there
cf. "One Man Shall Mow My Meadow" (imagery)
cf. "The Wanton Seed"
cf. "Mowing the Hay" (subject)
NOTES: Lloyd remarks that the song "often appeared on 19th century broadsides," but as he gives no further dates I've refrained from citing that as earliest date. - PJS
The more so since this image is quite a common one. - RBW
File: DTthemow
===
NAME: Mowing Machine, The
DESCRIPTION: The cowboy "used to go dashing," "But that was before they invented wire fences And started the cowboys to shoveling hay." He looks back to the good old days, curses the man who invented barbed wire, and requests a "mowing machine" for his tombstone
AUTHOR: Words: "Haywire Mac" McClintock
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1934 (recording, Charlie Marshall)
KEYWORDS: cowboy work technology
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 3, "The Mowing Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter) and references there
File: Ohr003
===
NAME: Mowing the Barley (Cold and Raw)
DESCRIPTION: A lawyer asks a pretty woman where she's going: "To my father a-mowing the barley." He propositions her; she scorns him, (telling him to keep his money for his wife at home). (He presses his case; she yields and marries "into a station above her")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1697 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 39(152)); 1699 ("Pills to Purge Melancholy"; a bawdy version)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction marriage rejection lawyer
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Sharp-100E 60, "Mowing the Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 61, "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, "Stingo, or The Oil Of Barley, or Cold And Raw" (1 tune)
BBI, ZN499, "Cold and Raw the North did blow"; cf. ZN2294, "Riding down a narrow lane, two or three hours after"
DT, MOWBRLY SOLDBRLY*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 281-282, "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" (1 text)
Roud #922
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Cold and Raw" (on Lloyd1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 39(152), "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotch-man Out-witted by the Country Damsel", P. Brooksby (London), 1683-1696; also Harding B 39(201)[almost entirely illegible], Douce Ballads 2(168a), Douce Ballads 3(70a), Vet. A3 b.43(13), Harding B 1(86), "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotch-man Out-witted by the Country Damsel"; Harding B 1(87), Harding B 11(2300), Harding B 11(2301), 2806 c.15(108)[almost entirely illegible], Harding B 26(413), Harding B 11(3867), 2806 b.11(138), Harding B 19(28), "[The] Maid That Sold Her Barley"
NLScotland, APS.4.84.18, "The Northern Ditty" or "The Scotchman Outwitted by a Country Damsel," unknown, 19C 
SAME_TUNE:
The Lusty Fryer of Flanders/Not long ago from hence I went (BBI ZN1898)
The Poor Contented Cuckold/Was e'er man so unfortunate (BBI ZN2731)
Roger's Renown..Fourth and Last Merry Ditty of Cold and Raw/Roger did a letter send (BBI ZN2302)
The Downright Wooing Of Honest John & Betty/Well met my pritty Betty (BBI ZN2778)
A General Summons ..Hen-Peck'd Frigate/Here is a summons for all honest men (BBI ZN1133)
The London Jilts Lamentation/Here is wonderful Strange News (BBI ZN1136)
The Miserable Mountebank/In a market town of late (BBI ZN1403)
The Wealthy Farmers Choice/Near a pleasant shady grove, in prime of summer weather (BBI ZN1863)
Up in the Morning Early (_Scots Musical Museum_ #140, probably a partial rewrite of this piece)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Cold and Raw
Lawyer Lee
The Maid Who Sold Her Barley
NOTES: Although this song is most famous as "Cold and Raw" (see the numerous broadsides using this tune), there are versions which do not use this phrase, so I chose the title "Mowing the Barley." In addition, the "Cold and raw" refrain apparently exists as ain independent nursery refrain; see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #414, p. 194, "(Cold and raw the north wind doth blow)"
There is a broadside, NLScotland APS.4.84.18, "The Northern Ditty; or The Scotchman Outwitted by a Country Lass," which begins with the words of this song, but the rest sounds like a "Baffled Knight" plot. The photograph of the sheet is largely illegible. - RBW
Sequels or answers arose early. Some of the "Northern Ditty" broadsides listed above have "a second part" (for example, Douce Ballads 3(70a) and Harding B 1(87)). 
See Bodleian, Don. b.13(12), "A third merry ditty of Cold and raw," J. Deacon (London), 1671-1704; Bodleian, Douce Ballads 2(187a), "Rogers Renown" or "The fourth and last merry ditty of Cold and raw," J. Blare (London), 1683-1706
Bodleian attributes its "The Northern Ditty" broadsides' authorship to Thomas D'Urfey. I don't find that attribution on the face of any of those broadsides. For information about Thomas D'Urfey see _The Contemplator's Short Biography of Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723)_ at the Contemplations from the Marianas Trench contemplator.com site. - BS
File: ShH60
===
NAME: Mowing the Hay
DESCRIPTION: Singer goes to Dublin to hire to mow hay. He is hired by a farmer for one thousand a year. He apparently meets a girl and gets consent of "daddy and mammy." They marry and "Whilst the money it will hold out, We'll make the old-tap-room shake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1985 (IRTravellers01)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage farming drink
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #16878
RECORDINGS:
Andy Cash, "Mowing the Hay" (on IRTravellers01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mower" (subject)
File: RcMowtHa
===
NAME: MP that Goes Shilly Shally, The
DESCRIPTION: An MP says he's a good Protestant but does not speak out or vote on critical issues. He won't insist on letting the Bible into school. "He hates the name of 'Orangeman,' 'They go it far too strong; They hit too hard at Popery, And that is very wrong!'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1987 (OrangeLark)
KEYWORDS: Ireland humorous nonballad political religious
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OrangeLark 30, "The MP that Goes Shilly Shally" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Lucy Long" (tune, according to OrangeLark)
NOTES: OrangeLark: "An attack on a Parliamentarian who was a Mister Looking-Both-Ways." - BS
This sort of behavior was apparently a significant issue in Ulster.Robert Kee, in _The Bold Fenian Men_ (being volume II of _The Green Flag_), Penguin, 1972, p. 102, talks of the response of William Johnston [for whom see "William Johnston of Ballykilbeg"] to such people: "At [a meeting in 1868] the resentment felt by rank and file Orangemen for the upper-class conservatives was particularly marked. Such conservatives, said Johnston, liked their votes very much but they disliked the name of Orangemen. They had used the Orangemen for thirty years and it was 'now time to put their members of Parliament through their catechism.'" Johnston in fact did so, running for Parliament himself and taking the seat even though neither major party supported him. - RBW
File: OrLa030
===
NAME: Mr. Boll Weevil: see The Boll Weevil [Laws I17] (File: LI17)
===
NAME: Mr. Mouse Went A-Courting: see Frog Went A-Courting AND Kemo Kimo (File: R108)
===
NAME: Mr. Woodburn's Courtship: see Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)
===
NAME: Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe
DESCRIPTION: "I am a scrap of a widow" from the Coombe in Dublin. She has had a room and stall, selling fruit, sweets and second-hand clothes, for (35) years. "And where would you see a nate widow like me, Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: commerce humorous Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OLochlainn, p. 230, "Mrs Mulligan, the Pride of the Coombe" (1 text)
DT, BIDDYMUL*
ADDITIONAL: Frank Harte _Songs of Dublin_, second edition, Ossian, 1993, pp. 10-11, "Biddy Mulligan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16250
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Biddy Mulligan
Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe
NOTES: Harte declares this a relatively recent song, made famous by Jimmy O'Dea, who acted the character of Biddy. He does not say that O'Dea wrote the song, but it seems not impossible. - RBW
File: OLoc230A
===
NAME: Mrs. Bond
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what (shall we have/have you got) for dinner, (Mrs.) Bond? There's beef in the larder and ducks in the pond." Mrs. Bond offers good meat to her customers, and sends the ostler to kill the ducks. They flee him. She at last goes out herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1797 (Juvenile Amusements No. 48, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: food bird commerce
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 62, "Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs Bond?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #822, pp. 306-307, "(Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs. Bond)"
Roud #4580
NOTES: Much of this revolves around the duck cry "Dilly, dilly, come and be killed." The Baring-Goulds note that there are actually traditions of such animal calls, though this is the only one I've ever heard quoted in any other context. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "'Mrs Bond' was originally 'introduced and sung by Mr Bannister Junior in the character of Jerry Sneak', in Foote's 'The Mayor of Garret' (1763). The song was popular, and was immediately issued by rival music publishers ....'" - BS
File: BGMG822
===
NAME: Mrs. Fogarty's Cake: see Trinity Cake (Mrs. Fogarty's Cake) (File: Doyl3062)
===
NAME: Mrs. Greig of Sandlaw
DESCRIPTION: "Twas at a certain firm toon... A braw goodwife ca'd Mrs. Greig Her servant girlies kept in order." After Greig foils many attempts to sneak in a man, the girls create a straw man, which Grieg "slays" with a cudgel. They hope she has learned her lesson
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: sex nightvisit trick disguise hiding
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greig #178, pp. 1-2, "The Straw Man" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 316, "Mrs Greig of Sandlaw" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 247-248, "Mrs. Greig of S--" (1 text)
Roud #5161
NOTES: Greig: .".. we have deemed it advisable to suppress names. "The Straw Man" (as we have named the ditty) is said to have been written by a Banffshire rhymer of the name of Shaw, who was long beadle at Alvah. He was the author also of "O Charlie, O Charlie," given in Art. LI." - BS
To this we may compare Ord. He did not suppress the family name, but did suppress the name of the town. Only in Greig-Duncan do all the names come out. - RBW
File: Ord247
===
NAME: Mrs. McGrath
DESCRIPTION: A sergeant urges Mrs. McGrath to make her boy a soldier. He sails away in fine style. For seven years she waits for him, hoping for word. At last he returns with both legs gone. (She curses the wars.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1916 (OLochlainn)
KEYWORDS: war injury separation soldier
FOUND_IN: Ireland Australia US(MW)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 126, "Mrs. McGrath"; pp. 197-198, "My Son Ted" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dean, pp. 48-49, "Teddy McGraw" (1 text)
Scott-BoA, pp. 121-123, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 211, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text)
SHenry H131, pp. 84-85, "My Son Ted" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 71, "Mrs McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 179, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 275, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text)
DT, MRSMCGRT*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 285-287, "Mrs. McGrath" (1 text)
Roud #678
RECORDINGS:
Seamus Ennis, "Mrs. McGrath" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
Pete Seeger, "Mrs. McGrath" (on BroonzySeeger2) (on PeteSeeger15) (on PeteSeeger44)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(76), "Teddy O'Gra" ("Come all you sons of Hibernia," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(3746), Firth c.12(314), "Teddy O'Gra"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kerry Recruit" [Laws J8] (theme)
cf. "Felix the Soldier" (theme)
cf. "Lovely Jamie" (plot)
cf. "The Wars of America" (plot)
NOTES: OLochlainn: "Known to every true-born citizen of Dublin. In the years 1913-1916 it was the most popular marching song of the Irish Volunteers."
Moylan: "This song of the Peninsular War dates, according to one source, to 1815. The earliest account of it in Ireland seems to be 1876 when Sam Henry's informant learned it in Belfast." 
The final verse of the three Bodleian "Teddy O'Gra" broadsides seems to refer to the Peninsular War or the 1830s First Carlist War (which included Irish volunteers):
A mighty war I will proclaim
Against the King and Queen of Spain,
And I will make them rue the day,
They shot my Teddy's legs away.
Hoagland's text refers to the First Carlist War: "All foreign wars I do proclaim Between Don John and the King of Spain...."
The following note from John Moulden is quoted with permission:
"I note that all the ballad sheets of this song in Bodley or Madden are English printed. To my almost certain knowledge there is not a single one of Irish popular print origin in those libraries, the British Library, Birmingham University Library or any Irish library in either ballad sheet or 8-page song book form. This suggests that the song originated in Britain and diffused to Ireland only early in the 20th century. This is not the only possibility but the one the evidence most strongly suggests.
Actually, it appears that the mid nineteenth-century texts which begin approximately 'Come all of you Hibernian sons' have been substantially altered in the more recent ones; several of the verses at the beginning have been omitted and the 'humour' of the later ones 'enhanced'."
John Moulden is researcher at the "Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change" at National University of Ireland, Galway whose subject is "the printed ballad in Ireland."
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Son Tim" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: MA126
===
NAME: Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew
DESCRIPTION: "Mrs. James Mullowney gave A party Tuesday night... They say the table fairly groaned...." Mrs. Mullowney "couldn't eat no more... She swooned off on the floor." After recovering, "just mention fippper stew" if you want to be attacked
AUTHOR: presumably Johnny Burke
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Burke's Ballads)
KEYWORDS: food party doctor humorous
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ryan/Small, p. 125, "Mrs. Mullowney Was Three Weeks in Bed Since She Ate the Fipper Stew" (1 text)
NOTES: Yes, that's "fipper." Presumably for "flipper," since the dish is made of seal.
According to Bob Bartlett (who should know; see his biography under "Captain Bob Bartlett"), "The flesh [of the seal] is by no means disagreeable, though it has a general flavor of fish, which constitutes the seal's chief food" (see p. 54 of _The Last Voyage of the Karluk_, as told to Ralph T. Hale; published 1916; now available with a new introduction by Edward E. Leslie as _The Karluk's Last Voyage_). - RBW
File: RySm125
===
NAME: Mucking o' Geordie's Byre, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the filthy habits of Geordie and his family, and the strange and immense task of cleaning out Geordie's byre. The family's ineptitude and the poorly trained animals result in improbable accidents
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1797 (_Scots Musical Museum_, #96)
KEYWORDS: home work animal dancetune
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber)) Australia
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 257, "The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 82, "Muckin' of Geordie's Byre" (1 tune)
DT, MUCKBYRE
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Rodger, _Poems and Songs_ (Glasgow, 1838), pp. 29-33, "The Mucking o' Geordie's Byre"
ST DTMoGB (Full)
Roud #2137
NOTES: This humorous piece has an incredibly complex history, as various poets (including Robert Burns) have taken their hacks at it. The result is so thoroughly mingled that it probably is not possible even to describe the original. - RBW
Rodger: "Written in 1819." - BS
File: DTMoGB
===
NAME: Muckle Meal-Pock, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am a sturdy beggar loon, weel kent the country through." The rambler describes his life and all work. At last he trades in his pack for "a cuddy an' a cart;" he admits a carrier is "a gentleman compared to the owner o' a pock."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (Ford); before 1850 (NLScotland, L.C.1270(006))
KEYWORDS: begging work travel
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 239-241, "The Muckle Meal-Pock" (1 text)
Roud #13087
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.1270(006), "The Muckle Meal Pock," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845; also L.C.Fol.70(34a) [same as the preceding, but with the accompanying text of "Irish Molly, O" cut away]
File: FVS239
===
NAME: Muddley Barracks
DESCRIPTION: The singer accepts the King's shilling to enlist in Muddley Minor regiment. At Muddley Barracks "they cut my hair so close to my head I could hardly wink my eye." Between marching drills, discipline, and meager food he wishes he were back behind the plow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (recording, Jumbo Brightwell)
KEYWORDS: soldier recruiting food ordeal hardtimes hair
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #1735
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "Muddley Barracks" (on Voice20)
File: RcMuddBa
===
NAME: Mudion River
DESCRIPTION: The singer calls on the muses to pay attention as he asks their aid in praising the Mudion River. He admits the virtues of other Irish rivers, but none can compare with the Mudion. Had he money to spare, he would spent it living by the Mudion
AUTHOR: "Master (Mc?)Mullan"
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: river home nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H108b, pp. 169-170, "Mudion River" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #13484
File: HHH108b
===
NAME: Muff Lawler, the Squealer [Laws E25]
DESCRIPTION: Muff Lawler, a member of the Molly Maguires, is accused (of murder). Rather than face the consequences, he offers to turn informant if he can be protected from the remaining Mollies. The deal is struck when the lawyers offer to send him to another county
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: mining reprieve punishment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1876 - Conviction of Michael "Muff" Lawler on a charge of murder
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws E25, "Muff Lawler, the Squealer"
DT 710, MUFFLAWL
Roud #2254
NOTES: The Molly Maguires were an underground group that engaged in terrorist acts against Pennsylvania mine bosses. In their defense, it should be noted that the mine bosses' treatment of their employees also verged on terrorism; the Mollies were just seeking decent conditions. - RBW
File: LE25
===
NAME: Muileann Dubh, Am (The Black Mill)
DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The black mill is moving around and we expect to go dancing. There are many things you wouldn't expect at the black mill
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage dancing nonballad
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 179, "Black Mill, The" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The translation, as far as it goes, is from the Celtic Lyrics Corner site. Two verses are untranslated: "An cual thu gun robh snaoisean" (apparently something to do with "your faggot was without snuff") and "Tha gobhair is crodh-laoigh ann" (maybe "the goat and calf are there"). If you can translate this please update the entry.
Is the mill here symbolic, in a mythic sense? For a popular starting point for research on the mill as a non-sexual symbol see _Hamlet's Mill_ by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend. - BS
File: CrMa179
===
NAME: Muir Hen, The
DESCRIPTION: The singer bends his bow to fire at the muir hen, but cannot fire. She complains that the young men "do want the pouder." The young man later arrives with "pouder," and twenty weeks later her back grows sore. He still fears a misfire
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting pregnancy bawdy hunting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kinloch-BBook XVII, pp. 65-66, "The Muir Hen" (1 text)
Roud #6859
NOTES: If this song is traditional (as usual with Kinloch, it's not clear), having another version would help greatly. Toward the end, it appears strongly that the girl is pregnant -- but the final stanza seems to contradict this, and even contradict the singer's personal prowess of which he previously boasted:
But I thought my gun would me misgie,
  Whan I had her on my shouther,
Tho' my flint was soft and fired not,
  'Twas an for want o' pouder. - RBW
File: KinBB18
===
NAME: Muir of Culloden, The
DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of my country, its deep glens and fountains... I'll sing of its battles renowned in story." "On the sixteenth of April, I'll ever remember." The Jacobite leaders disagree and attack half-heartedly; "Cauld lies the lads on the Muir of Culloden."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: Jacobites battle death
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 16, 1746 - Battle of Culloden Muir ends the 1745 Jacobite rebellion
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
GreigDuncan1 127, "The Muir of Culloden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 293, "The Muir of Culloden" (1 text)
Roud #3777
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Culloden Moor" (subject)
cf. "Culloden Field" (subject)
NOTES: Most songs of the end of 1745 Jacobite Rebellion (at least the ones in English) seem to talk about Bonnie Prince Charlie. This is a genuine exception; it is almost entirely about the tragic Battle of Culloden, which not only destroyed the Jacobite army but, ultimately, the Highland culture.
For sources, see the Bibliography at the end of this note.
The history of the 1745 rebellion is almost like a wave: The level rises and rises and crests and then collapses. Indeed, the whole history of Jacobitism is rather like that. In the thirty years after George I had died, the Jacobite cause had seemed to die down -- notably due to the accession of George II in 1727 (Magnusson, p. 584); even the most extreme Jacobite would agree that he was an improvement on his father. It took two major change to bring Jacobitism back to life: The European political situation, and the rise of a new generation of leaders. James III, the "Old Pretender," was a pessimistic, uninspiring leader who did his own cause more harm than good. But his son, Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender," was handsome, outgoing, and tremendously attractive. Few would call him a genius and some declare him little more than a drunk -- but he roused wild affection; he must have been one of the most charismatic leaders in history.
The whole thing started, in a way, as an incident in the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Britain (as usual) found itself fighting France. In 1743, the French were preparing an invasion. This was to have been led by the brilliant Marshal de Saxe (Dorn, p. 161), who was so superior to British generals of the period that success seemed certain. Britain was poorly defended -- so many troops had gone to the continent that there were supposedly only 8000 soldiers in all of Britain (Browning, p. 221). But the expedition, which was intended to take place in 1744, was intercepted and ruined by the British fleet and storms (Magnusson, p. 585; Reid, pp. 7-9; Wilkinson, pp. 56-58).
Prince Charles, who had hoped to lead the expedition, wasn't willing to take that for an answer. The French were not willing to commit much to a second attempt, in part because they didn't trust Charles -- Browning, p. 220, says that the French viewed him as a "blinkered and quixotic adventurer." The "blinkered" part probably arises from his manifest incompetence in writing and in scholarship; he hated studying, and McLynn-Charles, p. 35, quotes his tutor's comment on the boy's schoolwork: "[I]t is impossible to get him to apply to any study as he ought to or indeed in any tolerable degree, by which means the Latin goes ill on." Wilkinson, p. 45, notes that he spoke French, Spanish, and Italian as well as English, and apparently eventually gained some Gaelic as well, but he flatly could not spell. Kybett, p. 31, declares that he was "functionally illiterate," but also claims that he "never fully mastered English, his primary language." This, of course, is nonsense unless he communicated by grunting; at best, it shows how diverse the opinions about Charles were. But it is agreed that he was very, very stubborn. He clearly hated scholarship -- and being told that things were impossible.
McLynn-Charlie, p. 553, gives perhaps the most balanced assessment of his abilities: "The old view of the prince as a man unable to deal with failure because of mental feebleness will not stand up to scrutiny. A close study of Charles Edward reveals him as highly intelligent, even if the intelligence was often of the divergent or 'lateral' type. His poor spelling and punctuation is a red herring, assiduously peddled by those who cannot see that 'intelligent' and 'academic' are very far from matching complements. More pertinently, the prince, unlike his father who wrote letters of impeccable orthography and sentiments, never wrote a boring sentence.... The prince habitually uses a medley of unusual (even eccentric) arguments, wit, irony and imagery that gives even his most self-pitying letters a peculiar richness...." Charles was stubborn to an extreme, and there were things he never learned (such as military tactics) -- but he was certainly more than a mere fool and a drunk.
Even though the French wouldn't support Charles, they certainly didn't mind him going on his own, turning their back on his independent attempt at a rising. Supported by some Irish exiles in France, and by pawning his mother's jewels (Magnusson, p. 586), he managed to scrape up two ships and headed for the Hebrides with about 3500 muskets (firelocks), 2500 swords, a tiny treasury, and about sixty marines (Reid, p. 10).
The two ships included only one real fighting vessel, the _Elizabeth_. On their way from France to Scotland, they ran into the British vessel _Lion_. Having little other choice, the Prince's expedition put as many crew as possibly on the _Elizabeth_ and left her to fight the _Lion_ alone. (The ships ended up battering each other to the point where neither could continue, suffering total casualties in excess of 300; Browning, p. 221.) The prince, with half his supply of arms left behind, continued on (Wilkinson, pp. 60-63).
The prince landed on Eriskay with only seven men (the "seven men of Moidart"), and many chiefs were afraid of a rising without at least some foreign troops (Magnusson, p. 586) --but he was charming enough that he quickly built an army. His reply, when some chiefs told him to go home, was the stuff of legend: "I am come home, Sir, and I will entertain no notion at all of returning to the place from whence I came; for I am persuaded that my faithful Highlanders will stand by me" (Magnusson, p. 587).
Not all of them did, to be sure. But most of the MacDonalds joined him (Thomson, p. 99, claims that they made up 40% of his force, but this was true for only a very short time. Still, most of them came in early, making them very important). Add in Lochiel's Camerons, and it was enough men to organize into something that could be called an army. Plus, while the Prince hadn't been able to bring many firearms, he at least had some -- and most of the Highlanders had been disarmed after the 1715 rebellion, so those who opposed the Jacobites had nothing with which to fight (Browning, p. 243).
It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had a significant fraction of the Campbells, the other great clan, joined. But, of course, Campbells and MacDonalds were not going to be on the same side at this time! (Thomson, p. 98).
It wasn't a big army, but it was enough to occupy Edinburgh (it helped that the city's fortifications were decayed, according to Magnusson, p. 591; Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 57, says that there was no real resistance. In an interesting move that might have done some good had anyone paid attention, the Jacobites proclaimed the Union of Scotland and England to be dissolved; Magnusson, p. 592). They then took on and defeated Sir John Cope at Prestonpans (for which see "Hey Johnnie Cope" and "Tranent Muir") in just ten minutes; it was said to be the shortest battle of the entire War of the Austrian Succession (Browning, p. 241).
After some further maneuvering in Scotland, during which more Highlanders joined the army but the Lowlanders for the most part proved disinterested (Fry/Fry, p. 194), Charles and his men headed into England. This was controversial -- many of the Scots wanted to be independent of England, whereas Charles wanted to regain the entire British Kingdom for the Stuarts. Plus many leaders thought that their force simply wasn't sufficient to attack the English. Charles finally persuaded a bare majority of his senior officers that they should take the army south (Browning, p. 243).
An invasion of England could not go down the center of the island due to the Pennine range. It had to go either to the east (via Berwick and Newcastle) or to the west (via Carlisle). The Hanoverian army of Marshall Wade blocked the eastward route. So the Jacobites went west. Some scholars think "The Flower of France and England, O" tells of their occupation of Carlisle -- an event which caused significant friction, because Lord George Murray (the brother of Charles's Marquis of Tullibardine, who had been one of the Seven Men of Moidart), who was widely regarded as the best soldier in the army, but was a confirmed pessimist and as touchy as mercury fulminate, felt slighted. Neither for the first nor the last time (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 58).
I note incidentally that, despite his reputation, Murray before 1745 seems never to have commanded anything larger than an understrength regiment (Young/Adair, p. 256), so that his position in the Jacobite army (he was officially Lieutenant General, giving him charge of half the force, and also a sort of de facto chief of staff) was about two grades above his previous best rank. He had no more strategic experience than anyone else in the army. He was now 51 years old, and set in his opinions; Reid, p. 23, quotes one of his own aides as saying "Lord George was vigilant, active, and diligent; his plans were always judiciously formed, and he carried them promptly and vigorously into execution. However, with an infinity of good qualities, he was not without his defects: proud, haughty, blunt and imperious, he wished to have executive disposal of everything and, feeling his superiority, would listen to no advice." Not a good recipe for a second-in-command! It was even worse because, as McLynn-Charlie notes on p. 142, Prince Charles was unused to dealing with such independent men.
Although there were forces in England capable of fighting them, the Jacobite maneuver did a good job of befuddling them. The main defensive army, led by Marshall Wade, was centered on Newcastle, and it just sat there. A second army, assembled by the Duke of Cumberland, tried to block the Jacobites from reaching Wales and the southwest, and it too tended to sit still. The Jacobite army , instead of continuing south from Carlisle, soon turned to the southeast, almost halfway between Wade and Cumberland (Browning, p. 243). The objective was London -- a go-for-broke gamble to take over the government before they could be stopped.
The invading army eventually reaching Derby. It had been a depressing march. There had been Jacobite rebellions in Scotland before, but no Jacobite army had reached England. They had hoped to find supporters. Except for a few recruits raised in Manchester, they found nothing. As Dorn says (p. 162), the rebellion's failure "was certain from the mment when Prince Charles on hos southward march from Carlisle to Derby encountered oly a dispiriting indifference among the inhabitants of the countryside." They managed to raise (extort, really) money in most places -- enough to keep the army fed. "But the Jacobites were invariably greeted by sullen faces or by boots and jeers from the brave" (Kybett, p. 170).
And the Jacobite army remained small -- McLynn-Army, p. 25, lists the formations which began the march south. There were about 5100 infantry, mostly in small formation which were hard to control, and many of them ill-equipped. The cavalry totalled only 520, and their equipment was even worse. Had they raised the expected recruits in England, they could perhaps have defeated the Hanoverian armies in detail. Certainly the rank and file were very confident (McLynn-Army, p. 123). But many of the officers felt that, without reinforcements, there was no hope of real victory -- they might win a battle by stratagem, but if it came to a set battle against a proper Hanoverian army, they would certainly be destroyed.
So, at Derby, there was a council of war -- one that lasted from shortly after sunrise until midnight, then resumed the next day. Apparently many of Charles's officers had agreed to advance on England more as a raid than an actual invasion, and were willing to continue only if foreign troops appeared -- and, so far, none had (Magnusson, p. 603. It's ironic to note that this was at about the time Lord John Drummond's expedition, mentioned below, was being mounted). Charles had not understood this to be their meaning (McLynn-Charlie, p. 188). What was Charles to do? As Adair/Young note on p. 248, in connection with another revolt, "A rebellion on the defensive must fail." Charles could have risked everything on a run for London. He could have disbanded the revolt on the spot and fled. He could have retreated for Scotland and tried again for foreign help. Or he could retreat for Scotland and then dispersed the army.
In practical terms, the first was the most risky. It was also the only thing that could possibly succeed -- and McLynn-Army, p. vi, offers reasons why it might have succeeded, because the English government was in panic and the London mob was fickle. The odds were huge -- but the odds of winning any other way were non-existent. As Wilkinson says (p. 136), "There was still just a chance in London, a gambler's throw. But a retreat could only mean one thing -- the failure of the rebellion."
Charles wanted to go for it. But Lord George Murray again showed his severe pessimism, and argued that the army must retreat (Wilkinson, p. 132). He brought most of the other leaders over to his side. Sinclair-Stevenson, pp. 59-60, declares, "It [the arguments of those in favor of retreat] was all special pleading, and almost certainly the wrong decision. It was not well received: The Highlanders, conceiving at first that they were on the march to attack the army of the Duke of Cumberland, displayed the utmost joy and cheerfulness, but as soon as the day allowed them to see the objects around them and they found that we were retracing our steps, nothing was to be heard throughout the whole army but expressions of rage and lamentation."
Magnusson, p. 603: "They called it 'Black Friday': Friday, 6 December 1745, the day the Jacobites began their retreat from Derby." Page 604: "Lord George Murray had won the day, but had he lost the future. For two and a half centuries there has been endless speculation. Derby is one of the great, unanswerable 'ifs' of Scottish history."
Especially since the French had finally been induced to help out, in a small way. A small force of reinforcements, mostly taken from the Irish units in the French army, had been sent out around around the end of 1745 under the command of Lord John Drummond (McLynn-Charlie, p. 202). The Jacobite cause thus gained roughly a thousand experienced troops, plus artillery heavier than the light pieces they had managed to capture so far (Reid, p. 83). It's too bad these forces hadn't arrived earlier; their arrival, and Drummond's strong leadership, might have done much to strengthen the Jacobite grip on Scotland, which weakened appreciably while the army was in England.
Despite the despair of the retreat, and the hostility and appalling weather the army met on its way back to Scotland, there were military successes during the retreat, at Clifton and Falkirk. The former was small; the Duke of Cumberland's army was snapping at the Jacobite rear, and Lord George Murray, who commanded the rear, gave his vanguard a bit of a bloody nose and caused him to halt his pursuit (McLynn-Army, pp. 186-189). Falkirk was big though a very close-run thing (Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 60). But there was little planning behind what was done at this time; as Reid says on p. 94 of the siege of Stirling which preceded Falkirk, "they had decided to besiege Stirling Castle, not through any pressing strategic necessity, but rather it seemed for lack of anything more positive to do."
Falkirk shouldn't have happened. The Hanoverian forces under Hawley (who had replaced Marshall Wade) had a tremendous superiority in cavalry, but they did not scout the field (Reid, p. 98). Hawley's junior officers apparently considered his orders absurd, but he was so harsh that they dared not disobey (McLynn-Charlie, p. 209).
Falkirk is generally described as a big brawl. Neither side was properly deployed, and it ended in darkness and storm (Reid, p. 100) -- not too surprising, since it took place on January 17, 1746. Wilkinson, p. 176, says that "it was Prince Charles in person who by his intervention saved the situation," but most other sources think that he did little good, even causing the pursuit to fail (see, e.g., McLynn-Charlie, p. 210). Casualties were relatively light (Reid, p. 102), but the Jacobites has possession of the field, and picked up some useful equipment as a result.
Then, after Falkirk, the commanders started arguing again. Lord George Murray claimed that soldiers were deserting, that the weather was bad, and that British forces were on their tail; the only option was to head for the Highlands (Wilkinson, p. 184). As Wilkinson comments on p. 185, "Another victory was to be turned into a rearguard action." The retreat continued, but Charles himself wrote, "I know I have an army that I cannot command any further than the chief officers please, and therefore if you are resolved of it I must yield -- but I take God to witness that it is with the greatest reluctance, and that I wash my hands of the fatal consequences which I foresee but cannot help."
Whoever is to blame, these delays and retreats gave the government time to bring home more troops. Note that Falkirk is in Scotland, near the Forth. At the end of 1745, the Jacobites had retired back into Scotland (Kybett, p. 180) -- though they left a small garrison left at Carlisle which was quickly swallowed (A bad move by Charles, since he had left all of his artillery with the garrison, hampering his future operations; Magnusson, p. 605. Though if he'd followed Lord George Murray's plan, things might have been just as bad; McLynn-Army, p. 191, says that Murray wanted to trash all the baggage).
Kybett and Magnusson both think that Charles was by this time an alcoholic (Magnusson, p. 610, and Kybett, almost everywhere; Wilkinson, p. 228, admits that many called him a drunkard as early as the 1740s but says that he was simply trying to act like a British squire. McLynn-Charlie accepts that he ended up a drunkard, and acknowledges that he always had a fondness for drink, but does not think it began to overwhelm him until *after* the Forty-Five; on p. 243 he argues that it was during the flight, when Charles was under great tension but spent most of him simply sitting and waiting, that he really started drinking heavily). It cannot be denied that the decision to garrison Carlisle was militarily bad --yet it made some symbolic sense: Charles did not want to entirely abandon England.
The Jacobites returned to a Scotland which had largely been occupied against them. Glasgow had always been loyal to the Hanoverians, and Edinburgh had been recaptured soon after the invasion of England began (Magnusson, p. 606). The only good news was that Lord John Drummond has assembled another Jacobite army at Perth, which had even been reinforced by a few French soldiers (Wilkinson, p. 159). This force combined with the invasion army to win the aforementioned battle of Falkirk. But there was no follow-up; "The Jacobites spent most of the month of January in or around Falkirk, and in doing so they threw away whatever initiative they might have gained. They were never to regain it" (Magnusson, p. 608).
A month later, after Charles and Lord George Murray had another fight, they fell back into the Highlands (Magnusson, p. 615; McLynn-Charlie, p. 218, who adds on p. 219 that each of these retreats was disorganized -- the Jacobites, as Murray should have known, were horrible at logistics). Charles was once again sarcastic about the potential effects of the retreat: "Can we imagine, that where we go the enemy will not follow, and at last oblige us to a battle which we now decline?" (Browning, p. 264). In this, Charles again saw more clearly than Murray.
If there was any happy note for the Prince, it was that Charles met Clementina Walkinshaw, the closest thing he had to a love of his life, around this time (Magnusson, p. 608; Wilkinson, p. 157, says that it is not quite certain when he met her, but it was definitely in early 1746. McLynn-Charlie, p. 204, says that she helped nurse him through the various illnesses he suffered in early 1746. According to Cook, p. 422, she had actually been named for Charles's mother Clementina Sobieska, so it was pretty clear what her family politics were!). Other than that, it was a particularly hard time for the Prince, who was sick for several months in early 1746 (McLynn-Charlie, pp. 232-233), even as the army was enjoying several minor successes. But it was still pinned back into a small, very unproductive area. They were out of money, meaning the soldiers could not be paid (Wilkinson, p. 193; McLynn-Charlie, p. 233. Magnusson, p. 616, notes that a ship sent by the French with a large supply of cash was captured). They had managed to bring in a French technical expert on sieges, Monsieur Mirabelle; he proved a complete incompetent (Magnusson, p. 612). Based in the relatively unproductive country around Inverness, they were short of supplies. Their commissary was breaking down due to the death of Charles's efficient administrator Murray of Broughton (McLynn-Charlie, p. 235). In this situation, a good many clansmen deserted (Wilkinson, p. 194). Somehow, before the army fell apart of starvation and lack of pay and lack of hope, they needed to get out of their trap.
They never figured out how to do it.
Into their stronghold came William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765), the third son of George II (and the second son to survive infancy), the man who had lost the skirmish at Clifton. Cumberland's record in wars in Europe shows that he was no general, but he inflicted ferocious discipline and understood butchery very well; massacres don't require brainpower. His army had been following the Jacobites since the March to Derby (his had been the army the chiefs were most afraid of when they argued for a retreat), but apart from the skirmish at Clifton, this was the first time he had closed on them. They had had one chance to stop him as he crossed the Spey (McLynn-Charlie, pp. 237-238; Reid, pp. 121-124). They didn't (most authors seem to think this was sheer stupidity, by junior officers or by Charles himself; Reid, p. 125, blames lack of reconnaissance). After that, the Jacobites were cornered; they had the sea to one side, dead land on another, and Cumberland coming up against them on another.
The faction led by Lord George Murray, that endless fount of suggestions that increased the odds of short-term survival at the expense of any chance of long-term success, wanted to go to the hills and fight as guerrillas (Magnusson, p. 616). But this would mean giving up arms and equipment, and -- as the government's vengeance after Culloden showed -- would open up the clans to piecemeal destruction. Charles insisted he would fight. This was the most hopeless of all the Jacobite battles -- but, once again, it seems to me the most reasonable option in the broad sense. The Jacobites had little chance of victory, but failure to fight meant clear defeat.
In a singularly foolish move, the Jacobite army had been scattered for the winter -- and did not manage to concentrate fully in time for Culloden (McLynn-Charlie, p. 239). The extra few thousand men who were still out foraging might have made a great deal of difference.
The Hanoverian army had the Highlanders outnumbered on the order of two to one -- Wilkinson, p. 195, estimates Cumberland to have had 9000 troops, the Jacobites 5000. Browning, p. 265, gives the numbers as 9000 and 5400. Young/Adair, p. 262, credit the Jacobites with "at most" 5000. Reid, pp. 145-146, puts 3800 in the Jacobite front line, which would probably mean 5500-6000 for the whole force. Young/Adair estimates the loyalist army at 13000. Kybett, p. 203, makes the exceptional estimate that the Hanoverians had 14000 troops. Brander, p. 215, thinks the Jacobites had only 4500 going into the Night March, compared to 10000 Hanoverians -- though on p. 217, Brander gives the Hanoverian numbers at Culloden as 9000 and Charles's as "certainly under 5,000". (And, no matter what their initial numbers, the Jacobite ranks were depleted by the march, and some of the men who made it back from the march would still have lost their weapons, and others would be too tired and hungry to fight successfully. This is one of the main reasons why estimates vary so much: Although we know which units were present for the Night March, the disaster of Culloden meant that there were no reports about the units' strength before the March or -- even more so -- after.) The Hanoverians of course had a great advantage in equipment. Making this disparity worse is the fact that Charles's handful of French regulars, who presumably would have been the best musketeers he had, were in the second line (Brander,p. 217).
The Battle of Culloden, April 27, 1746, was one of the most mismanaged affairs of military history. Experience showed that Charles's Highlanders had only one successful tactic, the so-called Highland Charge. The idea was to get a bunch of burly clansmen with swords in among the enemy. It worked better than a modern would think -- the standard army of the time was armed with slow-firing smoothbore muskets that weren't very accurate. If the charge were properly executed, the defenders might have time for only one volley, which would not do enough damage to halt the attackers. But the Charge required suitable terrain to pull it off. Why Charles's forced messed up so badly, and who made the decision to fight as they did, is an open question.
Lord George Murray wrote afterward that the Jacobite plan was hopeless -- Kybett, p. 197 -- but of course Murray was trying to defend his own behavior and make Charles look bad.
Reid, p. 129, reports, "Murray's criticism of the field appears to have owed more to his insistence on contradicting everything which Sullivan proposed, for on previous experience it fitted the rebel army's requirements in every respect. In order to execute a 'Highland Charge' successfully the rebels needed a clear run at their opponents, as they had on the flat cornfields of Prestonpans, not on the broken grounds of the defensive position proposed by Murray." Magnusson, p. 617, says of the battlefield, "They used to call it Drumossie Moor -- a bleak stretch of boggy, heather-clad upland moor above Culloden House, south-east of Inverness, overlooking the broad waters of the Moray Firth." McLynn-Charlie, p. 240, agrees with Magnusson at least in part: The ground on the left was too wet to make it easy to attack.
The original Jacobite plan was for a night march, allowing them to attack the Hanoverians at sunrise at Nairn. There is no agreement on whose idea this was. Ben Schwartz looked through the early histories on Google, and found the following quotes:
*** Supporting the theory that it was Charles's idea:*
Robert Chambers, _History of the Rebellion of 1745-6_ (London and Edinburgh, 1869 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 281, "There yet remained, before playing the great stake of a [pitch?]ed battle, one chance of success by the irregular mode [of] warfare to which the army was accustomed, and Charles [res]olved to put it to trial. This was a night-attack upon the [ca]mp of the Duke of Cumberland."
James Browne, A History of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans (London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, 1849 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. III p. 232, has Lord George Murray putting the details to Charles's proposal: "Concluding from the inactivity of the duke of Cumberland that he had no intention of marching that day, Charles held a council of war in the afternoon, to deliberate upon the course it might be considered most advisable to pursue in consequence of the duke's stay at Nairn. According to Charles's own statement, he had formed the bold and desperate design of surprising the English army in their camp during the night; but, desirous of knowing the views of his officers before divulging his plan, he allowed all the members of the council to speak before him. After hearing the sentiments of the chiefs, and the other commanders who were present, Lord George Murray proposed to attack the duke of Cumberland during the night, provided it was the general opinion that the attack could be made before one or two o'clock in the morning. Charles, overjoyed at the suggestion of his lieutenant-general, immediately embraced him, said that he approved of it, that in fact he had contemplated the measure himself, and that he did not intend to have disclosed it till all the members of the council had delivered their sentiments [vide Memorandum by the Prince, note, p. 134].
(James Johnstone) The Chevalier de Johnstone, Memoirs of the Rebellion in 1745 and 1746 (London, 1820 ("Digitized by Microsoft")), pp. 132-133, footnote, "The following is the account of it [the night-march to Nairn] given of it by Mr. Home: --
"'When mid-day (the 15th) came, and the King's army did not appear, it was concluded that they had not moved from their camp at Nairn, and would not move that day, which was the Duke of Cumberland's birth-day. About two o'clock, the men were ordered to their quarters, and Charles, calling together the generals and chiefs, made them a speech, in which he proposed to march with all his forces in the evening, and make a night-attack upon the Duke of Cumberland's army, in their camp at Nairn.
"'At first nobody seemed to relish this proposal; and the Duke of Perth and Lord John Drummond expressed their dislike of it. Lochiel, who was not a man of many words, said that the army would be stronger next day by 1500 men at least; but when Lord George Murray rose and seconded the proposal made by Charles, insisting and enlarging upon the advantage of a night-attack, that rendered cannon and cavalry (in which the superiority of the Duke's army chiefly consisted) of little service, it was agreed to make the attempt, as the best thing that could be done in their present circumstances, for they were almost entirely destitute of both money and provisions.'"
The notes apparently were added by the uncredited editor, "J.B" in 1821, along with the Introduction that had this to say about Home, whom he was apparently responsible for quoting, above. "But, of Home, from the introduction, pp. xlvi-xlvii, 'The history of Home, which appeared nearly sixty years after the Rebellion, and from which, previous to its publication, considerable expectations were entertained, added little to our knowledge on any of the above important points. This was partly owing to the defective information of the author, and partly owing to his fear of giving offence. Having himself borne arms in the Rebellion as a volunteer, in aid of the government, he was not a person to whom the leading Jacobites would willingly confide their secrets; .. Besides, the writer of this introduction can assert, of his own knowledge, that Mr Home submitted his history in manuscript to some members of the royal family.. His book affords materials for the historian, but ought not to be considered a history.'"
*** Supporting the theory that it was Lord George Murray's idea:*
Andrew Lang, "Prince Charles Stuart" in _Scribner's Magazine_ (New York, 1895 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XVII January-June p. 416, "At a council Lord George proposed what Charles was longing for, a night surprise."
"Murray, Lord George (1694-1760" in _Dictionary of National Biography_ (London, 1909 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. XIII p. 1257, "Murray was entirely opposed to making a stand against Cumberland at Culloden.. He therefore advised that meanwhile a retreat should be made to the hills to await reinforcements, and when overruled in this, stipulated for a night attack as affording the only possible chance of victory."
*** Unclear as to whose idea it was:*
Robert Chambers, _Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of 1745_ (Edinburgh, 1834 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 138, "The Prince (being informed that the Duke of Cumberland had halted that day at Nairn, to refresh his men, and that the ships with provisions were coming into the bay of Inverness, that evening) called a council of war; and, after great debates, (although that neither the Earl of Cromarty, who by this time was prisoner, though not known, nor the MacPhersons, nor a great many of the Frazers was come up,) it was resolved to march, and endeavor to surprise the Duke in his camp at Nairn, about twelve miles distance."
The Lockhart Papers (London, 1817 ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. II p. 518 in "Account of events at Inverness and Culloden" [likely a source for Chambers], "The P. being inform'd that the Duke of Cumberland had halted that day at Nairn to refresh his men (the ships with his provisions came into the bay of Inverness that evening) the P. calld a council and after great debates, tho' neither the Earl of Cromerty (who by that time was prisoner tho' not known) nor the Macphersons nor a great many of the Fraizers were come up, it was resolved to march and endeavour to surprise the Duke in his camp at Nairn about twelve miles distant."
Among modern commentators, Reid, p. 130, says the concept of the night march was Murray's. Young/Adair, p. 258, says that "This plan, somewhat reminiscent of Monmouth's for Sedgemoor, was devised by the Prince and O'Sullivan. The Duke of Perth disliked it... but Lord George Murray, though 'very sensible of the danger should it miscarry,' came round to it, probably because he preferred it to fighting on the open moor." McLynn-Charlie, p. 241, describes the prince as "cajoling" the chiefs while Murray argued for another battlefield, and McLynn-Charlie, p. 242, implies that Murray was opposed to the very end. Wilkinson, p. 195, says, "Lord George Murray came forward with an ingenious plan for attacking the royal army at a disadvantage, thus offsetting their numerical superiority. Briefly, his proposal was to make an immediate night march upon Nairn, followed by the Highland charge at the first peep of dawn.... From Murray's own account it seems doubtful whether the proposal first came from him, but, at any rate, he adopted it with enthusiasm." Magnusson, p. 618, writes, "When the Hanoverian army did not appear on 15 April, Lord George Murray urged that the Jacobites should turn the tables by taking the offensive, and suggested a surprise night attack on Cumberland's sleeping camp." Brander, p. 215, credits the whole business to Charles and O'Sullivan, never even mentioning Murray.
Kybett, p. 198, says "Charles walked around the field [the day before Culloden] speaking to individual officers, trying to cajole them to agree to an impetuously conceived plan to attack Cumberland's camp at dawn the next day. No doubt he hoped to take the drunken government troops by surprise, but almost without exception everyone believes it a mad scheme."
"[Adjutant General] Sullivan was commanded to give the orders, and explain what he said in them. Lord George answered that there was no need of orders, [tha]t everybody knew what he had to do" (Reid, p. 132). But in fact they did *not* know what they had to do. "The attack on Nairn, put forward more or less on the spur of the moment by Murray, was badly thought out, poorly prepared and incompetently executed, and responsibility for the debacle lies squarely with Murray alone."
The real problem was not with the idea, though, but with its execution. The Highlanders had not been fed for two days, and were weakened by a cold rain (Magnusson, p. 618). The ground had not been scouted. The distance was rather long for a night march (Wilkinson, p. 195, says 12 miles; McLynn-Charlie, p. 244, implies a distance of 10 miles; Young/Adair, p. 258, says eight miles but adds that the night was exceptionally dark; Magnusson, p. 618, says 16 kilometers, or 10 miles. The map in Reid, p. 135, shows that Culloden Moor is about five miles from Inverness, with Nairn about 12 miles beyond that, but the army did not start from Culloden and would not have followed the direct path).
It would surely have been wiser to cover at least some of the distance before dark, but the army did not start until about 8:30 (Young/Adair, p. 258) or 9:00 p.m. (Magnusson, p. 618). The troops were slow to make the journey, and the march resulted in much disorganization (Magnusson, p. 619). The plan called for the army to divide into three columns, but they ended up all on the same trail (McLynn-Charlie, p. 244). Eventually the column started to break up. Lord George Murray, at the front of the column, sent word to Charles at the rear that it was too late for the attack, and that it had better be abandoned (McLynn-Charlie, p. 245). Charles, ever aggressive, didn't want to give up. But eventually Murray on his own ordered the column to halt (Young/Adair, p. 259). "Lord George made the only decision he could under the circumstances. He ordered what remained of the bitter army back to Culloden" (Kybett, p. 200).
"Surviving accounts of the night are pretty unanimous in depicting it as a sorry shambles from its confused beginning to its acrimonious end. The rebel army initially set off in what should have been three columns, following one behind the other. The first was let by Lord George Murray, the second by Lord John Drummond and the third by the Duke of Perth.... Instead of proceeding straight down the main road to Nairn, Murray decided to move across country, thus shunning any houses and people who might be tempted to warn Cumberland of his approach..." (Reid, p. 133). "[I]t soon proved quite impossible to prevent substantial gaps opening up between the columns and between the individual units within the columns. Murray afterwards tried to blame the French regulars and his MacIntosh guides... " (Reid, pp. 133-134). "[T]he rebel army simply [was] not up to the task" (Reid, pp. 134-136).
Charles apparently went bananas over this; Kybett, p. 200, describes him as losing control completely -- "Charles continued to shout hysterically that nobody could command his army but himself" -- though Reid, p. 139, declares that he put on a brave face. Wilkinson, p. 196, describes him as angry but resigned. Wilkinson and McLynn-Charlie, p. 246, both describe him as asking, "Where the devil are the men going?" McLynn also describes a man who went from fury at being disobeyed to weary resignation after the Duke of Perth pulled him aside and described the situation. Whatever his behavior, there was nothing to be done at that point. Lord George, not the Prince, had decided where and how the last battle would be fought. And his decision was simply dreadful: The open field of Culloden, where the Hanoverian artillery could sweep the Jacobite army.
(I must admit that I've never understood this. I can at least comprehend that Lord George would call off the attack. But why send everyone back to Culloden? Lord George disliked the ground, and the retreat left the men even more tired and hungry. If it was light enough for the night attack to fail, it was light enough to pick a better defensive position.)
Just how close the Jacobites had come to the enemy camp is not certain. Wilkinson, p. 196, and Reid, p. 137, say that Cumberland's campfires were already in sight, but McLynn-Charlie, p. 244, calculates that the Jacobites still had four miles to go before they could attack. Brander, p. 216, gives the distance as two miles from Cumberland's camp.
The troops straggled back to camp, even more hungry and exhausted than they had been before. They were also even more scrambled, because there was no real plan for the retreat (Reid, p. 138). All the Night March had done was soften them up for Cumberland's attack. Magnusson, p. 619, estimates that only a thousand Jacobite soldiers were still ready to fight, and says only 1500 took part in the initial attack on Cumberland's line. This is probably too low, but the number cannot have been large.
Thomson, p. 101, notes that "by every standard the Jacobite generals made a mess of Culloden when battle came on 16 April 1746. They chose unsuitable terrain, tired out their troops by ill-thought-out manouevres and vacillation, and failed totally to make proper use of their greatest asset, the Highland charge."
Kybett, whose method of analysis consists of finding the worst possible interpretation of Charles's behavior and then inventing a way to make it sound worse, claims that everyone in the army believed the battle plan was a "desperate attempt" -- and claims that Charles was drunk as the battle began (Kybett, pp. 198-199).
"There has been much argument about the choice of the battleground -- Lord George Murray claimed that it was a death trap for his troops. Others maintain that it was good ground for the Highland clansman to charge over; but it was also ideal terrain for the Hanoverian cavalry" (Magnusson, pp. 619-620).
The final battle took place a little south of the ocean. The Jacobite army seems to have left both its flanks rather exposed (so both the maps in Reid, p. 147, and Young/Adair, p. 264, and the semi-legible sketch facing p. 198 of Wilkinson; Reid, p. 145, says the flanks rested on walled parks. The parks probably had some defensive strength, but only if properly manned -- and they weren't; Reid, pp. 150-151, describes how the Hanoverians used them to outflank the Jacobites on the right). Of the three divisions of the Jacobite army that had marched to Nairn, two were placed in the front line, with the third division forming a second line. Reid, p. 145, estimates that there were 3800 men in the Jacobite front line, which stretched over a distance of 1100 yards (and with a bit of a gap in it when Lord George Murray realigned some of his forces and the other half did not conform). The second line, which was more a tactical reserve than an actual line of battle, had no more than half that many (Reid, p. 146; in the map on p. 216 of Brander, it is so thin as to hardly even constitute a line). A few units, probably mostly cavalry (much of it dismounted, according to Young/Adair, p. 261), were behind that, but they were not really a line, just a small reserve. The small handful of guns -- perhaps a dozen cannon, of various calibers and poorly manned -- was all in the front line, according to Young/Adair, p. 262.
The Hanoverian army also was arranged in three lines, though Reid shows all three lines as being about equally heavy, while Young/Adair makes the front line very strong and the third line little more than a token; Brander splits the difference and makes the second line almost as strong as the first and the third line very weak. Still, given the relative sizes of the armies, the number in the Hanoverian front line must have been at least as many as in the Jacobite, and their reserves were greater -- and they covered the attack with artillery. Young/Adair, p. 263, says that the Hanoverian artillery was able to fire twenty rounds for each round fired by the Jacobites.
The weather too was on the Hanoverian side; the weather was cold and rainy, and the wind blew into the faces of the Highlanders (Young/Adair, p. 262).
"At Culloden the advantages in terms of firepower and training lay with Cumberland, and he had the bonus of fumbling Jacobite command. The result was swift, decisive and bloody. The Jacobite artillery was silenced by a precise, long-range bombardment from artillerymen who were then free to pound the Highland line with shot. When the charge began, fire was opened with grape[shot] which was supplemented by volleys of musketry. The onrush was poorly co-ordinated and the clusters of clansmen who reached the lines of redcoats were repelled by bayonets. Culloden was uncannily like one of those Victorian colonial battles in which steady, confident troops used discipline and firepower to repel tribal armies" (James, p. 219).
Under this pressure, the Jacobites had little choice but to charge. As it is, Young/Adair, p. 265. thinks they waited too long to go in. Reid, p. 159, agrees, and says that Charles probably ordered it; Lord George Murray, who actually commanded the charge, had been responsible for the delay.
Unfortunately, it was a disorganized charge -- the Duke of Perth's command on the left hardly took part at all, and when it did move, it got tied up in the bog and the movement halted (Reid, p. 166). The center and right, under Murray, rapidly lost order; Young/Adair, p. 267. Reid, pp. 159, says that, instead of the usual fairly regular advance until the clans were in musket range, at which time the men would rush the enemy lines, most men dropped their guns, drew their swords, and started running at once. And they bunched up, exposing them to concentrated canister fire, which of course slaughtered the officers leading the charge and caused the men to become even more disorganized; Reid, p. 160. Reid estimates they may have lost as many as 400 men just getting to Cumberland's line -- in other words, at least 20% of those who were charging. What was left simply could not hit with the force of a proper Highland Charge. Within minutes of reaching the Hanoverian line, the right had to retreat, and as it retreated, it broke up even further. The left still held together, but when the Hanoverian army counter-charged, the Jacobite army generally dissolved.
Browning, p. 265, gives Hanoverian casualties as 300, Jacobite as 1560 (though this is surely too precise). Magnusson, p. 620, estimates Jacobite losses as "at least 1,500 dead" and the Loyalist forces as having lost fifty dead and 259 wounded. Young/Adair, p. 271, concurs with gives those same numbers for the Hanoverians, adding that one (yes, just one!) soldier was missing, and adds that only about 3000 Hanoverian troops  were seriously engaged. Reid, p. 170, also gives 50 dead and 259 wounded in Cumberland's force, and says there were 750 Jacobite dead on the moor, and estimates total Highlander losses as 1500, plus "154 rebel and 222 'French' prisoners."
"The main battle was over inside an hour. Prince Charles, once he saw the day was lost, rode away to the south-west, into hiding. For a moment there might have been a chance of gathering for another fight, but it was too late, and the prince sent word to the clans to disperse and look to their own safety. And well they might for the vengeance of the English was systematic and terrible" (Fry/Fry, p. 196). Although the Frys, and Kybett, seem to imply cowardice, Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 61, declares that Charles left the battlefield reluctantly.
"The curtain was about to ring down on the clan system and the last battle fought on British soil. It was only regrettable that it should have been marred by the excesses of the victorious general. 'Butcher' Cumberland earned his nickname and the notoriety which still clings to his memory. Instead of dying courageously on the field the Prince was persuaded to fly for his life in the heather and the legend of his escape wove a magic round his name which was largely undeserved. It was the poverty-stricken Highlanders whose honour and gallantry forbade them to betray him whose memory we must applaud. Ahead of them lay the Clearances and the empty glens, the sorrows and persecutions of the century to come..." (Brander, p. 217). Brander also notes the interesting fact that Culloden inspired few songs. He compares it to Flodden: Time needed to pass before the poets' pens could face the tragedy.
"There was still a chance of taking to the hills and continuing a guerrilla war of attrition against the Hanoverian victors. But Prince Charles had no intention of staying in Scotland, and told his followers it was now every man for himself.... For him, the Rising was over" (Magnusson, p. 624). Magnusson seems to disapprove of this course. But such an attempt would surely have failed; many man would have deserted, and their only bases would be in the Highlands; they would have had no way to trouble the English government, or even the Lowland Scots. All they would have done was inflict further trouble on the Highlands. True, the Hanoverians came with fire and sword -- but if the Jacobites had fought, then it would have been *both* Hanoverians *and* Jacobites picking the Highlands clean. If Charles made no other right choices, his decision to abandon the rising was certainly the best thing for all involved.
James, p. 220, observes how strongly our modern attitudes are influences by the romance and legend of Bonnie Prince Charlie. At the time, Cumberland was feted as a great victor -- the "Conquering Hero" of Handel (Magnusson, p. 623). Magnusson also claims that a plant was renamed "Sweet William" after him (which I doubt); I am only slightly more willing to accept that, in Scotland, "the foul-smelling ragwort _Senecto jacobaea_ was nicknamed 'Stinking Willie.'"
"But the '45 did not end with the battle. Everyone knew that, this time, rebellion was serious, and the smallness of the section of Scotland involved meant that real punishment would follow. The fact that many groups of clansmen got away from the battle gave a particular motive for punitive search. It would be made clear to those who had chosen to fight for the prince rather than have their roofs burnt over their heads by Lochiel and his men, that they were not better off in rebellion" (Mitchison, p 342).
"The atrocities and indiscriminate killing went on for several days. Detachments of Hanoverian troops were sent far and wide to scour the Highlands for rebels on the run. The glens were laid waste. Men found bearing weapons were hanged on the spot, and their womenfolk were raped. Whole families were evicted from their blazing hovels and left to starve. Twenty thousand head of livestock -- cattle, sheep and goats -- were driven off to be sold at market in Fort Augustus, the money to be distributed to the victorious army" (Magnusson, p. 623).
"Nowadays it would be called genocide. Cumberland himself advocated his own 'final solution" to the Highland problem: the transportation of whole 'clans such as the Camerons and almost all the tribes of the MacDonalds (excepting some of those in the Isles) and several other lesser clans' -- also excepting, of course, the Campbells, most of whom had fought on the Hanoverian side" (Magnusson, p. 623).
"Of the total of 3,471 Jacobite prisoners, 120 were executed: most by hanging, drawing and quartering, four by beheading because they were peers of the realm -- the privilege of rank. Of the remainder, more than six hundred died in prison; 936 were transported to the West Indies to be sold as slaves [which, at that time, meant that they would almost certainly be dead of yellow fever or the like within two years], 121 were banished 'outside our Dominions'; and 1,287 were released or exchanged" (Magnusson, p. 624).
"When all is said and done Cumberland and 'Hangman Hawley' [who at Culloden commanded the cavalry] marred their victory by the atrocities they permitted, and indeed encouraged, afterwards. Pillage, rape and murder were the order of the day, the innocent suffering with the guilty. An undistinguished military career lay ahead for [Cumberland], culminating in his defeat at Hastenbeck and the inglorious Convention of Klosterseven (1757). It is more charitable to remember him as the founder of the Ascot Race Meeting (1748)" (Young/Adair, p. 271).
There is to this day much dispute over who is to blame for Culloden, and for the Forty-Five. There is a strong school which argues that, since Lord George Murray was a sound tactical general, he must have been a strategic genius and anything that went wrong in 1745 was someone else's fault. So Young and Adair write,p, 256, "The Young Pretender... besides being himself no soldier, distrusted his ablest general, Lord George Murray, and chose to lean on his hare-brained Quartermaster-General, John William O'Sullivan." Similarly, Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 292, write that the Forty-Five "was doomed from the outset" (though they also say "the chance was there"); "Lord George Murray... the only commander of ability on the Jacobite side, argued in vain for a rapid descent on England before the Hanoverian forces before the Hanoverian forces could recover from the shock of a rising in the North. The victories -- Prestonpans and Falkirk -- were the work of Murray. It was Charles himself who insisted on attacking... at Culloden, when saner voices argued for a retreat into the Highlands and a war of attrition" (though how an outnumbered force is supposed to win a war of attrition is beyond me. Keegan/Wheatcroft, p. 227, also paper over the fact that Murray had been the voice of retreat at Derby).
McLynn-Charlie, pp. 249-250, also thinks the ultimate fault is Charles's. After the Night March, when Charles confronted Murray, Murray offered three choices: To retreat to Inverness and face a siege, to scatter and become guerrillas, or to accept battle on a different field south of the Nairn. Charles refused all three possibilities, and hence accepted battle at Culloden. McLynn-Charlie, p. 247, blames this on Charles's character:"The prince was never warned of the very real risk that [the night march] might miscarry. At this stage in his life, Charles was far too credulous and trusting toward his favourites, while being ludicrously suspicious of those not in the circle of initiates. The charm and affability of Charles Edward was the positive side of a mentality that was also distinguished by a marked anxiety to please those he considered his friends.... All these signs of a fragile identity were reinforced by a declining grip on reality." (It seems to me that this over-complexifies things: It's basically true, but the real problem was that Charles had taken a lot of advice from Lord George Murray, and it had resulted in the Jacobites being stuck up in the Highlands, so Charles was understandably very suspicious of *Murray's* advice.)
Reid, pp. 139-140, however, makes the significant point that, had the Jacobite army tried at that point to head for Murray's preferred battlefield, Cumberland could have pitched into their rear and done even more than he did at Culloden. When the Night March failed, I think, the Jacobite cause was lost. What was needed was a better plan for the March -- specifically, an alternate plan for what to do if the March were detected. But even if Murray thought of such a thing, he probably didn't dare suggest it.
Kybett, of course, blames everything on Charles. Browning too says that Charles was simply not a good enough leader for his cause, and notes correctly that the Prince's Catholicism cost him support (Charles, who clearly had no strong religious feelings, would actually convert to Protestantism after the Forty-Five, but too late to do any good; McLynn-Charlie, p. 399; Wilkinson, p. 227), and blames him for leading the Jacobite army into England.
In a very broad sense, Browning's charge is true: If Charles had been a military genius *and* smart enough to talk around Lord George Murray when needed *and* had been able to convince the French to really support him, then the rebellion would have had a much better chance. But if he had been able to call lightning from heaven, it would have had a better chance, too -- and the one was almost as impossible as the other.
Consider the flip side: The 1745 rebellion came much nearer success than the 1715, even though the latter was conducted under conditions much more favorable to revolt: The Hanoverian dynasty was weaker in 1715, and the Jacobites far stronger. Why did the 1745 rebellion come as close as it did? Because of Prince Charles.
Oh, Charles certainly wasn't anyone's notion of a general. But he understood something that Lord George Murray completely failed to understand, which was that a forlorn hope of a rebellion could only succeed by being bold -- even flashy. Charles was good at flashy. Lord George had opposed the idea of going after London; he had been wrong, and as a result, the Jacobite army had been forced to retreat all the way to Culloden in the north of Scotland. In the end, Murray didn't want to fight at Culloden either, even though the Jacobites needed to do *something* to keep the rebellion alive, and all Murray did was see to it that the battle, which would probably have been lost even if everything had gone well, was *guaranteed* to be lost.
Ironically, the period after the debacle at Culloden was considered the Prince's finest hour. He of course spent almost half a year on the run before he finally boarded the _L'Heureux_ on September 20, 1746 (old style) to sail for France (McLynn-Charlie, p. 307). The flight was the subject of many songs such as "Skye Boat Song (Over the Sea to Skye)." For the most famous incident of this period, the time he spent with Flora MacDonald, see "Flora MacDonald's Lament." But his escape to Skye did not end his escapades; he spent another three months "in the heather"; "Despite the huge bounty on his head, not a single Highlander betrayed his whereabouts" (Magnusson, p. 627).
His escape was the more amazing because the British, according to James, p. 220, had 15,000 troops in the Highlands searching for him. Of course, they were somewhat distracted by the fact that they were also trying to destroy the Highland way of life.
Although Jacobitism is not quite dead, and many hoped for another rebellion, it was the last rising on behalf of the Stuarts. It is likely that Charles visited England again (Magnusson, p. 628), but he never started another rising (Magnusson, p. 627).
When Charles arrived in France, he found himself as popular as a rock star today: "It is difficult now to appreciate the sensation his exploits both on campaign and in the heather had caused. 'He left France an adventurer and came back a hero,' was Bulkeley's comment. Without exaggeration, in October 1746 the prince was the most famous man in Europe" (McLynn-Charlie, p. 308).
But fame doesn't last forever. As long as the War of the Austrian Succession continued, Charles was a useful pawn for France. But the war ended in 1748. He was no longer any use to France -- and had gotten himself into a certain amount of trouble with women and with political intrigues. By the time the war ended, he had in fact already left for Spain. He would spend the next twenty years (until his father died in 1766) a wanderer, always scraping for cash, and never saw his father after he set out to lead the Forty-Five (Magnusson, p. 629).
And the Stuart family's famous ill luck was starting to re-emerge. James the Old Pretender's wife had left him only two children before dying of scurvy caused by her extreme asceticism (McLynn-Charlie, p. 45). The two were Charles and his younger brother Henry. And Henry turned out to be homosexual (McLynn-Charlie, p. 327; Kybett, pp. 297-298); he decided to take holy orders to avoid the idea of marriage, and rose to be a cardinal in 1747, while still in his twenties (Wilkinson, p. 227).
Charles was heterosexual but extremely clumsy with women (Wilkinson, p. 233; McLynn-Charlie, pp. 554-555, argues that his parents' marital problems and his mother's early death badly damaged his ability to understand the opposite sex. Magnusson, p. 528, notes his several affairs in his years in France, including several with married women, one of them a first cousin). In 1852 he summoned Clementina Walkinshaw (McLynn-Charlie, p. 422). "Their relationship lasted for nine tempestuous years, during which she bore him a daughter, Charlotte, whom Charles adored. He became insanely possessive over Clementina, and would beat her in his drunken rages. In 1760 she left him, taking Charlotte with her" (Magnusson, p. 629). The quarrels reportedly began a month after Charlotte was born; Wilkinson, p. 233. Charlotte was seven when Clementina took her from her father (Wilkinson, p. 234); she claiming that Charles was threatening her life (Cook, p. 423). She supposedly said that she would rather see Charlotte cut in pieces (as Solomon would have divided the child of the two prostitutes) than returned to Charles.
It made no dynastic difference. Marriage with Clementina never seemed to be part of Charles's plans; he wanted a royal wife (McLynn-Charlie, p. 327), and of course no king would waste his daughter on a pretender, and there were no available ruling queens for him to seduce. The Stuart line was on its way to extinction.
And it was an ugly end. In this time, not even Kybett has to distort facts to make Charles look bad; he did it all by himself. At first, he tried to get the courts of Europe to give him support for another invasion of Britain (Wilkinson, p. 226), with no success. He tried to convince his father to imprison Lord George Murray on the grounds that he was a traitor. When both these plans failed, Charles went to seed, and got drunk and (eventually) fat.
After his father died, Charles finally started worrying about producing an heir. He had almost certainly waited too long. His glittering reputation was gone, and the nations of the world no longer even pretended to hope for a Jacobite restoration. Even the Vatican had given in and (for practical purposes) acknowledged the Hanoverian dynasty (Kybett, p. 313; Cook, p. 424) -- the Vatican at this time, rather than recognize Charles as King Charles III, offered to recognize him as Prince of Wales! (McLynn-Charlie, p. 481). Every other country had long since accepted George III, and George II before him, as King of England.
But someone finally turned up a possible spouse in Louise of Stolberg, "young, fair, gay, penniless, it is true, but claiming the blood of Bruce in her veins and eager to become a 'Queen.' She was one of a quartette of fatherless daughters, and her mother, who had been left a widow at twenty-five in straightened circumstances, was willing enough to range one of her brood by presenting her to a titular King. Indeed, if Louise failed to suit, Charles might have a younger child for a bride" (Cook, p. 424). "[Louise] seems to have made the sacrifice very willingly. The marriage was first performed by proxy at Paris [Charles was there, Louisa wasn't]... and [she] was formally united to him on Good Friday 1772" (Wilkinson, p. 236). Charles called her his "Queen of Hearts" (Magnusson, p. 629), and he may even have cut back on his drinking for a while -- but not for long.
Charles was 51 at this time, and "Louise was young, and she took lovers -- first Alfieri, then Gehegan, an Irishman. Charles, his suspicions aroused, broke into her room one day, and there was a disgraceful scene" (Wilkinson, p. 236). She never produced a child, however; I seem to recall reading somewhere that she is suspected of having been sterile.
Having given up on Louise, Charles tried to have Charlotte legitimized (Wilkinson, p. 237), making her Duchess of Albany, but, really, no one cared much. His claim to the English throne, such as it was, would pass to his brother Henry.
Wilkinson, p. 225, sums up the truth and the legend this way. "The great romantic tradition of which this simple-minded young man of action was the unconscious founder still lived and flourished under the trampling boots of the southern invaders, and was to burst into bloom half a century later, with a riot of music and song, idealist tartans, and impossible Floras, and a whole new springtime of romance, which we may sneer at if we like as early nineteenth century sentimentalism, but which is really a hard, imperishable growth.... From this point of view -- indeed, from any point of view -- the later period of Prince Charlie's life does not greatly matter. It is a perfectly sound popular instinct which thinks of him always as a young man, ignoring those weary, wasted, insignificant years. There is little to be gained from the contemplation of a man of action who has no longer anything to do."
Compared to the rest of his family, he had a short life -- possibly the result of his alcoholism. By 1786, he was in poor health (McLynn-Charlie, p. 548). He had a stroke early in 1788, and died on January 30 of that year at the age of 67 (McLynn-Charlie, p. 549), with his daughter by his side and his brother Henry administering the last rites of the church that he had earlier scorned and that had cost him his chance for a crown. His father, by contrast, lived to be 78, and Cardinal York, the titular Henry IX, died in 1807 at 82 -- by which time he was actually being given a pension by the English government (Kybett, p. 314)! -- possibly in return for making over some of the Sobieski gems to become part of the English crown jewels. On the other hand, Charlotte outlived her father by only a little more than a year, dying in late 1789 of what McLynn-Charlie, p. 550, describes as liver cancer.
I have read, somewhere, that Charlotte had no children, and even Kybett, p. 304, says that Charles was "not aware" of the existence of any grandchildren. But Kybett, on that same page, says that Charlotte, in the period when her father would have nothing to do with her, became the mistress of a French bishop, and had three illegitimate children -- a daughter Algae, born 1780; a daughter Marie, born 1782, and a son Charles Edward, born 1783. It was shortly after the birth of the latter that Charles and Charlotte were reconciled. Magnusson, p. 629, claims however that Charlotte had married (presumably making the children legitimate), but that she left them behind when Charles summoned her.
The fate of these children seems to have been sad. Their father does not seem to have done anything for them; their grandmother Clementina Walkinshaw, herself quite poor, cared for them until she died in 1802 (Kybett, p. 312). In any case, they were clearly illegitimate. James the Old Pretender's claim to the throne lived only in Henry, and it died out when he died. Officially there is still a Catholic heir to the Stuarts out there (I seem to recall that it was the heir of one of the defunct Germany dynasties), but in practice the Jacobite threat, never very great, died with Charles in 1788.
Among the others mentioned in this song:
"Lochiel": Donald Cameron, Lochiel of Cameron (1695-1748, called the "Young Lochiel," even though he was middle-aged, because his father was in exile as a Jacobite), the first great chief to come to Charlie's support. He was wounded at Culloden, and, like Charles, would die in exile; the British would execute his brother.
Drummond: Probably the aforementioned Lord John Drummond, though it might be William MacGregor of Drummond (Bahaldy), like Lochiel early supporter of Charlie, since the others mentioned were among the prince's earliest supporters.
Lewis Gordon was responsible for raising most of the troops from the Aberdeenshire area. For a song about him, see "Lewie Gordon (Lewis Gordon)."
As noted above, the argument these three presented was, in a sense, sound: The Highlanders would have been depressed and would have deserted had the Jacobite army retreated. You wonder, though, if they weren't motivated partly by the fear of British retribution....
>>BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY BOOKS<<
Brander: Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, Barnes & Noble, 1993
Browning: Reed Browning, _The War of the Austrian Succession_, 1993 (I use the 1995 St. Martin's Griffin edition)
Cook: E. Thornton Cook, _Their Majesties of Scotland_, John Murray, 1928
Dorn: Walter L. Dorn, _Competition for Empire, 1740-1763_ (part of the series "The Rise of Modern Europe"), 1940 (I use the 1963 Harper Torchbooks edition with revised bibliography)
Fry/Fry: Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, _The History of Scotland_, 1982 (I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition)
James: Lawrence James, _Warrior Race: A History of the British at War_, 2001 (I use the 2002 Abacus Books edition)
Penguin, 1988, 1990
Keegan/Wheatcroft: John Keegan and Andrew Wheatcroft, _Who's Who in Military History from 1453_, 1976, 1987 (I use the 1991 Promotional Reprint Company edition)
Kybett: Susan Maclean Kybett, _Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography of Charles Edward Stuart_, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1988. It should probably be noted that this is a highly unusual biography in that Kybett intensely dislikes and disapproves of her subject; where most biographies tend to take the most generous view of their subject, Kybett's work is almost a hatchet job -- the only other people I can think of who are so harshly treated by their biographers are Hitler and Richard III. (To give an example: Shortly before Culloden, the Jacobite leaders were treated to a banquet. Charles, according to some accounts, refused to eat while his men were starving. Kybett manages to put this in a context which makes it sound like an example of the Prince's lack of feeling!)
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, _Scotland: The Story of a Nation_, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
McLynn-Army: Frank McLynn, _The Jacobite Army in England, 1745: The Final Campaign_, John Donald, 1998
McLynn-Charlie: Frank McLynn, _Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart_, 1988 (I use the 1991 Oxford paperback edition). Of the three biographies I used, this is the only one to see both good and bad qualities in Charles.
Mitchison: Rosalind Mitchison, _A History of Scotland_, second edition, Methuen, 1982
Reid: Stuart Reid, _1745: A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising_, Sarpedon, 1966
Sinclair-Stevenson: Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, _Blood Royal: The Illustrious House of Hannover_, Doubleday, 1979, 1980
Thomson: Oliver Thomson, _The Great Feud: The Campbells & The Macdonalds_, Sutton Publishing, 2000
Wilkinson: Clennell Wilkinson _Bonnie Prince Charlie_, Lippincott, no copyright listed but after 1932. Of the three biographies (Kybett, McLynn-Charlie, and Wilkinson), this is by far the one most favorable to the prince. It has clearly been influenced heavily by the romantic view of Charles.
Young/Adair: Peter Young & John Adair, _Hastings to Culloden: Battles of Britain_, 1964, 1979; third edition published by Sutton Publishing, 1996 - BS, RBW
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===
NAME: Muirland Farmer, The
DESCRIPTION: "I am a gweed fairmer has acres o lan'," servants, a "mansion hoose," "A dainty we wifie," and two children. He describes the farm, the lake with wild ducks, the snug house, his church clothes, and his good luck at selling his barley crop.
AUTHOR: Andrew Scott (1757-1839) (source: Whitelaw)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1845 (Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad animal
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greig #122, p. 1, "The Muirland Farmer" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan3 433, "The Muirland Farmer" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 94, "The Gude Farmer"
Roud #5949
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow" (tune, per Whitelaw)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Farmer
The Sma' Farmer
The Aul' Farmer
NOTES: The Greig version and two of the GreigDuncan3 versions add verses not in Whitelaw. - BS
File: GrD3433
===
NAME: Muirsheen Durkin: see Good bye Mursheen Durkin (File: OLcM036)
===
NAME: Mulb'ry Bush: see Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (File: Lins038)
===
NAME: Mulberry Disaster
DESCRIPTION: A storm-tossed ship is blown near Mulberry. The crew abandon ship. One of the boats overturns, drowning five of its seven passengers. The rest of the piece is devoted to mourning for the lost sailors
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: death sea storm wreck
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Dec 12, 1800 - date of the Mulberry Disaster (according to the song)
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 114-117, "Mulberry Disaster" (1 text, 1 tune); cf. also the fragment about Calais Pond on page 119
ST FO114 (Partial)
Roud #4678
NOTES: For a song so long, and so specific as to place and date, this is surprisingly unspecific about the actual people involved -- a moniker song without the monikers! This makes it hard to determine actual historical details. - RBW
File: FO114
===
NAME: Mulcahey's Gone Away: see Mulcahy's Gone Away (File: Dean083)
===
NAME: Mulcahy's Gone Away
DESCRIPTION: "The hero of my humble song was once a mighty man, A shining light in his neighborhood, the chief of all his clan." Mulcahey, a politician, loses his office and disappears. His family laments as they seek for him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: family separation
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 83, "Mulcahey's Gone Away" (1 text)
Roud #9570
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Home Again" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (character?)
NOTES: Dean has three songs about Mulcahy/Mulcahey, and they present a bit of a conundrum -- and not just because he can't decide how to spell the name! None of them seem to appear in any other source. The feel of the three is very similar, so I suspect some sort of stage origin.
It appears, adding them up, that Mulcahy was a big man in some sort of Irish neighbourhood. Then he was given some sort of a patronage job, presumably for turning out a large Irish vote for a particular candidate. It is not clear whether he was fired or simply let go when another administration came in.
The Irish community in Minnesota is large enough that such a story might be possible here. But it frankly souns much more like New York City to me -- local bosses were much more important there. My out-of-the-blue speculation is that this might come from some sort of musical show telling, indirectly, of the fall of Boss Tweed. But that is a lot of speculation based on very little data. - RBW
File: Dean083
===
NAME: Mulcahy's Home Again
DESCRIPTION: "I come with news tonight, me boys, just listen for a while." The singer tells of his amazement that Mulcahy has returned home. The famous Mulcahy has had enough of politics and has decided to return to his roots
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: reunion
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 78, "Mulcahy's Home Again" (1 text)
Roud #9567
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Gone Away" (character?)
File: Dean078
===
NAME: Mulcahy's Sister Kate
DESCRIPTION: "You have heard me sing of a hero bold, Mulcahy was his name, And, faith, he had a sister, too, that was noted for her fame." Kate Mulcahy is tall, red-haired, and apparently unmarried at 28; she cooks at a boarding house
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: cook sister
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 76-77, "Mulcahy's Sister Kate" (1 text)
Roud #9565
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mulcahy's Home Again" (character?)
cf. "Mulcahy's Gone Away" (character?)
NOTES: As it stands in Dean, nothing much happens in this song, which seems to be about an old maid. Possibly the singer is courting her to get her money? But Dean's version has only two verses; I suspect a Stage Irish song; either Dean has forgotten some of the lyrics, or they made sense in the context of the drama.
For more on the story, see the notes to "Mulcahy's Gone Away." - RBW
File: Dean076B
===
NAME: Muldoon, the Solid Man
DESCRIPTION: "I am a man of great influence... I came when small from Donegal, in the Daniel Webster I crossed the sea." Hard work has brought the singer success. He promises the listeners he will "use you decent... I'm a solid man." He tells of his social sucess.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: emigration work
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, pp. 102-103, "Muldoon, the solid Man" (1 text)
Roud #3355
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "I'll Lay You Doon, Love," presumably on the basis of the chorus ("So come with me and I'll use you decent, I'll get you drunk and I'll fill your can...."). But that is a song of seduction, while this is a song telling of prosperity. They seem clearly separate to me, though there may be some cross-influence.
The song mentions General Grant. This require a date after 1862 (when Grant became a general and fought his first significant battles) and hints at a date before 1868 (when he was elected President).- RBW
File: Dean102
===
NAME: Mule
DESCRIPTION: "The mule he is the funniest sight; he's made of ears and dynamite." "Some folks don't treat mules with respect; they say he has no intellect." "The mule attends to his own biz; He don't look loaded, but he is."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from Annie E. Franklin)
KEYWORDS: humorous animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. XX, "" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and refences there
File: MHAp225
===
NAME: Mule Skinner Blues
DESCRIPTION: "Good morning, Captain, Good morning, shine... Do you need another mule skinner out on your new road line?" About the hard life on the road work gang, waiting for water, and dealing with a mule
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Jimmie Rodgers)
KEYWORDS: work loneliness animal floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 152, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text, 1 tune, with one stanza of "T for Texas" thrown in for fun)
Silber-FSWB, p. 129, "Mule Skinner Blues" (1 text)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 67-70, "I Can Buckle a Wheeler" (2 texts, 2 tunes, both probably the same as one of the composite parts of Lomax's "Levee Camp Holler"; the "A" text also contains a large part of "Mule Skinner Blues")
Roud #3437
RECORDINGS:
Roy Acuff, "Mule Skinner Blues" (OKeh 05638, 1940)
Maddox Bros. & Rose, "New Muleskinner Blues" (4-Star 1240/4-Star 1288, n.d. but post-WWII)
Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys, "Mule Skinner Blues" (Bluebird B-8568, 1940; RCA Victor 20-3163, 1948)
Bill Monroe & his Bluegrass Boys, "New Muleskinner Blues" (Decca 46222, 1950)
Sonny Osborne, "Mule Skinner Blues" (Kentucky 605, n.d.)
Jimmie Rodgers, "Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel #8)" (Victor 23503, 1930; Bluebird B-6275, 1936; RCA Victor 20-6205 [as Jimmie Rodgers w. the Rainbow Ranch Boys], 1955)
Pete Seeger w. Jerry Silverman & Sonny Terry, "Muleskinner Blues" (on HootenannyTonight)
NOTES: A "skinner" is a teamster.
To the best of my knowledge, every known version of this goes back to Jimmie Rodgers ("Blue Yodel #8"). I doubt the song can truly be considered traditional. - RBW
To add to the fun, the Lomaxes tacked part of another Rodgers piece, "T for Texas," onto the end of this one. Given that neither song has much of a plot, it can be hard to separate the resulting hybrids. - PJS, RBW
One more bit of mixture: "Chinaman" Johnson's song "I Can Buckle a Wheeler," which seems to be mostly the same as the song the Lomaxes call "Levee Camp Holler," starts with a couple of verses of this. "Chinaman" sang the song more than thirty years after Rodgers recorded it, so the two could have simply been attracted together -- but the flip side is, who was worrying about mule behavior in 1965? I think we just have to call the whole thing a mess. - RBW
File: LoF152
===
NAME: Mule Skinner Blues (II): see T for Texas (Blue Yodel #1) (File: LoF152A)
===
NAME: Mule Skinner's Song
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I drove three mules for George McVane, And I drove them three miles on a chain. Nigh one Jude and the middle one Jane, And the one on the stick she didn't have no name."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: animal harvest work
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, p. 400, "Mule Skinner's Song" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
File: San400
===
NAME: Mule, The (Never Take the Hindshoe from a Mule)
DESCRIPTION: "A story come down from old Mathuslam... You'll make a great mistake... If you bother around the hind parts of a mule. So never tickle a mule when he's reposing; If you disturb his peaceful slumbers, you're a fool...."  Thus the practical advice continues
AUTHOR: Sam Devere
EARLIEST_DATE: 1882
KEYWORDS: animal humorous parody
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
FSCatskills 108, "The Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MULESONG*
Roud #4601
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (of which this is a parody)
NOTES: Written as a parody of the popular song "Never Take the Horseshoe from the Door" (by Edward Harrigan and Dave Braham). As the original was written in 1880, it didn't take long for the parodists to start. - RBW
File: FSC108
===
NAME: Mules That Walked Our Fo'c'sle Deck, The
DESCRIPTION: "The mules that walked our fo'c'sle deck, They were two mules of fame; They sailed the Lakes for many a year." The singer describes the mules, the tasks they did, how they adapted to sailing, the messes they made, and says one of them should be mate
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1952 (collected from James Dix and others by Walton)
KEYWORDS: animal work sailor ship humorous
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont) US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Walton/Grimm/Murdock, pp. 135-137, "The Mules That Walked Our Fo'c'sle Deck" (1 composite text)
NOTES: Many deep-sea sailing vessels carried animals aboard -- chickens on short voyages, perhaps even pigs and cattle for long. The idea was to have fresh meat. Great Lakes vessels, never far from short, normally did not do this, so a good chunk of this song is devoted to complaints about the two mules' waste products.
According to Walton, many timber vessels carried mules aboard, to do the heavy lifting of loading and unloading logs. When this work was taken over by steam engines, they were called "donkey engines."
Walton's informant said that work on these "horseshit boats" was extremely wearying, so sailors rarely signed on for more than one trip. Hence it was quite possible (as in this song) that the mules would be more used to the work than the sailors.
Walton indicates no tune for this, but I can't help but suspect that it is the same melody as that used for "On Mules We Find Two Legs (Before/Behind)," which I seem to recall my father singing to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne." - RBW
File: WGM135
===
NAME: Mullaghdoo
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls how "Hugh Fulton, once my comrade dear, Pursuing fortune, left his home"; Hugh is now in Nova Scotia. The singer is lonely at home now that Hugh is far away. When he left, Hugh asked that they play Auld Lang Syne for Mullaghdoo
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration separation
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H2, pp. 215-216, "" (1 text, 2 tunes -- Sam Henry's different transcriptions of the same original)
DT, MULLGDOO*
NOTES: An unusual emigration song, told by one of those left behind. - RBW
File: HHH002
===
NAME: Mullinabrone
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees two lovers saying goodbye. He is going to America; she fears he will forget her. At last she can stand it no longer; she buys passage to America. At first she cannot find him, but meets him eventually; they are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation emigration reunion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H242, p. 483-484, "Mullinabrone" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2494
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "You Lovers All" (plot)
cf. "My Father's Servant Boy" [Laws M11] (plot)
cf. "Erin's Flowery Vale (The Irish Girl's Lament)" [Laws O29] (lyrics)
NOTES: The lyrics of this song often overlap those of "Erin's Flowery Vale," and the first part of the plot is also the same. But this is somewhat less, um, flowery, and it also has a proper ending, which "Erin's Flowery Vale" (as defined by Laws) does not. There probably is kinship, but perhaps the most likely explanation is that both split off from the same roots; they aren't really the same song any longer. - RBW
File: HHH242
===
NAME: Mullnabeeny (Mill of Boyndie)
DESCRIPTION: "When I was young and in my prime, Guid-fegs, like me there wisna mony." The singer recalls his success at a young age: A good fee, fine clothes, and the attention of the ladies. He wishes he were back in the days when his old hat was new
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming age clothes
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greig #167, pp. 2-3, "Mullnabeeny" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan3 441, "Mullnabeeny" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, p. 249, "Mill of Boyndie (Mullnabeeny)" (1 text)
Roud #5576
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "When This Old Hat Was New" (the concept of "When this old hat was new")
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Mill o' Beenie
When My Auld Hat Was New
NOTES: Ord explains that the name "Mullnabeeny" is local dialect for "Milne of Boyndie" -- yet calls his version "Mill of Boyndie." - RBW
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Mill of Boyndie (441) is at coordinate (h6-7,v6) on that map [near Banff, roughly 41 miles NNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
File: Ord249
===
NAME: Mulroy Bay
DESCRIPTION: The singer thinks about the hills of home, where he spent his happy childhood. "I'll soon be coming back to the place, To the sweetheart that I met so many years ago" at Mulroy Bay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1986 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: love home return reunion nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 55, "Mulroy Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Mulroy Bay is in Donegal. - BS
File: McB1055
===
NAME: Munro's Confession: see The Murder of Sarah Vail [Laws F9] (File: LF09)
===
NAME: Munro's Tragedy: see Donald Munroe [Laws J12] (File: LJ12)
===
NAME: Murder of Alan Beyne, The
DESCRIPTION: A young man is to be hanged for the murder of Alan Beyne. He repeatedly protests his innocence, but judge and jury condemned him. Just before the sentence is carried out, a rider rides up, and proves to be Beyne. The singer is saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935
KEYWORDS: execution punishment reprieve mother murder
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 243-245, "The Murder of Alan Beyne" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, ALANBANE*
Roud #2974
RECORDINGS:
Almeda Riddle, "Alan Bain" (on LomaxCD1707)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Alan Bane
Alan Bain
NOTES: Said to be based on an actual event of the 1860s. - RBW
According to the notes in Lomax, W. K. McNeil says this originated in Australia. McNeil tends to be right a lot. - PJS
File: MA243
===
NAME: Murder of Alfreda Pike, The
DESCRIPTION: Out walking, Alfreda Pike, sixteen, is overtaken and her throat is cut. If the murderer is found he'll be lynched. Alfreda is buried at Harbour Grace.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: murder burial
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jan 5, 1870 - murder of Alfreda Pike in Harbour Grace by Constable Furey
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 821-822, "The Murder of Alfreda Pike" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9810
NOTES: Constable Furey, who had been involved in the murder investigation, made a death-bed confession, more than 50 years later. Evidence of the confession was lost until revealed in a book by Jack Fitzgerald published in 1997. Source is an excerpt from _The Hangman is Never Late_ by Jack Fitzgerald on the Creative Book Publishing site. Creative Book Publishing is in St. John's, Newfoundland - BS
File: Pea821
===
NAME: Murder of Ann O'Brien, The: see James MacDonald [Laws P38] (File: LP38)
===
NAME: Murder of Charles Stacey, The
DESCRIPTION: Charles Stacey goes out on a Sunday morning and meets three drunks -- one of whom had lost his girlfriend to Stacey. The three ruffians wait till Stacey and the girl return from church, then shoot him. Stacey shoots back at one, then dies and is buried
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: murder courting revenge burial
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 173, "The Murder of Charles Stacey" (1 text)
Roud #4119
NOTES: This song is item dF47 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: R173
===
NAME: Murder of Dennis Somers, The: see Murder of Young Somers (File: GrMa153)
===
NAME: Murder of F. C. Benwell, The [Laws E26]
DESCRIPTION: J. R. Birchell is condemned to die for murdering F. C. Benwell. He had tried to pretend innocence in the trial; the attempt failed. His wife bids him farewell, and he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918
KEYWORDS: murder execution
FOUND_IN: US(MW,Ro) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws E26, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell"
LPound-ABS, 65, pp. 148-149, "The Death of Bendall" (1 text, joined with "Charles Guiteau")
Burt, p. 228-229, "(J. R. Birchell)" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 135-136, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" (1 text)
DT 732, MURBENW*
Roud #2255
RECORDINGS:
Lamont Tilden, "The Murder of F. C. Benwell" (on Ontario1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Charles Guiteau" [Laws E11] (tune & meter) and references there
NOTES: According to Spaeth, "J. R. Birchell killed F. C. Benwell in the swamps near Blenheim, Ontario, and then wrote the account of his own execution...." As, however, no date is offered, and the same story is told about every "Charles Guiteau" variant, the reader is advised to take this with a grain of salt. - RBW
File: LE26
===
NAME: Murder of Grace Brown, The: see Grace Brown and Chester Gillette [Laws F7] (File: LF07)
===
NAME: Murder of James A. Garfield, The: see Charles Guiteau [Laws E11] (File: LE11)
===
NAME: Murder of John Codman, The
DESCRIPTION: "What sad and awful scenes are these Presented to your View." The crimes of Mark and Phillis, slaves who murdered their master, "appear as black as hell." The two are condemned for "poys'ning" their master, and are condemned to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: slave murder poison punishment execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 18, 1755 - Execution of the slaves Mark and Phillis for their role in the poisoning of their owner John Codman of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A third slave, Phoebe, was acquitted
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 154-155, (no title) (1 excerpted text)
File: Burt154
===
NAME: Murder of John Dugar, The
DESCRIPTION: John Dugar and Charles Robisher quarrel. Dugar murders Captain Charles. Dugar reaches Liverpool and tries to take ship, but is overtaken by a detective. He is tried and condemned.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: murder escape trial punishment execution fight
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 172-173, "The Murder of John Dugar" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO172 (Partial)
Roud #4681
NOTES: Helen Flanders's informant, W. B. Morton, believed that this murder took place in Digby, Nova Scotia, although his text (which is complete on the face of it but badly confused) seems to point to County Clare in Ireland - RBW
File: FO172
===
NAME: Murder of John Love, The
DESCRIPTION: Broadside. "Again the murderer's ruthless hand Has stained with blood our happy land!" "Three brothers bent on crimes and blood... Have murdered Love, their nearest friend." "The gallows now must end our days, And we must walk in unknown ways."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder punishment execution friend brother gallows-confession
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 17, 1825 - Hanging of brothers Isaac, Israel, and Nelson Thayer for the murder of John Love, to whom they owed money
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 77, (no title) (2 excerpts)
File: Burt077
===
NAME: Murder of Laura Foster, The [Laws F36]
DESCRIPTION: Laura Foster's fiance and his new sweetheart kill her and bury her. Her parents find the body, and it is agreed that she has been murdered. In the Brown texts, at least, the fate of the murderer is not mentioned
AUTHOR: Thomas Land?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: murder corpse family
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1866 - Murder of Laura Foster by Thomas C. Dula (and his new sweetheart Ann Melton). Dula apparently killed Foster because he had contracted a venereal disease from her
May 1, 1868 - Dula is hanged for the murder.
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws F36, "The Murder of Laura Foster"
BrownII 302, "The Murder of Laura Foster" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Roud #1935
RECORDINGS:
Sheila Clark, "The Ballad of Laura Foster" (on LegendTomDula)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tom Dooley" [Laws F36A] (plot)
cf. "Tom Dula's Lament" (subject)
NOTES: Laws does not name an author for this ballad, but the attribution to Thomas Land (a Confederate veteran) seems to have been well known to Brown's informants, and the poetry has the stilted feel of a composition which, at the time of collection, was still close to its composed origins.
For background to this song, see the notes to "Tom Dooley." - RBW
John Craig, the source for [Sheila] Clark's version, learned it from his great-grandmother, Zora Church Lee. He describes the ballad as having been "taken from a popular local account" written by Land. So it sounds like Land wrote the story in prose, which was then made into poetry by an unknown author. Clark's song retains the stilted feel Bob mentions. - PJS
File: LF36
===
NAME: Murder of Maria Marten, The
DESCRIPTION: William Corder has Maria Marten meet him at the red barn before they go to Ipswich to be married. He murders her and buries the body in the red barn. Her body is discovered by following her mother's dream. Corder is tried and sentenced to be hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1862 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 14(239))
KEYWORDS: courting murder dream gallows-confessions mother
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 11, 1828 - William Corder is executed for the May 1827 murder of Maria Marten (source: NLScotland commentary to broadside L.C.Fol.70(71b))
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, MARMARTN*
Roud #215
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(239), "Murder of Maria Marten, by William Corder" ("Come all you thoughtless young men a warning take by me"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1855-1861; also Firth c.17(110), Firth b.25(379), "Murder of Maria Marten by W. Corder"; Firth c.17(111), "Murder of Maria Martin by W. Corder" 
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(71b), "The Murder of Maria Marten by W. Corder," unknown, c.1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maria Marten" (subject)
NOTES: Description based on broadside Bodleian, Harding B 14(239). Roud assigne the same number to "Maria Marten"; the texts are clearly different and told from a different point of view. This is a gallows confession.
There is a sequel broadside -- Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 2416, "A copy of verses, on the execution of Wm. Corder, for the murder of Maria Marten, in the Red Barn, Polstead," unknown, no date -- in which he is executed August 11. The commentary to Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(71b) states that a "broadsheet published in London by James Catnach about this crime sold over one million copies."
Hall, notes to Voice03 for "Maria Marten": "The story captured the popular imagination through its additional representation in the melodrama, _Murder In The Red Barn_, played by countless amateur and touring companies."
Yates, Musical Traditions site _Voice of the People suite_ "Notes - Volume 3" - 19.8.02: "[Marten's] three illegitimate children - to different fathers - and her possible criminal activities with Corder became overshadowed by the myth that grew up around her death. Indeed, research now suggests that her mother's 'supernatural dreams' were motivated not so much by psychic phenomena as by her own criminal knowledge and probable association with Corder." 
A note for _The Haunting of William Corder_ on the Alistair Ferguson site: "The true-life murder of Maria Marten, upon which John Latimer's famous [Victorian] melodrama 'Maria Marten; or The Murder in the Red Barn" is based, has been adapted several times over the years. This is my version of the story."
There are references at IMDB [Internet Movie DataBase site] to movies from 1902 (_Maria Marten: or, The Murder at the Red Barn_), and 1935 (_Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn_). - BS
The Digital Tradition lists this has been collected from one Joseph Taylor (initially in 1908), who sang a three-verse fragment to the tune of "The Star of the County Down"/"Dives and Lazarus." - RBW
File: BdTMoMM
===
NAME: Murder of Marian Parker, The: see Marian Parker (II) (File: LdF56)
===
NAME: Murder of Mary Tuplin, The
DESCRIPTION: June 1887. Mary leaves home "her lover for to see Down by the river Margaret." Her jealous lover shoots her "through her brain," ties a rope with a stone around her waist "and dashed her in the tide." Her body being found, Willy Millman is hanged.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: execution murder trial
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Jun 28, 1887 - Murder of Mary Tuplin by William Millman
1888 - Execution of Millman
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 71-72, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12463
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Prince Edward Island Murder" (subject)
cf. "The Millman Song" (subject)
cf. "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (subject)
NOTES: Roud has at least five different numbers for this event:
Roud #1837: Creighton-NovaScotia 140, "Prince Edward Island Murder" [Laws dF59]
Roud #4129: Doerflinger, pp. 285-286, "The Millman Song" (also Ives-DullCare, pp. 180-181, "The Millman Murder Trial") [LawsdF60]
Roud #9179: Ives-DullCare, pp. 46-47, "The Millman and Tuplin Song" (also Manny/Wilson 50, "Young Millman")
Roud #9552: Shea, pp. 174-179, "The Millman Tragedy"
Roud #12463: Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 72-73, "The Murder of Mary Tuplin" - BS
File: Dib071
===
NAME: Murder of McBriars, The
DESCRIPTION: McBriars, "master of an Orange Lodge," stops for whisky at a tavern and proclaims his Orange loyalty too loudly. He is killed "by Papish schemes" and "three villains" "He was an old and feeble man not able to resist" Thousands attend the funeral.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c.1860 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: murder funeral drink political
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Zimmermann 99, "The Murder of McBriars" (1 text, 1 tune)
OrangeLark 14, "The Murder of McBriars" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Zimmermann: "McBriars is said to have been killed in the early 1860's." - BS
File: Zimm099
===
NAME: Murder of Miss Wyatt, The: see Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14] (File: LF14)
===
NAME: Murder of Pearl Bryan, The (Pearl Bryan V)
DESCRIPTION: The Setters take on the Peal Bryan story: "A horrible crime was committed Soon was brought to light; For parents to look on their headless girl, What a sad and terrible sight." Jackson's insanity plea fails; he is to be executed; Walling's trial awaits
AUTHOR: adapted by James W. Day ("Jilson Setters")
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: murder trial execution punishment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 131-135, "The Murder of Pearl Bryan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt, p. 32, (no title) (1 excerpt)
ST ThBa131 (Partial)
Roud #500
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan III" [Laws F3]
cf. "Pearl Bryan (IV)"
NOTES: Thomas's version is rather a curiosity, since she learned it from Jilson Setters decades after the murder but he never updated the song. There is no evidence that it ever circulated in tradition.
Roud lumps this with Laws F1(B). But while it's just possible that that song inspired Jilson Setters, this is not a version of the Laws ballad. But my guess is that the song was inspired by the piece which Burt excerpts, since both songs end with a stanza about Pearl and her head being reunited in heaven.  - RBW
File: ThBa131
===
NAME: Murder of Sarah Vail, The [Laws F9]
DESCRIPTION: John Monroe, a married man with two children, seduces Sarah Vail, who bears him a child. He takes woman and child on a trip, murders them, and hides their bodies. When his crime is discovered, he is hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: murder pregnancy children corpse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Oct 31, 1868 - Murder of Sarah Vail and her child
Feb 1870 - Hanging of John Monroe
FOUND_IN: US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws F9, "The Murder of Sarah Vail"
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 89, "Munro's Confession" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 760, SARAVAIL
Roud #2258
File: LF09
===
NAME: Murder of Susan Newham, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come friends and relations, I b id you adieu, The grace is now open to welcome me through." The singer admits, "I killed Susan Newham as you have heard tell," bids his friends not to mourn, and looks forward to seeing her in heaven
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder execution reunion gallows-confession
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, p. 178, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: According to Burt, J. B. Crane was a schoolteacher in Hangtown, California, who became enamored of his student Susan Newham. She rejected him, and he murdered her in 1854. Crane reportedly surrendered to the police, but was captured by vigilantes and hung. - RBW 
File: Burt178
===
NAME: Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey, The
DESCRIPTION: "Kilmainham's blood is avenged" by the murder of James Carey on board the Melrose. "So traitors all beware I say, And innocent blood don't take away, For vengeful hands shall you repay"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: betrayal murder revenge Africa
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: The Phoenix Park murders (source: primarily Zimmermann, pp. 62, 63, 281-286.)
May 6, 1882 - Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Under Secretary Thomas Henry Burke are murdered by a group calling themselves "The Invincible Society."
January 1883 - twenty seven men are arrested.
James Carey, one of the leaders in the murders, turns Queen's evidence.
Six men are condemned to death, four are executed (Joseph Brady is hanged May 14, 1883; Daniel Curley is hanged on May 18, 1883), others are "sentenced to penal servitude," and Carey is freed and goes to South Africa.
July 29, 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell kills Carey on board the "Melrose Castle" sailing from Cape Town to Durban.
Dec 1883 - Patrick O'Donnell is convicted of the murder of James Carey and executed in London (per Leach-Labrador)
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann, p. 63, "A New Song on the Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey" (references only)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(452), "A New Song on The Murder of the Double-Dyed Informer James Carey ("In a far off land, 'neath an African sun "), unknown, n.d.
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Phoenix Park Tragedy" (subject: the Phoenix Park murders) and references there
NOTES: Per notes to broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452): "Carey, James, 1845-1883 "
Zimmermann p. 62: "The Phoenix Park murders and their judicial sequels struck the popular imagination and were a gold-mine for ballad-writers: some thirty songs were issued on this subject, which was the last great cause to be so extensively commented upon in broadside ballads."
Zimmermann p. 63 notes that, in the chorus of this broadside, the executed men have become "those martyrs brave." 
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 26(452) is the basis for the description.
Double-dyed: "Dyed twice; thoroughly or intensely colored; hence; firmly fixed in opinions or habits; as, a double-dyed villain." (Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) at the Online Dictionary site) - BS
File: BrdMDDIJ
===
NAME: Murder of the Gibbons Children, The: see The Ashland Tragedy (III) [Laws F27] (File: LF27)
===
NAME: Murder of the King of Scots, The: see Earl Bothwell [Child 174] (File: C174)
===
NAME: Murder of Thomas Walsh, The
DESCRIPTION: "It's a sad and cruel tragedy I am going to relate, Happened near Willow City in North Dakota state." Harmless old Thomas Walsh is found dead. Sheriff Billy Pitts arrests William Ross, who is convicted and bids a sad farewell
AUTHOR: Thomas Cave?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder trial execution punishment
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: July 5, 1903 - Discovery of the murdered body of farmer Thomas Walsh
Mar 6, 1903 - William Ross executed (in Ohio) for the murder of Ross
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 82-83, (no title) (1 text)
File: Burt082
===
NAME: Murder of William Funston, The
DESCRIPTION: William Funston is murdered near Trillick. The Catholic Maguires are arrested for the crime. "Two purged Orangemen named Smith and Armstrong" are paid to swear against them. McGrory implicates Armstrong. The singer hopes they will be acquitted.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973 (Morton-Maguire)
KEYWORDS: murder trial accusation lie political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Morton-Maguire 52, pp. 147-148,175, "The Murder of William Funston" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2935
NOTES: The song says the murder occurred near Trillick town on March 9, fair-day of Irvinestown, County Fermanagh. Morton-Maguire: "... such happenings are likely to take place when inter-religious tension is high in this country, so perhaps we can suggest sometime during the 1910s or 1920s as the possible date of this particular incident. At such times each side of the religious divide will tend to think the worst of those on the other side." Funston himself was, according to the song, an Orangeman. - BS
File: MoMa052
===
NAME: Murder of Young Somers
DESCRIPTION: "When the news it did come in, Sebastopol was taken, (there was rejoicing in the city, and drinking, and young Somers was murdered.)" Somers is knifed to death by accident; "(the man who stabbed Somers ... was after another man)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: fight war death drink
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 9, 1855 - Fall of Sevastopol following an 11 month siege
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 153, "Murder of Young Somers" (1 fragment)
Peacock, pp. 823-824, "The Murder of Dennis Somers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #17750
NOTES: Peacock believes the murder took place in St John's. - BS
File: GrMa153
===
NAME: Murder Song
DESCRIPTION: A rich lady asks poor Willie to marry. She gives him 15000 pounds for their passage to a country where he can be a gentleman. He throws her in the deep. A wave reveals the corpse. Good Friday her ghost testifies against him and he is sentenced to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: execution trial murder river gallows-confessions ghost
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 90, "Murder Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB090 (Partial)
Roud #2769
NOTES: Well, almost a gallows-confession. The last verse is truncated but has his parents standing by for the execution on April 29, but -- while the ballad starts with a hope that the listeners will pray for him -- he doesn't get to repeat that request at the end.
Creighton-SNewBrunswick: "The place name may be Lipper or Lifford; it was difficult to make out." I repeat that here because it may help connect this tale with some other ballad or some specific murder. - BS
My obvious conjecture would be "Liffey." But that doesn't really help -- though obviously a lot of Irish emigrated to America, so it could connect with the emigration theme. Nor does the April 29 date, though of course that could have been garbled. - RBW
File: CrSNB090
===
NAME: Murdered Boy, The: see The Twa Brothers [Child 49] (File: C049)
===
NAME: Murdered Brother, The: see Edward [Child 13] (File: C013)
===
NAME: Murdered by a Brother [Laws F12]
DESCRIPTION: A brother takes his sister sailing. He denounces her adulterous liaison and announces that he will be avenged. He has already drowned her lover; now he drowns her and sails back alone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: murder adultery sea
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws F12, "Murdered by a Brother"
DT 758, MURDBRO
Roud #1932
File: LF12
===
NAME: Murdered Girl, The: see The Wexford Girl [Laws P35] AND The Banks of the Ohio [Laws F5] AND  The Jealous Lover [Laws F1] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Murdered Pedlar, The
DESCRIPTION: "Vouchsafe thine aid, ye wondrous nine... A tragic scene transpired of late, The truth of which I will relate." "A Jewish pedlar was shot down, Ah, by a wretch called Warren Wood." "Hiram Williams was the peddlar's name." Wood is sentenced to hang
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Burt)
KEYWORDS: murder execution punishment Jew
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Aug 19, 1853 - Warren Wood robs and attempts to murder Hiram Williams (Williams survived long enough to identify a photograph of Wood)
Jun 20, 1864- Wood is hanged for murder
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 79-80, "(The Murdered Pedlar)" (1 text)
File: Burt079
===
NAME: Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come young and old attention give and lend a listening ear" as the singer tells of "a gay and sprightly youth who lived in Berlin Town." Henry Green becomes enamored of beautiful singer Mary Ann Wyatt, marries her, then murders her, and confesses
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Bulletin of theFolk Song Society of the Northeast)
KEYWORDS: murder marriage execution poison
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1845 - Murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (February) and execution of Henry Green (September)
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Burt, pp. 8-11, "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" [Laws F14] (subject, plot)
NOTES: This rather rare broadside on the Mary Wyatt/Henry Green story can be distinguished from the more common ballad "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)" by the lines quoted in the description and by its length.
According to Burt, Mary Ann Wyatt was a performer in a troupe which staged temperance dramas. Her appearance so excited Henry Green that he joined the troupe to court her. They were married in February 1845.
The marriage was so sudden that Green felt compelled to publicize it with a sleighing party for his friends, at which a former love told him that she had once wished to marry him. Wyatt felt sick the next day, and Green went to get some medicine. He shoved more and more down her throat, and she died by poison. 
Burt claims that there are seven different songs written about this story, but cites only this, parts of the Laws ballad, and a single stanza of a third (which might, however, be part of the Laws piece). - RBW
File: Burt008
===
NAME: Murphy in the Cupboard
DESCRIPTION: The singer loves Molly McClare. He finds her kitchen door open and hides in a cupboard. She returns kissing Murphy. When Murphy also has to hide in the cupboard he reveals he is Molly's husband. The singer locks Murphy in and leaves with the key.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (Lehr/Best)
KEYWORDS: love humorous hiding husband wife
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Lehr/Best 81, "Murphy in the Cupboard" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Boatsman and the Chest" [Laws Q8] (plot) and references there
File: LeBe081
===
NAME: Murrumbigdee Shearer, The
DESCRIPTION: "Come, all you jolly natives, and I'll relate to you Some of my observations -- adventures, too, a few." The singer tells of the stations he has visited to ask for work. Denied employment, he has stolen and even burned the place. He ends up in prison
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes prison
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 192-193, "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Maryborough Miner" (tune, theme)
File: PFS192
===
NAME: Murty Hynes
DESCRIPTION: Poor Bermingham is evicted from his farm for failure to pay rent. Murty Hines takes the farm but is persuaded by the Land League to give it up. The people celebrate. "Give three cheers for the Land League and nine for Murty Hines"
AUTHOR: T.D. Sullivan (1827-1914) (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: poverty Ireland political
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 14, "Murty Hynes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9757
NOTES: Formed in 1879, the Irish tenant farmers' Land League fought evictions and spearheaded land reforms through Parliament. - PJS
For other songs and more information on the League, see "The Moneygran Pig Hunt" and "The Bold Tenant Farmer."
Sullivan is the author of a number of Irish patriotic poems, of which "God Save Ireland" is probably the best-known. - RBW
File: OLcM014
===
NAME: Mush a Doody: see The Jug of Punch (File: K278)
===
NAME: Music Alone Shall Live
DESCRIPTION: German: "Himmel und Erde mussen verghen, Aber die musici (x3) Bleiben bestehn." English: "All things shall perish from under the sky, Music alone shall live (x3), Never to die."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: nonballad music
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 412, "Music Alone Shall Live" (1 text)
DT, MUSICALN*
NOTES: The English translation given here, be it noted, is not really equivalent to the German, which might better be rendered along the lines of "Heaven and earth must pass away, But music (x3) still shall remain." - RBW
File: FSWB412A
===
NAME: Musieu Bainjo
DESCRIPTION: Creole French. "Yoyez ce mulet la, Musieu Bainjo, Comme il est insolent. Chapeau sur cote, Musieu Bainjo. La canne a la main, Musieu Bainjo. Botte qui fait crin, crin, Musieu Bainjo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage clothes
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 113, "Musieu Bainjo" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: AWG113
===
NAME: Muskrat: see Rattlesnake (File: LoF083)
===
NAME: Musselburgh Field [Child 172]
DESCRIPTION: "Two goodly hosts" meet on Musselburgh Field. The Scots enter the battle confident, but are defeated heavily. The English narrator describes the contingents defeated
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1750 (Percy folio)
KEYWORDS: battle nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 10, 1547 - Battle of Pinkie (Pinkie Cleuch, Musselburgh). English armies defeat the Scots
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Child 172 "Musselburgh Field" (1 text)
Roud #4003
NOTES: The song claims that the battle of Pinkie was fought in "the fourth yeere of King Edwards raigne" -- but in fact 1547 was the first year of the reign of Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553). Other such errors occur in the song (e.g. the battle is dated to the twelfth of December, not the tenth of September); apparently the piece (which surely originated as a broadside) went through several stages of imperfect tradition.
Pinkie was the final major ballad of the Anglo-Scottish border wars; by the time the Scots were fully recovered, Elizabeth was Queen of England and the Scottish monarchs were her heirs; James VI, in particular, was very careful not to offend Elizabeth.
Pinkie was the final battle of a long campaign between the English and Scots over the fate of the infant Queen Mary, who came to the throne at the age of eight days (1542) and instantly found herself a pawn in the contest between England and France.
In 1543, the English under Henry VIII pressured the Scots into negotiations, and the result was a draft treaty to wed Mary to Prince Edward (the future Edward VI). The Scottish parliament, however, rejected the treaty. There followed the so-called "Rough Wooing"; Henry sent in his armies in 1544 (burning Edinburgh) and 1545, but the latter was heavily defeated at Ancrum Moor.
A quiet period followed, with continued skirmishing but no big battles. That changed after Henry VIII died in 1547. Now, with Edward VI King of England, the desire to take over Scotland was even stronger.
The battle of Pinkie itself resulted when the English Lord Protector, the Duke of Somerset, let an English army in the direction of Edinborough. The Earl of Arran gathered a Scots army -- but, as was often the case, the Scottish army was not really a unified force, but a collection of individual armies; the English won an easy victory.
Pinkie scared the Scots, but did not convince them to marry their Queen to Edward; instead, they shipped her off to France the next year. - RBW
File: C172
===
NAME: Musselman
DESCRIPTION: "When the summer winds blow And the buttercups grow... Where the wild curlew flies, Jimmy's favorite lies, An honest and trustworthy horse." Describes the beloved horse Musselman, how it raced and how people greeted it, and its grave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975
KEYWORDS: horse racing burial
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 222-223, "Musselman" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: FaE222
===
NAME: Must I Go Bound
DESCRIPTION: The singer laments, "Must I go bound and you go free." (S)he hears someone sing "that marriage was a pleasant thing," but "My marriage day soon turned to woe." The singer's spouse has scorned/abused the singer; the singer hopes for revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage abuse betrayal
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H218a/b, p. 386, "Must I Go Bound" (2 texts, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)" (theme)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (lyrics)
cf. "Love Has Brought Me To Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
NOTES: This, like "My Blue-Eyed Boy,"  is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses (e.g. from "Waly Waly") and the complaint "I heard (a shepherd//fair maid) sing That marriage was a pleasant thing, [but] My (marriage/wedding) day soon turned to woe." So I've listed them separately -- but there may well be intermediate versions.
For further discussion, see the notes to "The Butcher Boy." - RBW
File: HHH218
===
NAME: Must I Go to Mississippi?
DESCRIPTION: "Must I go to Mississippi? Must I go or must I stay? Must I go all broken hearted? Oh, my heart shall break in two." "Who will shoe your foot...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, collected from Mrs. Nathan Hicks)
KEYWORDS: travel floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 24, "Must I Go To Mississippi?" (1 text, of three verses, of which the last two are "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot?" (lyrics)
NOTES: Although two-thirds of the Hicks version are from "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," the first verse is separate. I'm splitting the songs on the odd chance that the "Must I Go to Mississippi" verse is part of something else. Though it is unlikely to matter unless we find more text. - RBW
File: MHApp024
===
NAME: Must I Go to Old Virginia?: see East Virginia (Dark Hollow) (File: JRSF134)
===
NAME: Mustang Gray (The Maid of Monterey)
DESCRIPTION: "There was a brave old Texan, his name was Mustang Gray." When the Mexicans invaded Texas, he was taken prisoner. "He wore the yoke of bondage through the streets of Monteray. A senorita loved him...." and turned him loose
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: love battle prisoner rescue
FOUND_IN: US(MA,So)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Thorp/Fife IX, pp. 104-111 (23-24), "Mustang Gray" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 49, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 395-396, "Mustang Gray" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyP, pp. 190-191, "Mustang Gray" (1 text)
DT, MUSTGRAY*
Roud #4035
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Turkish Lady" [Laws O26] (plot)
cf. "Young Beichan" [Child 53] (plot)
SAME_TUNE:
The Dying Soldier Boy ("Upon Manassa's bloody plain a soldier boy lay dying" -- words by A. B. Cunningham) (War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, pp. 347-348)
NOTES: Thorp/Fife notes that this song takes two forms: "In Hewitt's original aria interest is focused on the senorita and her heroic deed. The texts most current in Western American oral tradition... bring the American soldier-cowboy into central focus...."
The piece seems to have drawn its title from the 1847 novel _The Volunteer, or The Maid of Monterrey_, by Ned Bluntine.
The song has been variously credited to John Hill Hewitt, Tom Grey, and James Lytle. Thorp/Fife considers Hewitt (a well-known composer) to be the most likely candidate.
As "Mustang Gray," this song is item dB28 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
File: FT09
===
NAME: Mustering Day: see The Mustering Song (File: FaE158)
===
NAME: Mustering Song, The
DESCRIPTION: The station owner gathers the crew for mustering day. The workers head out to gather the herd when the old man is thrown into a tree and dies. The next day, the singer sees the man's ghost in his usual place, smoking his usual clay (pipe)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1894 (The Queenslander)
KEYWORDS: ghost death horse boss Australia
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 158-159, "The Mustering Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 80-81, "Mustering Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 226-227, "The Mustering Song" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Drunken Sailor (Early in the Morning)" (tune & meter)
File: FaE158
===
NAME: Mutlah, The
DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "Our good ship she heeled over and sank upon her side, And left her chains and anchors all in the Eddy-tide Outside the sunken Cooneys, where the Mutlah went aground, All with her general cargo, she for Halifax was bound"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Ranson)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship wreck sailor
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Apr 16, 1877 - "The ... Mutlah ... went ashore at Glynn Point, Poulshone mear Courtown Captain Faraquar, one passenger and ten of fourteen crew were drowned.... the survivors described the captain as drunk...." (source: Bourke in _Shipwrecks of the Irish Coast_ v1, p. 45)
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ranson, p. 127, "The Mutlah" (1 text)
File: Ran127
===
NAME: Muttonburn Stream, The
DESCRIPTION: "Muttonburn Stream, It's not marked on this world's map... A wee river in Ulster." It has wondrous qualities: "a wee dunt" in it makes washing clean, "it cures all diseases" including fatness or lean, a good place to fall after a drinking party.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recorded by Richard Hayward)
KEYWORDS: drink humorous nonballad talltale
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Morton-Ulster 10, "The Muttonburn Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Richard Hayward, Ireland Calling (Glasgow,n.d.), p. 6, "The Mutton Burn Stream" (text, music and reference to Decca F-2602 recorded Oct 4, 1931)
Bell/O Conchubhair, Traditional Songs of the North of Ireland, pp. 81-82, "The Muttonburn Stream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2896
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: "The Muttonburn Stream is to be found near Carrickfergus."
"Castle Hyde" takes glorification of a locality to an extreme. "The Groves of Blarney" takes it to the next stage by parody. "The Muttonburn Stream" completes the transformation by making a tall tale.
The date and master id (GB-3353-1) for Hayward's record is provided by Bill Dean-Myatt, MPhil. compiler of the Scottish National Discography. - BS
File: MorU010
===
NAME: My Ain Fireside
DESCRIPTION: The singer says it is time to go home to a wife he's afraid to face, but a drink and a song will sooth her and they'll go to bed "and I'll cuddle her in my airms ... and crack aboot the joys o' oor ain fireside." Here's to every man that will do the same.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: sex drink music nonballad wife
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 553, "My Ain Fireside" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #6028
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(144b), "My Ain Fireside" ("Come, my lads, let us mount and go"), Muir [John Muir (Glasgow)?], no date
NOTES: Apparently broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(239), "My Ain Fireside" ("Come, my lads, let's mount and go"), unknown, no date is this song but I could not download and verify it. - BS
File: GrD3553
===
NAME: My Ain Kate
DESCRIPTION: The singer/reciter is a linen draper clerk told by Kate she'll not leave him. He buys her a watch and chain. A policeman "put Her Majesty's braces upon her." He goes to her ninth trial for stealing her mistress's clothes. She is transported for life.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting theft transportation trial clothes recitation servant
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #47, p. 2, ("I'm nae awa' to bide awa'"); Greig #49, p. 2, ("I'm not going away to stay away") (2 fragments)
GreigDuncan2 257, "My Ain Kate" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #5850
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Mormond Braese" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I'm Not Going Away
NOTES: The form is an introductory verse followed by spoken text interspersed with the chorus "I'm not going away to stay away, I'm not going away to leave you; I'm your own Kate, your darling Kate, That never will deceive you." At the end the singer, in spite of everything, is convinced by her "sly little wink" that she's not going away. - BS
File: GrD2257
===
NAME: My Army Cross Over
DESCRIPTION: ""My brother, tik keer (take care?) Satan, my army cross over" (x2). "Satan very busy, my army cross over." "Wash his face in ashes." "Put on the leather apron." "Jordan river rolling." "We'll cross the danger water."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 38, "My Army Cross Over" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #11992
File: AEG038
===
NAME: My Auld Breeks, air the Corn Clips: see Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)
===
NAME: My Aunt Jane
DESCRIPTION: "My Aunt Jane she took me in" and gave me tea from her shop. "She's awful smart" and bakes rings in an apple tart. She "has a bell on the door A white stone step and a clean swept floor, Candy apples, hard green pears, Conversation lozenges"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 12, "My Aunt Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast: "Probably the best-loved of all Belfast songs." - BS
The practice of baking prizes (such as coins or rings) into cakes is well-attested, even if it is today remembered mostly because J. R. R. Tolkien mentioned it in _Smith of Wooton Major_, but it seems somewhat improbable to find it in the contest of a Belfast tea-shop; how did Aunt Jane afford such thing? - RBW
File: Hamm012
===
NAME: My Bark Canoe
DESCRIPTION: An Ojibway (Chippewa) song. The singer reports, "Through the night I keep awake, Upon the river I keep awake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909
KEYWORDS: Indians(Am.) nonballad river
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke/Johnston, p. 34, "My Bark Canoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4539
File: FJ034
===
NAME: My Beautiful Muff
DESCRIPTION: A young lady goes out in her muff, which is "my own, and I'll wear it, So don't you come near it, You'll spoil it, you'll tear it, My beautiful muff." A young man greets her and plies her with wine. She sleeps. Her muff is ruined. Young ladies are warned
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1956
KEYWORDS: bawdy clothes seduction wine
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, pp. 247-248, "My Beautiful Muff" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1402
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(51), "My Beautiful Muff" (unknown, n.d.)
File: MA247
===
NAME: My Beauty of Limerick
DESCRIPTION: Patrick is across the sea but thinks of his "beauty of Limerick" waiting at home. He promises "to go back to old Ireland when money I'd save." He sleeps with her ribbon under his pillow.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1940 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: love separation Ireland nonballad money return
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 38, "My Beauty of Limerick" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9752
File: OLcM038
===
NAME: My Blue-Eyed Boy
DESCRIPTION: Floating verses on the subject of lost love, usually borrowed from "The Butcher Boy" and/or a "Pretty Little Foot" variant. The wide and deep grave carved with a turtle dove may also be present. Identified by the line "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love beauty separation death suicide
FOUND_IN: US(MW,So) Ireland
REFERENCES: (8 citations)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #11 appears to belong here)
Belden, pp. 478-480, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (4 texts, though "D" is a fragment, probably of "Tavern in the Town" or "The Butcher Boy" or some such)
Randolph 759, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (3 short texts, 1 tune)
BrownIII 257, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (2 text, though the second is rather distantly related)
Brewster 85, "The Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 102, pp. 212-213, "My Blue-Eyed Boy" (1 text)
SHenry H482, pp. 391-392, "Bring Me Back the Boy I Love"; H692, p. 392, "Never Change the Old Love for the New" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
DT, BLUEYEBY
Roud #60
RECORDINGS:
Brier Hopper Brothers, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy" (Champion 16692, 1933)
Carter Family, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy to Me" (Victor V-40190, 1930; Montgomery Ward M-4741, c. 1935; Bluebird B-6271, 1936)
Gid Tanner & Riley Puckett, "Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy"  (Columbia 15577-D, 1930; rec. 1929)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] and references there
cf. "Must I Go Bound" (lyrics, theme)
cf. "Died for Love (I)"
cf. "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" [Laws P25] (lyrics)
NOTES: This is so close to "The Butcher Boy" that I almost listed them as one song. But where "The Butcher Boy" is relatively coherent, this is little more than a lament composed of floating verses and the complaint "Bring me back my blue-eyed boy." So I've listed them separately -- but there *are* intermediate versions. Sandburg, for instance, has once (p. 324, "Go Bring Me Back My Blue-Eyed Boy," with the suicide theme intact, so I list it with "The Butcher Boy" -- but it has this chorus). -- RBW
File: R759
===
NAME: My Body Rock 'Long Fever
DESCRIPTION: "Wai', my brother, true believe, better true be... Oh, my body rock 'long fever, O! with a pain in 'e head, I wish I been to the kingdom, to sit alongside o' my Lord." "By the help of the Lord we rise up again... An' we'll get to heaven at last."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, pp 44-45, "My Body Rock 'Long Fever" (1 text, 1 tune plus a variant)
Roud #11988
File: AWG044B
===
NAME: My Bonnie Irish Boy: see The Bonny Young Irish Boy [Laws P26] (File: LP26)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Laddie's Lang, Lang o' Growing: see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Laddie's Young (But He's Growing Yet): see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
DESCRIPTION: The singer laments that his bonnie is across the waves, and implores that someone "bring back my bonnie to me." He asks the winds specifically to carry her. (He dreams she is dead.) (He rejoices that the winds have blown his bonnie to him.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1881 (Hills's "Student Songs")
KEYWORDS: love separation sea reunion
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 143, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, p. 381, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean"
DT, MYBONNIE*
RECORDINGS:
Ella Fitzgerald, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Decca 28375, 1952)
Haydn Quartet, "Bring Back My Bonnie to Me" (Victor A-123, 1900)
Leake County Revelers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Columbia 15227-D, 1928)
Ella Logan, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (Brunswick 8196, 1938; Columbia 36313, 1941)
Mobile Strugglers, "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (on AmSkBa)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (tune)
cf. "The Cowboy's Dream" (tune)
cf. "Tom Twist" (tune)
cf. "The Prisoner's Song (I)" (tune)
cf. "Shine Your Buttons With Brasso" (tune)
cf. "Shaving Cream" (tune)
cf. "Bring Back My Johnny to Me"
SAME_TUNE:
Tom Twist (File: FlBr171)
My Children Are Seven in Number (Greenway-AFP, p. 166; on PeteSeeger13, AmHist1)
Bring Back My Neighbors to Me (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 119)
Yuck! Cats (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 67)
Come Up, Dear Dinner, Come Up (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 121)
My Body Has Tuberculosis (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 131)
Zekey Looked into the Gas Tank (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 133)
My Barney Lies Over the Ocean (Nora Bayes, Columbia A-2678, 1918; Louis Winsch, Pathe 22061, 1919; Ada Jones, OKeh 1218, 1919; Billy Murray, Victor 18530, 1919)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
My Bonnie
Bring Back My Bonnie to Me
NOTES: Fuld notes an 1882 printing of this song allegedly written by H. J. Fulmer (Charles E. Pratt). This text, however, disagrees with the 1881 printing, and Fuld suspects that Pratt is responsible only for the adaption.
The song obviously has spawned a number of parodies and borrowings. It itself, however, seems relatively constant, and the parodies are all recent. It thus seems likely that the song is fairly recent, and that most known versions derive from the 1881 printing.
It has been theorized that this is a derivative of the song we index as "Bring Back My Johnny to Me."  The tunes aren't the same, but there are similarities, and a few lyrics also cross, as well as the theme. But there is no evidence of an intermediate form; it seems nearly certain that there was a deliberate rewrite somewhere along the line. - RBW
File: DTmybonn
===
NAME: My Bonnie Light Horseman: see The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Love is Young: see A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Sailor Boy: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: My Bonnie Wee Hen
DESCRIPTION: The singer had a fine hen; it laid two eggs a day. But it went out to seek food and was killed. The owner will punish the killers; "I wasna half so sorry the night my husband died." She invites others to the funeral
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: chickens death burial
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H94, p.17 , "My Bonnie Wee Hen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9054
File: HHH094
===
NAME: My Bonny Black Bess (I) [Laws L8]
DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin gives a detailed account of Black Bess's speed and beauty and the good use to which he put them. He once robbed a horseman and sped to town, arriving so quickly that he appeared to have an alibi when the horseman at last arrived in town
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: robbery horse outlaw
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlor'd cockerel)
FOUND_IN: US(Ro,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws L8, "My Bonny Black Bess I"
Randolph 167, "Bonnie Black Bess" (3 texts, 1 tune, but Laws assigns only Randolph's "C" text to this piece; the others belong with Laws L9)
Fife-Cowboy/West 7, "Bonny Black Bess" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text is this piece while the "A" text is Laws L9)
LPound-ABS, 69, pp. 155-157, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 369, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text)
DT 569, BLCKBES3
Roud #1904
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "Poor Black Bess," James Lindsay Jr. (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Black Bess (II)" [Laws L9]
cf. "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]" (subject)
NOTES: This is much the more literary of the Turpin/Black Bess songs; based on the evidence in Laws, I am not convinced it is actually a traditional song. The following stanza will demonstrate this point and serve to distinguish the piece from Laws L9:
Let the lover his mistress's beauty rehearse,
And laud her attractions in languishing verse;
Be it mine in rude strain but with truth to express
The love that I bear to my bonny Black Bess.
Peter Underwood reports that the hoofbeats of the ghost of Black Bess (presumably with Turpin aboard) have been heard at the "Woodfield" estate in Bedfordshire, where Turpin was said to have had a safe house.
Which just shows the power of folklore, since Black Bess apparently never existed (for this and the rest of Turpin's history, see the notes on "My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride)" [Laws L9]).
The Murray broadside lists this as to the tune of "Poor Dog Tray." I would assume that's supposed to be "Old Dog Tray." Though the tune I know isn't even vaguely similar. - RBW
File: LL08
===
NAME: My Bonny Black Bess (II) (Poor Black Bess; Dick Turpin's Ride) [Laws L9]
DESCRIPTION: Dick Turpin bids farewell to the horse that served his so well, making his exploits possible and finally carrying him from London to York in a single day. Now the hounds are on his trail and he cannot escape; he shoots Bess and waits to die himself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: robbery horse punishment outlaw
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1735 - Dick Turpin comes to the attention of the authorities as a robber
April 1739 - Hanging of Dick Turpin (by then retired from highway robbery; he was captured after getting drunk and shooting the landlor'd cockerel)
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Laws L9, "My Bonny Black Bess"
Randolph 167, "Bonnie Black Bess" (3 texts, 1 tune, with the "A" fragment and "B" text belonging here; the "C" text is Laws L8)
BrownII 122, "My Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 130, "My Bonny Black Bess" (1 text text plus 1 fragment and an excerpt, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 126, "Dick Turpin's Ride" (1 text)
Fife-Cowboy/West 7, "Bonny Black Bess" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "A" text is this piece while the "B" text is Laws L8)
Ohrlin-HBT 12, "Bonny Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 422, BLCKBESS* BLCKBES2 BONNBESS*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 25, #4 (1977), p, 9, "Bonnie Black Bess" (1 text, 1 tune, from James and Mary Atwood)
Roud #620
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "My bonny black Bess" (AFS 4212 A1, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Lawrence Older,  "Bonnie Black Bess" (on LOlder01)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, sb30428b, "Poor Black Bess," H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878 
Murray, Mu23-y1:027, "Poor Black Bess," James Lindsay Jun (Glasgow), 19C 
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonny Black Bess (I)" [Laws L8]
cf. "Dick Turpin and the Lawyer [Laws L10]" (subject)
SAME_TUNE:
Poor Dog Tray (per broadsides LOCSinging sb30428b, Murray Mu23-y1:027)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Bonnie Black Bess
NOTES: This is much the more popular of the Black Bess songs; to distinguish it from Laws L8, consider the following stanza:
When blindness did guide me, I left my abode;
When friends proved ungrateful, I took to the road.
For to plunder the wealthy and relieve my distress,
I bought you to aid me, my bonny Black Bess.
Although Dick Turpin was real, most of the exploits attributed to him are false. There was, almost certainly, no Black Bess, and the twelve hour race to York was not undertaken by Turpin. Logan reports that the feat was performed by one "Nevison or Nicks, who plundered a traveler at four o'clock in the morning on the slope at Gadshill, and was in the bowling-green at York... at a quarter before eight in the evening."
David Brandon, in _Stand and Deliver: A History of Highway Robbery_, also mentions "a highwayman named Harris" making the trip to Yorkshire.
Patrick Pringle, in _Stand and Deliver: Highwaymen from Robin Hood to Dick Turpin_, has more details on this, devoting a whole chapter to "Who Rode to York?" He notes that it was perfectly possible to cover the London-to-York distance (about 190 miles) in a day -- if one could change to fresh horses along the route. The improbable element of "Turpin's Ride" is the idea of doing it on *one* horse.
Did such a journey happen? There are reports that it did. Daniel Defoe writes of a robber named Nicks (Nix?) who accomplished the feat in 1676. There is a 1668 report of a robber named "Swift Nicks," though it isn't known if it is the same guy.
The other fellow, Nevison, is historical, though there is a lot of uncertainty about him. His name was probably William, but this is not certain. He did most of his work in Yorkshire, and was executed in 1684 or 1685.
The link between Nevison and Nicks is tenuous. According to Brandon, p. 82, Nevison earned the nickname Nicks because he had ridden to York as fast as Old Nick. Right.
So how did this semi-legendary feat come to be associated with Turpin? As far as popular culture is concerned, there is no question but that the responsibility must be pinned on William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882), who made it a major element of his first major novel, _Rookwood_ (1834).
Ainsworth's long account is mostly out of his own head, but it's thought that the seeds of the legend came to him from his family. Could they have gotten it from one of these songs? Or did these songs get it from Ainsworth? It is unlikely, now, that we will ever be able to answer that question. Some of the details of the song, however, do appear in _Rookwood_ -- e.g. Ainsworth claimed that Bess leapt the Hornsey tollgate, perhaps inspiring the line "no toll bars could hold you." He also gave us a Turpin/Bess death scene -- though Turpin merely lingered as the horse died; he didn't shoot her.
The one part of the story that's true is that Turpin, late in his career, transferred from the London area to Yorkshire, though it was not at the end of his career. What follows is mostly condensed from Pringle with some material from Brandon.
Turpin was born probably in 1705 (others say 1706), in Essex, the son of an innkeeper. Apprenticed to a butcher, he married and went into business around 1726. But several sheep turned up missing near his establishment in Waltham Abbey. Apparently forced out of the Guild of Butchers, he took to a life of open crime.
For a time, he was associated with a brutal group of poachers and robbers known as "Gregory's Gang"; large rewards were put on their heads in 1735, but Turpin escaped when the others were taken. He turned to highway robbery. He worked with various companions, the most noteworthy being Tom King (died 1737 -- possibly killed by Turpin himself as they struggled with people who were attempting to apprehend them).
Turpin by that year had a price of 200 pounds on his head. But he disappeared.
In fact he had moved to Yorkshire, and was calling himself John Palmer. He lived a relatively honest life -- but in October 1738, in a fit of mindless brutality, he shot his landlord's gamecock (hence, apparently, the ballad claim that he was taken for "shooting of a dunghill cock").
The charges need not have been fatal, but in a comedy of errors, a sample of his handwriting came to the attention of his old schoolteacher, who supposedly recognized it. Turpin was eventually convicted of horse-stealing and sentenced to hang.
The date of Turpin's hanging is uncertain; generally dated to April 7, 1739 (so, e.g., Pringle and Brandon), but the day may have been April 6 or April 10.
There is little evidence in the historical record of the sort of nobility of character found in many of the songs about him.
Peter Underwood reports that the hoofbeats of the ghost of Black Bess (presumably with Turpin aboard) have been heard at the "Woodfield" estate in Bedfordshire, where Turpin was said to have had a safe house.
The reign of Queen Anne (1702-1712) was considered the heyday of the English highwayman -- probably because the amount of travel was increasing, so there were more targets, but there was no effective national constabulary. Turpin of course came after that time; he was arguably a victim of the reforms that the previous banditry had inspired. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging sb30428b: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: LL09
===
NAME: My Bonny Blooming Highland Jane: see Highland Jane (File: HHH477)
===
NAME: My Bonny Bon Boy: see Lord Randal [Child 12] (File: C012)
===
NAME: My Bonny Boy: see The Bonny Boy (I) (File: FSC037)
===
NAME: My Bonny Breeden
DESCRIPTION: "She was born 'mong the wild flowers that bloom in our valley, and like those same flowers she grew lovely and fair." The singer praises the beauty and grace of the girl, and prays that the powers may guard her
AUTHOR: Words: Andrew Doey
EARLIEST_DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H512, p. 225, "My Bonny Breeden" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7973
File: HHH512
===
NAME: My Bonny Brown Jane
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls courting a girl with a "false flattering tongue." He courts Jane, but another earns her love. He enlists in the army "to fight for my queen in a far country." Lonely at night, he prays "for her welfare; what can I do more?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection soldier floatingverses
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H613, p. 396, "My Bonny Brown Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7000
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Comely Young Dame" (on IRRCinnamond02)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5]" (lyrics)
cf. "The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass)" (theme)
NOTES: This has many lyric similarities to "William and Nancy," and also a bit of "The False Bride." But the ending about enlisting as a soldier makes the song distinct. - RBW
File: HHH613
===
NAME: My Bonny Laboring Boy: see The Bonny Laboring Boy [Laws M14] (File: LM14)
===
NAME: My Bonny Lad
DESCRIPTION: "Ha' you seen owt of my bonny lad?... He's gone along wi' a stick in his hand/He's gone to row the keel-o" "Yes, I ha' seen your bonny lad; 'twas on the sea I spied him/His grave was green, but not wi' grass/And you'll never lay beside him"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951 (recording, Isla Cameron)
KEYWORDS: navy separation death sailor
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #204
RECORDINGS:
Anne Briggs, "My Bonny Lad" (on Briggs2, Briggs3)
Isla Cameron, "My Bonny Lad" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
NOTES: This sounds like a fragment, but in fact the story is complete, although squeezed down to bare essentials. - PJS
File: RcMBL
===
NAME: My Bonny Light Horseman: see The Bonnie Light Horseman (File: HHH122a)
===
NAME: My Boy Billy: see Billy Boy (File: R104)
===
NAME: My Boy Willie: see Billy Boy (File: R104)
===
NAME: My Boyfriend Gave Me An Apple
DESCRIPTION: "And five o'clock is striking, Mother may I go out My true love is waiting for me without." He brings apples, pears, and six-pence that she "kiss him on the stairs" She rejects apples and pears and gives back sixpence after he kisses her on the stairs.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
KEYWORDS: playparty food money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hammond-Belfast, p. 11, "Five O'Clock is Striking" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12986
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Six O'Clock Bells Ringing
NOTES: Hammond-Belfast: "A skipping game." - BS
File: Hamm011
===
NAME: My Cabin Home Among the Hills
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of his cabin in the Virginia hills, where his "mammy" used to sing to him. His mother tells him she's going away "to another home way down in Tennessee." She promises to write, and to someday come home. She never does
AUTHOR: unknown (tune by Will S. Hays)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Asa Martin)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness promise farewell home parting separation death slavery mother
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: ()

Roud #17214
RECORDINGS:
Recordings: Asa Martin, "My Cabin Home Among the Hills" (Champion 16769, 1934; Champion 45067, 1935; rec. 1931; on KMM)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES: I included both the keywords "death" and "slavery", because the song is ambiguous: it doesn't make clear whether the singer's mother has died or been sold. I'd bet on the latter, though. - PJS
The counter-argument being that she promised to write, and most slaves were illiterate. Many states, in fact, made it illegal to teach slaves to read and write (though some managed to learn anyway). - RBW
File: RcMCHAtH
===
NAME: My Cabin in the Hills
DESCRIPTION: "Oh! please just one peep At my cabin in the hills Where the pine trees sway And the hound dogs bay To the notes of the whippoorwill." The singer wants to see Ma knitting Pa's socks and Pa tending his gun, and recalls the sounds of home
AUTHOR: Robert Louis Stevens?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad clothes hunting animal bird
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 173, (no title) (1 text)
NOTES: This is the sort of thing that you feel you ought to know from somewhere else. But that's just because it's based on so many "home" themes; I can't find its like elsewhere. - RBW
File: ThBa173
===
NAME: My Charming Coleraine Lass
DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl by the banks of the Bann. He asks her to come away with him. The sit by the river and talk. They set a wedding day and are married
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting river beauty marriage
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H616, p. 464-463, "My Charming Coleraine Lass" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9460
File: HHH616
===
NAME: My Charming Kate O'Neill
DESCRIPTION: "The first place that I saw my love, 'twas on a summer's day, She was going to her father's as I passed Red Bay." The singer, a young sea captain, praises her beauty but must go away, for "there's another young man, she intends his bride to be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love rejection marriage sailor travel
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H767, pp. 370-371, "My Charming Kate O'Neill" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6886
NOTES: The notes to Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list no other versions of this song, and I can't recall any myself. But there are many lines reminiscent of "The Lowlands of Holland," and the meter is also similar. Sam Henry reports that this is about an actual girl "who captivated the hearts of young Glensmen eighty years ago" (i.e. c. 1855-1860). One wonder if the composer didn't take some inspiration from "The Lowland of Holland." - RBW
File: HHH767
===
NAME: My Charming Lass from the County Mayo
DESCRIPTION: "The daughters of Erin are famed the world over, For wit and for beauty and charms of their own," but the singer loves one girl from Mayo above all others. He praises her beauty extravagantly 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: beauty love
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dean, p. 115, "My Charming Lass from the County Mayo" (1 text)
Roud #9581
File: Dean115
===
NAME: My Crime Blues
DESCRIPTION: Singer is on trial for murder, soon to be sentenced, but pleads his innocence. He calls for his lover to come for his trial, so that when he is condemned she can wipe his tears away. The jury finds him guilty; the judge sentences him to the electric chair
AUTHOR: Almost certainly Ed Bell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Ed Bell)
KEYWORDS: grief loneliness accusation crime execution murder law punishment trial death lover judge
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Barefoot Bill [Ed Bell] "My Crime Blues" (Columbia 14510-D, 1930; [1929]; on RoughWays1)
File: RcMyCrBl
===
NAME: My Dad's Dinner Pail
DESCRIPTION: "Preserve that old kettle so blackened and worn, It belonged to me Father before I was born." The singer recalls carrying the pail, and seeing his father; he is sure Father shared with those in need
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan (?) / Music: David Braham
EARLIEST_DATE: 1883 (from the musical Cordelia's Aspirations)
KEYWORDS: nonballad food father
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dean, p. 70, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Hazel Felleman, Best Loved Poems of the American People, p. 505, "My Dad's Dinner Pail" (1 text)
Roud #5257
NOTES: According to Sigmund Spaeth, _A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 191, "Harrigan, Hart, and Braham [produced] perhaps their best show, _Cordelia's Aspirations_, [in] November, 1883. In it the Mulligans were almost disrupted bythe social climbing of Mrs. Mulligan, and Annie Yeamans, as Cordelia, had one of her greatest comedy scenes when she took a stiff drink under the impression it was poison. The best of the songs was My Dad's Dinner Pail...."
For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "Babies on Our Block." - RBW
File: Dean070A
===
NAME: My Dame's Crane
DESCRIPTION: "My dame had a lame tame crane. My dame had a crane that was lame. Pary, Mistress Jane, man my dame's lame tame crane Fly and re-turn again?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #755, p. 284, "(My dame hath a lame tame crane)"
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 233, "My Dame's Crane" (1 text)
DT, LAMECRN* LAMETAME*
Roud #13622
NOTES: Reported to have originated in England in the seventeenth century. - RBW
File: DTlamecr
===
NAME: My Dancing Day
DESCRIPTION: "Tomorrow shall be my dancing day, I would my true love did so chance To see the legend of my play To call my true love to my dance." The story of the life of Jesus is repeated, with each stage being a reason why the true love should come to the dance
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1833 (Sandys)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus dancing
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
OBC 71, "My Dancing Day" (1 text, 2 tunes)
DT, DANCEDAY*
ADDITIONAL: Ian Bradley, _The Penguin Book of Carols_ (1999), #90, "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" (1 text)
NOTES: It would appear that this song is known only from Sandys (I've heard of broadside copies, but have yet to see one that predates Sandys). It is thus arguable that it is not a folk song, and should not be included.
There are, however, strong hints that it is much earlier than Sandys; the _Oxford Book of Carols_ argues that it is from the sixteenth century or earlier, and Bradley in the _Penguin Book of Carols_ think it medieval. The latter claim rests on pretty slender evidence (Bradley argues that the third line about seeing "the legend of my play" implies an origin in one of the mystery play cycles, and cites a claim from the _New Oxford Book of Carols_ that it is resembles elements of Cornish play cycles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries).
The evidence that it is old is, however, very strong -- the language sounds as if it predates Sandys, and the mention of the Harrowing of Hell hints at a date prior to the Anglican reformation. The _Oxford Book of Carols_ suggests that the original was secular (which seems not unlikely -- probably a dance song). This might well explain the mix of popular legend and learned theology ("Then I was born of a virgin pure, Of her I took fleshly substance" reminds me, at least, of the Christological controversies of the early church.)
The theme of calling one's love to a dance is probably from the secular source, but there are four New Testament uses of the Greek word _orcheomai_, "to dance": Matt. 11:17, 14:16, Mark 6:22, Luke 7:32. Two of these uses (Matt 14:6, Mark 6:22) refer to the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod Antipas and clearly would not be the source for this imagery. But the other two refer to children or musicians calling out their friends/playmates to dance, making it a very relevant image for evangelism. (The English word "to dance" is also used in Luke 15:25, in the partying at the return of the prodigal son. this is somewhat less relevant, since the Greek word is _choros_, the song/dance of the Greek chorus -- but a reader of the English Bible would not know that).
The individual verses are more biblical; they also have strong ties to the creeds. In the references below, "NC" refers to the Nicene Creed (created by the church in stages starting at the Council of Nicaea in 325, though the final version had to await the Council of Chalcedon over a century later) while "AC" is the "Apostle's Creed" (which is certainly not Apostolic; it seems to come mostly from the Roman church, starting with Marcellus and Rufinus, and reached its final form in the eighth century; see Henry Bettenson, _Documents of the Christian Church_, second edition, Oxford, 1963.
"Then I was born of a virgin pure": AC; Matthew 1:18-25. (Luke also says that Mary was a virgin at her marriage, but does not explicitly state the idea of the virgin birth. Of course, the phrase "virgin pure" is sometimes taken to refer to the Immaculate Conception, and the notion that Mary herself was born of some sort of parthenogenesis, but there is no Biblical hint of this)
"Of her I took fleshly substance": John 1:14; NC; cf. Gal. 4:4
"In a manger laid and wrapped I was": Luke 2:7, 12, 16. There is no scriptural warrant for saying an ox and ass were present.
"Then afterward baptized I was, The Holy Ghost on me did glance": Matt. 3:16-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:22-23, John 1:29-34
"Into the desert I was led... The devil bad me make stones my bread": Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13
"The Jews... loved darkness rather than light": not an explicit quotation, but compare John 12:44-46, Matt 6:23; the treatment of Jesus as light is common.
"For thirty pence Judas me sold": According to Matthew 26:15, 27:3-9, Judas sold Jesus for "thirty of silver" (so literally, hence modern renderings "thirty pieces of silver"). That would be a lot more than thirty pence in today's money, but early silver pennies might have a value roughly comparable to the price paid to Judas. This is perhaps more evidence that the song is early.
"Mark whom I kiss": Matt 26:48-49, Mark 14:44-45, Luke 22:47-48.
"Before Pilate the Jews me brought": AC; NC; Matt. 27:1-2, Mark 15:1, Luke 23:1, John 18:28fff. It was in fact the high priests, not the Jewish population as a whole, who handed Jesus over (so all four Gospels, though John uses the word "Jews" in fairly close proximity to the description of Jesus being handed over to the Romans)
"Where Barabbas had deliverance": Matt 27:16-26, Mark 15;7-15, Luke 23:18, John 18:40
"Then on a cross hanged I was": Too many references to list; see e.g. Mark 15:25; AC; NC
"Where a spear to my side did glance": John 19:34
"There issued forth both water and blood": John 19:34. (The word used is perhaps best translated "lance-head"; sometimes used as a medical instrument)
"Then down to Hell I took my way": The Harrowing of Hell is non-Biblical. There is, in fact, no real Biblical explanation of what Jesus was doing during the roughly 36 hours between his death and resurrection. It is, however, mentioned in the Catholic texts of AC (the Methodists and some other denominations suppress this)
"And rose again on the third day": Again too many references to list; cf. e.g. Mark 16:6; AC; NC
"Then up to Heaven I did ascend": Acts 1:9-11; AC; NC. - RBW
File: OBC071
===
NAME: My Dark-Haired Maid from Cornaig: see Mo Nighean donn a Cornaig (File: K019)
===
NAME: My Darling Blue-Eyed Mary: see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: My Darling Kate: see My Ain Kate (File: GrD2257)
===
NAME: My Darling Ploughman Boy: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: My Dear Irish Boy
DESCRIPTION: "My Connor, his cheeks are as ruddy as morning...." The girl describes her love. But "The wars are all over, and lonely I've waited, I fear that some envious plot has been laid." Though hope is almost lost, she wanders to look for her "dear Irish boy"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1863 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(157))
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier rambling
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H142, p. 294, "My [The] Dear Irish Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 57, "The Dear Irish Boy" (1 text)
Roud #1555
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(157), "Dear Irish Boy," H. Such (London), 1849-1862; also Harding B 11(1219), Harding B 11(819), Harding B 11(2269), Firth c.26(168), 2806 b.11(185), Harding B 26(121), "[The] Dear Irish Boy"
LOCSinging, as101620, "The Dear Irish Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Dear Irish Maid
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as101620: H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: HHH142
===
NAME: My Dear Old Comrade Soldiers
DESCRIPTION: "My dear old comrade soldier of this our native shore, I'm glad to have the honor of greeting you once more." The singer recalls the difficult careers of soldiers, hopes for pensions, and prays that God inspire current leaders
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar soldier reunion nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 89-91, "My Dear Old Comrade Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Civil War soldiers held reunions through the 1920s and even into the 1930s; this (not very good) piece presumably came out of one of those gatherings. - RBW
File: ThBa089
===
NAME: My Dear, I'm Bound for Canaday: see My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady (File: GrMa154)
===
NAME: My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady
DESCRIPTION: "My dear I'm bound for Canady; Love Sally we must part." Sally asks Willie to stay; "you'll find employment here" but he leaves St John's; he will marry her within three years. But the song ends "every honest decent young man Don't leave his girl behind"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love parting unemployment hardtimes Canada father mother betrayal
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 154, "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canady" (1 text)
Leach-Labrador 85, "Bound for Canada" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 82, "My Dear, I'm Bound for Canaday" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Roud #4411
NOTES: To understand this song, it is important to recall that Newfoundland did not become part of Canada until after World War II. - RBW
File: GrMa154
===
NAME: My Dearest Dear
DESCRIPTION: "My dearest dear, the times draws near When I and you must part, And no one knows the inner grief Of my poor aching heart." The (girl) wishes that they could stay together; (s)he promises to love (him) till (s)he dies, and begs that he write to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: love separation lyric nonballad parting
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions, of which #18, #20, and #22 perhaps go here)
Belden, pp. 484-486, "Banishment" (1 text)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes; the "B," "D," "F," and "H" versions are of this sort) {F=Bronson's #18}; 760, "I Love You Well" (4 texts plus an excerpt, 1 tune) 
Davis-Ballads 21, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (of the various texts in the appendices, at least "G"  seems to belong here) {Bronson's #20}
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 314-317, "The Time Has Come, My Dearest Dear" (2 texts; 1 tune on p. 440)
Brewster 90, "The True Lover's Farewell" (1 text, which despite the title appears closer to this song than that)
SharpAp 77, "My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 40, "My Dearest Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuson, p. 112, "When You and I Must Part" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 52-53, "Time Draws Near" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 108, "Winter's Night" (1 text, 1 tune, beginning with lyrics from this song but with final verses more characteristic of "The Storms Are on the Ocean")
Sandburg, pp. 126-127, "The Lover's Lament" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
DT, (REDREDR2)
Roud #3601
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)"
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
A-Roving on a Winter's Night
NOTES: This is basically a lyric piece assembled from all sorts of floating materials. The first two lines are characteristic; what follows can come from almost anywhere. Doc Watson sings a version which combines parts of this song (notably the verse "A-roving on a winter's night") with portions of "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose"  (see DT REDREDR2). - RBW
File: SKE40
===
NAME: My Dog and I
DESCRIPTION: "My dog and I hae learned a trade": "when it's late and there's none to spy," in winter and summer "my dog and I will catch some hare"; the geese "they'll no be caught, they fly so high"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: poaching bird animal dog
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan2 254, "My Dog and I" (1 text)
Roud #5848
File: GrD2254
===
NAME: My Emmet's No More
DESCRIPTION: "Despair in her wild eye, a daughter of Erin" played the harp and "sang Erin's woes and her Emmet no more." She accuses "tyrants and traitors" and the "proud titled villains" who cowered before him before they murdered him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (O'Conor) ; beginning 19C (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: rebellion execution patriotic Ireland separation love
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sep 20, 1803 - Robert Emmet (1778-1803) is hanged
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
O'Conor, p. 143, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text)
Zimmermann 25, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan 156, "My Emmet's No More" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(204b), "My Emmet's No More", unknown, n.d.; also 2806 b.10(16), "My Emmet's No More"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Robert Emmet" (subject) and references there
NOTES: For the sad background of this typically Irish story, see the notes to "Bold Robert Emmet." - RBW
File: OCon143A
===
NAME: My Fairey and My Forey: see Have You Any Bread and Wine (English Soldiers, Roman Soldiers) (File: Lins040)
===
NAME: My Faith Looks Up to Thee
DESCRIPTION: "My faith looks up to thee, Thou lamb of Calvary." "Oh let me from this day Be wholly thine." The singer asks for strength and guidance, and asks, "O bear me safe above."
AUTHOR: Words: Ray Palmer (1808-1887) / Music: Lowell Mason (1792-18720
EARLIEST_DATE: 1947 (Methodist hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp, 100-102, "My Faith Looks Up To Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14038
File: CJns0100
===
NAME: My Faither Was Hung for Sheep-Stealing: see The Cobbler (I) (File: R102)
===
NAME: My Far Down Cailin Ban
DESCRIPTION: Sean meets a lass who invites him "'longside the Cailin Ban" in her cart. She invites him in to meet her father and have tea. Her father falls asleep. He slips his arm around her waist. He has travelled over Erin's Isle and has never seen such a beauty
AUTHOR: Shaun O'Nolan (1871-1945) (source: Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1975 (Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: courting Ireland father beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 36, "My Far Down Cailin Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5231
NOTES: Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan: The author was "described in his publicity as 'Shaun O'Nolan, The Wicklow Piper.' The protagonist is a piper named Sean going from Donegal to Tandagree. Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan: "Irish geography does not seem to have been a strong point with him, for when he wrote that couple in the ass and cart jog along from Donegal to Tandragee in County Armagh he can hardly have been aware that the distance involved is over ninety miles!" - BS
File: RcMFDCBa
===
NAME: My Father Gave Me
DESCRIPTION: "My father gave me when he was able A bowl, a bottle, a dish and a ladle, A bowl sir my father gave me" up to "... Twelve bowls, twelve bottles, twelve dishes, twelve ladles, eleven bowls ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1961 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: cumulative nonballad gift
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, p. 20, "My Father Gave Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1505
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Counting Song
A Bowl, a Bottle, a Dish and a Ladle
File: Pea020
===
NAME: My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold (Seven Long Years)
DESCRIPTION: "My father dear, so far from here, has given me good advice, He told me to quit my rambling ways And settle down for life." The rest of the family gives equally good advice. Father gives a lump of gold, but it cannot save the son from hell. Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: family father mother rambling loneliness poverty separation bequest lastwill
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Belden, pp. 259-260, "Prentice's Drinking Song" (1 text)
Randolph 834, "My Father Gave Me a Lump of Gold" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 102, "Seven Long Years" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3605
File: R834
===
NAME: My Father Gave Me an Acre of Ground: see The Elfin Knight [Child 2] (File: C002)
===
NAME: My Father Had an Acre of Land
DESCRIPTION: "My father had an acre of land, Hey ho, sing ivy, My father had an acre of land, With a bunch of green holly and ivy." He farmed it in impossible ways: "plowed it with a team of rats," "rolled it with a rolling pin," "thrashed it with a hazel twig"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1842
KEYWORDS: farming nonsense paradox
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Kennedy 300, "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 51-78, "The Elfin Knight' (12 texts plus 3 fragments, not all from New England; 8 tunes; mostly of Child #2, but the "N" text, which has no tune, appears to be this song)
Opie-Oxford2 158, "My father left me three acres of land" (1 text)
Roud #12
RECORDINGS:
Bob & Ron Copper, "My Father Had an Acre of Land" (on FSB4)
Charlie Potter, "Sing Ivy" (on Voice14)
Tony Wales, "Sing Ivy" (on TWales1)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Team of Rats
Sing Ivy
Sing Ovy, Sing Ivy
NOTES: This song is sometimes listed as a variant of "The Elfin Knight" [Child 2], and in fact they share many ideas and some lyrics. However, the crucial element of "The Elfin Knight" is the dialog, whereas this is a song of impossible deeds. The should be kept separate. - RBW
File: K300
===
NAME: My Father Left Me Three Acres of Land: see My Father Had an Acre of Land (File: K300)
===
NAME: My Father Was a Gambler: see Hang Me, Oh Hang Me (Been All Around This World) (File: R146)
===
NAME: My Father Was Born in Killlarney: see Don't Run Down the Irish (My Father Was Born in Killlarney) (File: MCB224)
===
NAME: My Father, How Long?
DESCRIPTION: "My father, how long\ (x3) Poor sinner suffer here?" "And it won't be long (x3) Poor sinner suffer here." "We'll soon be free (x3), The Lord will call us home." "We'll walk the miry road." "We'll walk the golden streets." "We'll fight for liberty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Allen/Ware/Garrison, p. 93, "My Father, How Long?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12048
File: AWG093
===
NAME: My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me)
DESCRIPTION: "My father's a hedger and ditcher, my mother does nothing but spin, They say I'm a pretty young girl But the money comes slowly in." The girl laments, with variations on a theme, that "there's nobody coming to marry me, Nobody coming to woo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1806 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(39))
KEYWORDS: love courting oldmaid
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ford-Vagabond, p. 189, "Naebody Comin' to Marry Me" (1 text)
BrownII 185, "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Roud #846
RECORDINGS:
Mary Ann Carolan, "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher" (on Voice20)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(39), "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" ("Last night the dogs did bark"), Laurie and Whittle (London), 1806; also Harding B 25(1371)[many illegible words], "Nobody Coming to Marry Me"
NOTES: At first glance, the "Hedger and Ditcher" stanza (which is the first in Brown though not in  Ford) seems unrelated to the rest, but it seems likely to be a reference to the girl's inadequate dowry. There is every likelihood that this is a stage song; most of the (rather unhelpful) references in Brown are to printed and popular versions.
Roud lists many more versions, but many are of what I would consider separate songs (e.g. "My Father's a Lawyer in England," which often goes with "My God How the Money Rolls In").
It's just possible that there is a link to British politics in here somewhere. In the years around 1910, the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith was trying to pass a variety of reforms, and had them vetoed by the House of Lords. The Liberals eventually tried to pass a law restricting the veto power of the Lords. Which, naturally, the Lords vetoed.
Asquith tried various tricks. He called a general election on the issue, and won it -- barely. He tried to persuade the King (originally Edward VII, then George V after Edward's death) to appoint, or at least threaten to appoint, enough liberal peers to override the overwhelming conservative majority (probably at least 75%; some put it at 90%) in the Lords.
The Lords opposed to the reform measure were known as the "Ditchers," because they would die in the last ditch. Those willing to go along with the change were, for whatever reason, known as "Hedgers."
In the end, the reform law was passed by the Lords, very grudgingly. The large majority of the Lords did not attend (nothing unusual about that -- a quorum in the Lords was three peers, though the body had over 500 members). Over 100 Ditchers voted against. Fewer than 100 peers voluntarily voted for. 37 lords led by Lord Curzon, who opposed the bill, finally voted in favor -- better to lose the veto than dilute the Lords. The final vote was 131 to 114.
It had taken two years, and it brought down Unionist (conservative) leader Arthur Balfour, who had been strangely quiet the whole time -- a critic of the period might well have said he "does nothing but spin."
I don't really think the two are connected, but it *is* an interesting parallel. For more on the whole incident, see "Home Rule for Ireland" and "A Loyal Song Against Home Rule"; also Robert K. Massie, _Dreadnought_, pp. 640-662 -- the chapter entited "The Budget and the House of Lords." - RBW
The broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(39) notes: "(Intended as a Companion to the second appearance of Miss Bailey's Ghost, Just Published) Sung by Mrs Jordan, with Unbounded Applause at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane." That "No rest in the grave: or The second appearance of Miss Bailey's ghost" is a parody of "Nobody Coming to Marry Me" : "Nobody coming to bury me," etc. [the latter found in Bodleian Harding B 17(219a) - RBW] - BS
File: BrII185
===
NAME: My Father's Gone to View That Land
DESCRIPTION: "My father's gone to view that land, To view that land, to view that land, My father's gone to view that land, To sing that cheering song." "It takes a saint to view that land." "My (mother/brother/sister/children/neighbor)'s gone to view that land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, p. 209, "Our Father's Gone to View That Land" (1 text)
ST Fus209 (Partial)
Roud #13937
File: Fus209
===
NAME: My Father's Gray Mare: see The Gray Mare [Laws P8] (File: LP08)
===
NAME: My Father's Old Sou'wester
DESCRIPTION: "My father's old sou'wester He wore in days gone by ... Those happy days of old." "When I was but a lad" my father wore his old hat wherever he went.  When he died he said "Go take that old sou'wester hat And wear it for my sake"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1955 (Doyle)
KEYWORDS: death lastwill fishing sea hunting work nonballad father clothes
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Doyle3, pp. 42-43, "My Father's Old Sou'wester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 118, "Old Southwester" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 57, "My Father's Old Sou' Wester" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, SOUWESTR*
Roud #4422
File: Doyl3042
===
NAME: My Father's Servant Boy [Laws M11]
DESCRIPTION: The girl's father plans to have her marry a gentleman. She chooses instead to flee with her sweetheart. They find a captain who will bring them to America, and are supported by an Irishman till the boy can find a job. Despite poverty, the girl is happy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: marriage emigration poverty
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws M11, "My Father's Servant Boy"
SHenry H198, pp. 481-482, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 78, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 39, "My Father's Servant Boy" (1 text)
DT 578, SERVNTBY
Roud #1910
RECORDINGS:
Maggie Murphy, "My Father's Serving Boy" (on IRHardySons)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 238, "The Servant Boy" ("You lovers all both great and small attend unto my theme"), J. Catnach (London) , 1813-1838; also Firth c.18(207), Harding B 11(2595), Harding B 11(3453), Harding B 25(1752), Harding B 11(1471), "The Servant Boy"; Harding B 11(2998), "Answer to the Philadelphia Lass"
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "You Lovers All" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Mullinabrone" (plot)
NOTES: The broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2998), "Answer to the Philadelphia Lass," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle), c.1840 is on the same sheet as "Philadelphia Lass" ("It was on a summer's morning, all in the month of May"), another title for "Mary in Search of Her Lover"; that packaging makes it seem, to me, unlikely that our ballad was ever known elsewhere as "Answer to ...." On the other hand "Philadelphia Lass" may have been in tradition by that title 
[see: Bodleian, Harding B 11(4257), "Mary in Search of her Lover," W. and T. Fordyce (Newcastle) , 1832-1842; also Firth c.13(233), "Mary in Search of her Lover"; Harding B 11(2997), Harding B 11(2998), "[The] Philadelphia Lass" ] - BS
File: LM11
===
NAME: My Fine Sailor Boy: see The Sailor Boy (I) [Laws K12] (File: LK12)
===
NAME: My First and Last Courtship: see I Wish I Were Single Again (I - Male) (File: R365)
===
NAME: My Flora and I: see Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)
===
NAME: My Flora and Me: see Sheepcrook and Black Dog (File: HHH030a)
===
NAME: My Foot Is in the Stirrup
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells Molly he is going to find a new girlfriend (in rather more coarse language), promising he will do his "plowing in some cleaner, greener land."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy parting
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, p. 275, "My Foot Is in the Stirrup" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh Lily, Dear Lily"
cf. "Old Paint"
cf. "Sweet Willie"
cf. "The False Lover Won Back" [Child 218]
File: RL275
===
NAME: My Friends and Relations
DESCRIPTION: "My friends and relations they live in the nations,They know not where their cowboy has gone." The poor cowboy "might have lived long in this world... If my cruel friends could have left me alone." But now he wanders the world
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1937 (Coolidge, "Texas Cowboys")
KEYWORDS: cowboy rambling exile separation family
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 2, "My Friends and Relations" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #16240?
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, floating lyrics) and references there
File: Ohr002
===
NAME: My Gallant Brigantine: see The Gallant Brigantine [Laws D25] (File: LD25)
===
NAME: My Generous Lover
DESCRIPTION: False Jimmy deceives an innocent young woman into yielding to him; she says, "My generous lover, you're welcome to me", but the generosity is all hers. She leaves her home; he leaves the country, telling her not to allow any other to love her; she regrets
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: c. 1960 (recording, A. L. Lloyd)
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness seduction sex abandonment lover
FOUND_IN: Britain(England)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 225-227, "The First Time I Saw My Love" (1 text)
ST RcMGL (Full)
Roud #1996
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "My Generous Lover" (on Lloyd1)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Pretty Peggy
NOTES: The alternate title "Pretty Peggy" should not be confused with "Pretty Peggy-O", a version of "Bonnie Lass of Fyvie". The young woman's name does not appear in this song. - PJS
Huntington's version of this (Roud #1996, for which he currently lists only this song) has a rather simplified plot, in which the man's faithlessness is not clear and the sexual element is very muted (I didn't see it until Paul's description brought it out). I tie the two versions together based on the key line "My generous lover, you're welcome to me."
Huntington says he has not seen any other versions in print, and I must admit that I haven't seen any either. Huntington is reminded of "Logie o Buchan," and I get the same feeling. But they are definitely separate songs.
A point of interpretation: I believe the key line "you're welcome to me" does not mean "let's do something dirty" but "you will always be welcome home to me, whatever my family thinks of you." - RBW
I don't agree; the context makes the offer explicitly sexual. Not something dirty; she's offering her heart and body in sexual love, and he proves unworthy of the offer. - PJS
File: RcMGL
===
NAME: My Gentle Colleen Bawn
DESCRIPTION: The singer courts Colleen Bawn for 16 months. He is rich and "her friends all kindly welcomed me" He loses his money and is told "They'd forced my own colleen to wed An old man for his gold" He asks why "in our own dear land ... They wed for money"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting marriage money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 24, "My Gentle Colleen Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4391
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.7(21), "Tipperary Mans Courtship ," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867 ; also 2806 b.9(7), "For 16 Months I Courted Her"
LOCSinging, as113780, "Tipperary Mans Courtship," unknown, 19C; also as104070, "For 16 Months I Courted Her" 
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as113780 and Bodleian 2806 c.7(21) are duplicates, [as are] LOCSinging as104070 and Bodleian 2806 b.9(7). - BS
File: OLcM024
===
NAME: My Geordie O, My Geordie O: see Geordie [Child 209] (File: C209)
===
NAME: My Girl from Donegal
DESCRIPTION: The singer is setting out for America. He tells those around him of his parting from beautiful Aileen Oge, with whom none can compare. He wishes he could stay, but no money is to be had. When he becomes rich, he will marry Aileen
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration love separation beauty
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H4, pp. 190-191, "My Girl from Donegal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13547
File: HHH004
===
NAME: My Girl's from USC
DESCRIPTION: Various stanzas about how the singer's girl, whose college or fraternity is usually identified, satisfies the singer. Example: "My girl's from USC, She fights for chastity, Fights ev'ryone but me, I love her so."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960
KEYWORDS: courting sex bawdy
FOUND_IN: US(SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 357-359, "My Girl's from USC" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Roud #10402
File: EM357
===
NAME: My God, How the Money Rolls In
DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, "My God" describes the various illegal or dubious occupations of family members, e.g. "My sister she works in a (cathouse/laundry), My father makes synthetic gin, My mother she takes in washing, My God, how the money rolls in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous family
FOUND_IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Cray, pp. 107-109 (related songs to p. 114), "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg, p. 381, "My Sister She Works in a Laundry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 68, "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" (1 text, 1 tune -- seemingly a composite text with a different chorus and some floating verses, e.g. from "The Cobbler")
Gardner/Chickering 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Silber-FSWB, p. 31, "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text)
DT, MYGODHOW MYGOD* (MONTSARG*)
Roud #10143
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
cf. "Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down"
cf. "The Cobble (I)r"
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (words)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Poor Tailor's High Relations
NOTES: This is one of the most commonly found of bawdy songs, virtually ubiquitous in the English-speaking world. - EC
On the off chance you didn't know, the tune is "My Bonnie." And I've even heard clean versions.
It's possible that "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" is a separate song, or at least a separate subtext -- but the versions I've seen are mixed enough that splitting them based on a single key line seemed rather extreme. - RBW
File: EM107
===
NAME: My Good Old Man
DESCRIPTION: Wife asks husband where he is going. He says, grumpily,"Out" (or the like). She asks about supper. He: Eggs. She: How many? He: A bushel. She: They'll kill you. He: Then I'll haunt you. She: You can't haunt a haunt
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Sharp)
KEYWORDS: dialog wife husband shrewishness hardtimes ghost
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Randolph 426, "The Best Old Feller in the World" (2 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 325-327, "The Best Old Feller in the World" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 426A)
BrownII 191, "The Good Old Man" (2 texts)
SharpAp 230, "The Good Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 12-14, "[My Good Old Man]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 88 "Le Vieux Soulard Et Sa Femme (The Old Drunkard and His Wife)" (1 text, in French with English translation, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 344, "Where Are You Going, My Good Old Man" (1 text)
Kennedy 64, "Yr Hen wr Mwyn [The Gentle Old Man]" (1 text in Welsh + translation, 1 tune)
DT, GDOLDMAN
Roud #240
RECORDINGS:
Cleoma Breaux & Joseph Falcon, "Le Vieux Soulard et sa Femme" [in Cajun French] (Columbia 14301D, 1928; on AAFM3)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Tam Buie (Tam Bo, Magherafelt Hiring Fair)" (form)
NOTES: The plot of this song varies widely, as does the final line ("My good old man," "The meanest man in the world," "The best old fellow in the world," "Best Old Soul in the World"). But the format is constant: First the wife asks a long, involved question, e.g. 
Where are you going, my good old man?
Where are you going, my honey, lovey dove?
Where are you going, my good old man?
Best old man in the world.
Then the man replies (spoken, not sung) in the shortest set of monosyllables possible.
The final element, about the ghost, disappears in many versions.
Kennedy's Welsh text doesn't look that much like the English versions to me, at least in terms of plot; it may be an analog rather than a version of the same song. But it's filed here rather than include it in a separate entry, which it does not deserve in an English-language index. - RBW
File: R426
===
NAME: My Good-Looking Man
DESCRIPTION: The singer warns other girls against good-looking men. When young, she saw a good-looking man and set about to marry him. Now she sees him with another woman. When he claims to have been in church, she beats him until he flees
AUTHOR: John Morgan ?
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(1368))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage infidelity abuse
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Newf,Ont) Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
FSCatskills 42, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 182, "My Good-Lookin' Man" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 302-303, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 30, "Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 83, "My Good Looking Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 7, "My Good-Looking Man" (1 text)
DT, GOODLOOK*
Roud #3340
RECORDINGS:
Nonie Lynch, "My Good Looking Man" (on IRClare01)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1368), "The Good Looking Man," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
SAME_TUNE:
Nice Young Girl (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1368))
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(1368) has the author as J. Morgan. - BS
File: FSC42
===
NAME: My Grandfather Died: see The Swapping Boy (File: E093)
===
NAME: My Grandfather's Clock: see Grandfather's Clock (File: RJ19076)
===
NAME: My Grandfather's Cock
DESCRIPTION: An ode to Grandfather's amazing sexual equipment.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: death bawdy
FOUND_IN: US(SW) Britain Australia
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Cray, pp. 270-271, "My Grandfather's Cock" (2 fragments)
DT, GRANDCCK*
File: EM270
===
NAME: My Grandma's Advice: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother Lived on  Yonder Green: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother Lived on Yonder Little Green: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother's Advice: see Grandma's Advice (File: R101)
===
NAME: My Grandmother's Chair: see Grandmother's Chair (File: R467)
===
NAME: My Gray Haired Irish Mother
DESCRIPTION: Barney thinks of his childhood in Ireland and how blessed him when he left. He imagines her sorrow: "Your old Irish mother is waiting for you And when friends and companions will turn and desert you There's a place Barney darling at the old home for you"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (for USBallinsloeFair, according to site irishtune.info, Irish Traditional Music Tune Index: Alan Ng's Tunography, ref. Ng #2617)
KEYWORDS: homesickness separation Ireland nonballad mother home
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
John McGettigan and his Irish Minstrels, "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" (on USBallinsloeFair)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
NOTES: "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" are clearly related but clearly distinct. The question is: which is the original and which the derivative? 
The tunes are closely related though the rests in "There's No One Like Mother To Me" are filled with text in "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
The theme of both songs is: an expatriot remembers his childhood in a "cottage far over the sea" and recalls especially the mother that blessed him with tears on her cheeks.
"There's No One Like Mother to Me" has two verses and a chorus. "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" has five verses and no chorus.
Here is the first verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me"
Sadly I'm thinking tonight
Thinking of days long gone by
Memories of childhood so bright
Come back like a dream with a sigh
I'm thinking of friends and of home
In that cottage far over the sea
Oh no matter where-ever I roam
There is no one like mother to me.
and the first two verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother"
How sadly I'm thinking tonight of my sire-land
Thinking of scenes and of days long gone by.
Memories of childhood so bright and so airy
Come rushing back to me with many's a sigh
I'm thinking of one whom I left far behind me
In that little thatched cottage far over the sea
Oh the one only cried Barney every noon and morning
Darling won't you come back to me.
The pattern is repeated in the remaining verse of "There's No One Like Mother to Me" and the third and fourth verses of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother."
We have sheet music dated 1885 for "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (LOCSheet sm1885 25967, by Gussie L Davis). The version recorded in 1936 by The Carter Family is almost identical to that original (source: _Country Music Sources_ by Guthrie T Meade Jr, p. 324; the Bluegrass Lyrics site)
The John McGettigan recording of "My Gray Haired Irish Mother" in 1929 demonstrates that the songs co-existed. - BS 
File: RcMGHIM
===
NAME: My Guid Kilmarnock Bonnet: see Big Kilmarnock Bonnet (File: RcBiGkBo)
===
NAME: My Handsome Gilderoy: see Gilderoy (File: RL040)
===
NAME: My Handsome Sailor Boy
DESCRIPTION: "As I roved out one evening down Water street I took my way." Mary Jane hopes to meet MacDonald, her true love, but is told he's gone to Halifax "for money." Her mother and father tell her to forget MacDonald but she will go to Halifax to be his bride.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: courting separation sea father lover mother
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Peacock, pp. 566-567, "My Handsome Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Pea566 (Partial)
Roud #9795
NOTES: Peacock says "Despite the fact that Mary Jane roves down Water Street in St John's (or Halifax) and MacDonald lives in Halifax, this song does not seem to me to be of Canadian origin. It is probably a British song with Canadian referents." Water Street is hardly a street name found only in Halifax or St John's - BS
File: Pea566
===
NAME: My Happy Little Home in Arkansas
DESCRIPTION: "'Tis a pretty little cottage where the grass is ever green... Come and see me, neighbors, come today... 'Tis the finest country found, I will show you all around In my happy little home in Arkansas." Praises of the farming conditions in Arkansas
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Stockard, History of Lawrence, Jackson, Independence, and Stone Counties, Arkansas)
KEYWORDS: home farming
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 868, "My Happy Little Home in Arkansas" (1 text)
Roud #7537
File: R868
===
NAME: My Harding County Home
DESCRIPTION: "Not so many years ago I left old Buffalo, The place that I have always loved the best.... I'm yearning today For my Harding County home out in the west. The singer recalls the beauties of home; "As I wander down Broadway," he hears a coyote call him home
AUTHOR: Tex Fletcher
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (recording, Tex Fletcher)
KEYWORDS: home travel
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 67, "My Harding County Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Tex Fletcher, "My Harding County Home" (Flint 1782, 1948)
NOTES: "Buffalo" here refers not to the city in New York State but to the county seat of Harding County, South Dakota.
Although this began life as a commercial recording, it does have some oral tradition behind it; the author's son tells me of a "kitchen table" recording he has of his father singing it. - RBW
File: Ohr067
===
NAME: My Heart's in the Highlands
DESCRIPTION: The singer bids farewell to the highlands mountains, valleys, forests, and rivers, and recalls "chasing the wild deer and following the roe My heart's in the highlands where ever I go"
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST_DATE: 1790 (according to Kinsley, _Burns_)
KEYWORDS: homesickness farewell travel nonballad animal hunting
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
GreigDuncan3 521, "My Heart's in the Highlands" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, _Burns: Complete Poems and Songs_ (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #418, pp. 418-419, "My heart's in the Highlands" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1790)
Roud #5878
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Failte na miosg" (tune, per Burns)
File: GrD3521
===
NAME: My Heart's Tonight in Texas [Laws B23]
DESCRIPTION: A rancher's daughter and her lover must part; the girl's father is sending her to England in hopes that she will marry a nobleman. Eventually an earl proposes to her, but she will marry none but her Texas Jack
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: separation love
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Laws B23, "My Heart's Tonight in Texas (By the Silvery Rio Grande; Texas Jack)"
DT 841, HRTEXAS*
Roud #635
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
By the Silvery Rio Grande
Texas Jack
NOTES: A piece called "Down by the Silvery Rio Grande" was published in 1913 as by Dave Weisberg, R. F. Roden, and Charles Speidel. I have not seen it. - RBW
File: LB23
===
NAME: My Hielant Hame
DESCRIPTION: "Oh for a sprig o' my ain Hielant heather." The singer recalls parting from his "faither and mither wha near broken hearted." "Sair was my thochts when I crossed the wide ocean For I had nae friend to welcome me there" He dreams of the old folks at home.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: homesickness emigration parting Scotland father mother
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 533, "My Hielant Hame" (1 text)
Roud #6012
File: GrD2533
===
NAME: My Home in Fermoy
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls "those bright golden hours I spent long ago in my home in Fermoy" "far away o'er the wide spreading ocean": school, the Blackwater, Castlehyde, and the Angelus bells. He hopes to return but knows that many he left behind have died.
AUTHOR: Kate Dowling (source: OCanainn)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1913 (according to OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: home travel return Ireland nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 104-105, "My Home in Fermoy" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: OCan104
===
NAME: My Home in Sweet Glenlea
DESCRIPTION: Singer travels to South Africa, Hindustan, Java, and Palestine, thinking all the time "the fairest was Glenlea." After an earthquake in San Francisco, he writes home for money. He returned, is met by a great crowd, marriess and lives happily in Glenlea.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1978 (OCanainn)
KEYWORDS: parting travel return marriage Africa America India Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OCanainn, pp. 62-65, "My Home in Sweet Glenlea" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OCanainn: "[The singer] thinks it was written by a man called Cronin, who probably never ventured further from home than an occasional trip to Macroom." - BS
Presumablly shortly after the 1906 San Francicso earthquake. Such a late date also has the advantage that the singer would have heard of some of those places. The mention of South Africa might have been suggested by the Boer War. - RBW
File: OCan062
===
NAME: My Home Is on the Mountain
DESCRIPTION: The singer expresses a hope and a prayer to be reunited with mother: "I want to see my mother, O can't you call her here? / It wouldn't seem so hard to die to have my mother near...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: religious reunion death
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 78, "My Home Is on the Mountain" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FSC078 (Partial)
NOTES: Cazden et al know of no other collections of this lyric, although the melody is similar to the familiar hymn tunes "Imandra" and "Milton."
They file the piece among "religious songs," but it feels a bit like a Civil War "dying soldier boy" song. - RBW
File: FSC078
===
NAME: My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
DESCRIPTION: "I'm going back to North Carolina (x3), I never expect to see you any more." Repeat with "I'm going to leave here Monday morning," "How can I ever keep from crying," "I'm going across the Blue Ridge Mountains."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1909 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: love home separation farewell nonballad parting
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Warner 124, "I'm Goin' Back to North Carolina" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 42, "My Home's Across The Smokey Mountains" (1 text)
BrownIII 278, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (1 text plus a fragment)
DT, HOMSMOK
ST Wa124 (Full)
Roud #7686
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley, Garley Foster, Dock Walsh & Doc Watson, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on Ashley03, WatsonAshley01)
Frank Bode, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on FBode1)
Carolina Tar Heels, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Victor V-40100, 1929)
Carter Family, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Decca 5532, 1938/Decca X2184, n.d.)
Delmore Brothers, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluebird B-8247, 1939)
Kelly Harrell, "I'm Going Back to North Carolina" (OKeh 40505, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (AAFS 3155 B2) 
Poplin Family, "My Home Is Not In South Carolina" (on Poplin01)
Pete Seeger, "My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains" (on PeteSeeger25)
Arthur Smith, "Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (Bluebird B-7221, 1937)
Jack Wallin, "My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains" (on Wallins1)
File: Wa124
===
NAME: My Home's Across the Smokey Mountains: see My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)
===
NAME: My Home's Across the Smoky Mountains: see My Home's Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (File: Wa124)
===
NAME: My Home's in Montana
DESCRIPTION: "My home's in Montana, I wear a bandana, My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray. While riding the ranges my luck never changes, With my foot in the stirrup I gallop for aye." The cowboy sketches the life of a horseman following cattle in the wilderness
AUTHOR: Words: Christine Turner Curtis (?)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1936 ("Singing Days" series)
KEYWORDS: work cowboy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Ohrlin-HBT 1, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 247, "My Home's in Montana" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 30-31, "The Cowboy's Lament" (1 text, 1 tune, with four verses that are clearly "Streets of Laredo" but an opening that is "My Home's in Montana")
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streets of Laredo" [Laws B1] (tune & meter, floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "The Unfortunate Rake" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES: This was apparently composed (based on elements of "The Streets of Laredo") as a cowboy song suitable for young people. There are reports of versions from Montana, possibly unprintable. See the notes in Ohrlin for the background.
Larkin's text may be a "missing link": It's largely "Streets of Laredo," but it starts with the "home in Montana" half-verse. - RBW
File: Ohr001
===
NAME: My Horses Ain't Hungry: see The Wagoner's Lad (File: R740)
===
NAME: My Husband's a Mason
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how her (husband/father/boyfriend) works all day at his trade and then comes home and plies his trade upon her, e.g. "My husband's a mason... All day he lays bricks... At night he comes home and lays me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1949
KEYWORDS: work sex bawdy incest
FOUND_IN: US(MA,MW,SW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Cray, pp. 55-61, "My Husband's a Mason" (6 texts, 2 tunes)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Used to Work in Chicago" (theme)
NOTES: In some of Cray's versions the final sexual act ("lays me/screws me/drives me/etc.") is replaced by the euphemism "drinks tea." One wonders what peculiar impulse drove anyone to sing such an explicit song and then use such a silly euphemism.
Although Cray's versions are all modern, he traces the device back to the 1707 edition of _Pills to Purge Melancholy_. - RBW
Why would anyone sing the euphemistic version, Bob asks? Because in the right company, it's even funnier when the listeners make the connection themselves. - PJS
File: EM055
===
NAME: My Husband's Got No Courage in Him
DESCRIPTION: (Two women meet); one laments, "(My) husband's got no courage in him." She describes all she has done to encourage his "courage," but all attempts have failed. (Even now she still has her maidenhead.) (She hopes he dies so she can find another)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1701 (broadside NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(053))
KEYWORDS: wife husband sex disability
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South),Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Kennedy 213, "Rue the Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 171, "The Husband With No Courage In Him" (1 text)
BBI, ZN2114, "Of late it was my chance to walke"
DT, NOCOURAG* NOUCOURG2
Roud #870
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(053), "My Husband Has No Courage In Him," unknown, 1701
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids, When You're Young"
cf. "What Can a Young Lassie"
cf. "The Jolly Barber Lad" (theme)
cf. "The Old Man from Over the Sea"
File: K213
===
NAME: My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy)
DESCRIPTION: "I'm Larry McHugh, a boy so true, I belong to the Emerald Isle." He tells how the girls "Think it a trate to take a seat and be drove in my jaunting car." He offers rides to all, and guidance on the best places to buy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: technology travel nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H592, p. 41, "My Irish Jaunting Car" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13464
NOTES: Not to be confused with the much more common "The Irish Jaunting Car." - RBW
File: HHH592
===
NAME: My Irish Molly-O
DESCRIPTION: The singer, (a Scotsman,) is in love with Molly. Her parents oppose the match (because he is not Catholic). Unable to win his love, he is ready to die (and makes preparations for burial). (Common versions often lose the plot, and simply speak of courting)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1842 (Joyce, The Native Music of Ireland)
KEYWORDS: love separation death courting
FOUND_IN: US(MA) Ireland Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Ord, p. 131, "Irish Molly, O" (1 text)
FSCatskills 62, "My Irish Molly-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 177-178, "Irish Molly-O" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 52, "Irish Molly O" (1 text)
DT, IRSHMOLL*
ADDITIONAL: Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 214-215, "Irish Molly"
H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 186-187, 512, "Irish Molly"
Roud #2168
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1787), "Irish Molly, O!" ("As I walk'd out one morning all in the month of May"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(2121), Firth b.28(35) View 2 of 2[some words illegible], Johnson Ballads fol. 114, Harding B 11(4209), Harding B 17(140b), Johnson Ballads 2582, Firth c.26(181), Harding B 20(257), Firth c.26(137), 2806 c.15(243), Firth c.14(204), 2806 b.11(252), "Irish Molly, O[!]"; Johnson Ballads 340, "Irish Molly!"
LOCSinging, as106290, "Irish Molly, O," Harris (Philadelphia), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.1270(006), "Irish Molly, O," James Kay (Glasgow), c. 1845; also L.C.178.A.2(256), "Irish Molly O," unknown, c. 1860
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Often Think of Writing Home" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
I Often Think of Writing Home (File: RcIOTOWH)
File: FSC062
===
NAME: My Irish Polly: see The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)
===
NAME: My Johnny
DESCRIPTION: Basically a lament for Johnny, who apparently died and was buried at sea. "We're homeward bound today ... We'll drink and play (etc) but always think of Johnny" Chorus: "In the middle of the sea, my boy is floating free, so far away from me, my love."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Richard Runciman Terry, _The Shanty Book_)
KEYWORDS: foc's'le shanty lament farewell
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, pp. 539-540, "My Johnny" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Rather slow and sentimental for a shanty, but Terry's source said it was used at the capstan. - SL
File: Hugi539
===
NAME: My Johnny Was a Shoemaker
DESCRIPTION: "My Johnny was a shoemaker But now he's gone to sea." He will be a captain "Of a bold and galliant crew And then across the sea he'll roam All for to marry me ... And when I am a captain's wife I'll sing the whole day long"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as202550)
KEYWORDS: courting separation sailor nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 44, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JOHNSHOE
Roud #1388
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 18(366), "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also Harding B 18(670), "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker"
LOCSinging, as202550, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also sb20295b, "My Johnny Was a Shoemaker"
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as202550 and Bodleian Harding B 18(366) are duplicates. 
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20295b and Bodleian Harding B 18(670) are duplicates.
The description is from broadside LOCSinging as202550.
Broadside LOCSinging as202550 and Bodleian Harding B 18(366): H. De Marsan dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OLcM044
===
NAME: My Jolly Shantyboy
DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a girl praising her shantyboy and lamenting that her parents dislike him. She is advised to marry a drygoods clerk rather than "throw herself away." But "If I had my will I'd love him still, my jolly shantyboy."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: love logger mother father separation
FOUND_IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fowke-Lumbering #55, "My Jollu Shantyboy" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #4383
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonny Laboring Boy" [Laws M14] (tune, theme)
NOTES: Fowke considers this a reworking of "The Bonny Laboring Boy" [Laws M14], and this is nearly certain; it's absolutely certain that it's derived from a song of that type. I thought about lumping them, as I did with "The Railroad Boy." But this song is so defective (only two stanzas) that we cannot tell its final outcome; I think it has to remain separate until we find a version with an ending. - RBW
File: FowL55
===
NAME: My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up
DESCRIPTION: "My laddie sits ower late up, My  hinny sits ower late up.... Betwixt the pint pot and the cup." The singer calls Johnny home to his bairn, lamenting the money he wastes: "When I cry out, 'Laddie, cum hame,' He calls oot again for mair beer."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: home drink wife husband
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, p. 192, "My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST StoR192 (Full)
Roud #3181
File: StoR192
===
NAME: My Lagan Love
DESCRIPTION: "Where Lagan stream sings lullaby, There blows a lily fair." The singer admits the girl "has my heart in thrall. No life I own, nor liberty, For love is lord of all." The singer recalls the girl's life in the bogs and her sweet songs
AUTHOR: Joseph Campbell
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (recording, John McCormack)
KEYWORDS: love beauty courting nonballad bug music
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
DT, LAGANLUV*
Roud #1418
RECORDINGS:
Margaret Barry, "My Lagan Love" (on IRMBarry-Fairs)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wake of William Orr" (tune)
NOTES: According to the notes on IRMBarry-Fairs, this art song entered the traditional repertoire (to the extent it did) as a result of a pop recording by John McCormack in 1910. - RBW
File: DTlaganl
===
NAME: My Last Farewell to Stirling
DESCRIPTION: The convict bitterly prepares to leave Stirling for Van Dieman's Land. He laments the pheasants he will not disturb, the rabbits he cannot hunt. He bids farewell to his (Jeannie), and hopes she will find another love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: love separation transportation hunting poaching
FOUND_IN: Australia Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Manifold-PASB, p. 23, "My Last Farewell to Stirling" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FAREWLST
Roud #5160
File: PASB023
===
NAME: My Last Gold Dollar
DESCRIPTION: "My last (gold/ole) dollar is gone (x2), My whiskey bill is due an' my board bill too...." "Oh darling, I'm crazy about you... and another girl too..." "Oh darling, won't you go my bail?..." "Oh darling, six months ain't too long...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (American Mountain Songs)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes prison courting drink
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Randolph 671, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 381-382, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 671A)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 112, "My Last Gold Dollar" (1 single-stanza fragment)
Lomax-FSNA 149, "My Last Ole Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 130-131, "My Last Old Dollar" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, OLDOLLAR*
Roud #4310
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "The Last Gold Dollar" (on BLLunsford01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (floating lyrics)
cf. "New River Train" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Six Months Ain't Long" (lyrics)
NOTES: We might note that the line "last gold dollar" had a slightly different meaning in the nineteenth century. During the Civil War, the Union government issued both gold-backed and unbacked ("greenback") dollars. The greenbacks were, not surprisingly, treated with less respect and discounted. A man who spend his last gold dollar might still have money -- but only the less valuable greenbacks.
Of course, since the song is often sung "My last OLD dollar," that may be just a bit of excessive historical analysis. - RBW
File: R671
===
NAME: My Last Ol' Dollar: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: My Last Old Dollar: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: My Last Ole Dollar: see My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)
===
NAME: My Li'l John Henry: see Little John Henry (File: LoF300)
===
NAME: My Little Dear, So Fare You Well: see Farewell, Sweetheart (The Parting Lovers, The Slighted Sweetheart) (File: R756)
===
NAME: My Little Four-Leaf Shamrock from Glenore, The: see The Shamrock from Glenore (File: HHH034)
===
NAME: My Little German Home Across the Sea
DESCRIPTION: "How I love to think about the days so full of joy and glee, But they never will come back again to me." The singer recalls home and family in Germany, but now mother and father are dead and he cannot return home. He wishes he could
AUTHOR: George S. Knight ?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Pound); reportedly copyrighted 1877
KEYWORDS: home Germany family mother father separation emigration
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 870, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 536-538, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 870A)
Rorrer, p. 91, "I Left My German Home" (1 text)
Roud #7429
RECORDINGS:
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I Left My German Home" (No known Columbia release; recorded 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "My Little German Home Across the Sea" (Edison 51909, 1927)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
NOTES: This piece is probably based on Will S. Hays's "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane;" it uses the same melody for the verse, although the chorus is missing. "Log Cabin" of course gave us an assortment of other parodies, including "The Little Old Sod Shanty on my Claim." - RBW
File: R870
===
NAME: My Little One's Waiting for Me
DESCRIPTION: "In the dell where the brook's gently flowing, On the bench by the old willow tree... My little one's waiting for me." The singer describes how he happily goes home from work (or wherever) to home and the "little one"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 850, "My Little One's Waiting for Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7450
File: R850
===
NAME: My Little Organ Grinder: see The Organ Grinder (File: EM341)
===
NAME: My Little Yaller Coon
DESCRIPTION: "My little yaller coon Done got back here so soon, Dat I ain't yet got De big fat coon For de 'tater an' de pone, To eat in de light of de moon."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: food animal
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 179, (no title) (1fragment)
NOTES: Scarborough considers this a song about eating raccoons. Given the coon's diet, I rather doubt it was ever considered a delicacy; I wonder if there isn't something else going on here. - RBW
File: ScaNF179
===
NAME: My Lone Rock by the Sea
DESCRIPTION: "Oh tell me not the woods are fair Now spring is on the way." The singer admits the beauty of the land, "But ask me, woo me not to leave My lone rock by the sea." He describes the beauties of life by the shore
AUTHOR: Charlie C. Converse
EARLIEST_DATE: 1857 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home sea nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 842, "My Lone Rock by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7447
NOTES: According to Spaeth, this tune later supplied part of the melody for "Aloha Oe." And Randolph's source noted its connection to "these fool 'Hawaiian' songs." - RBW
File: R842
===
NAME: My Long Journey Home: see Two Dollar Bill (Long Journey Home) (File: CSW177)
===
NAME: My Lord 'Size
DESCRIPTION: "The jailor for trial had brought up a thief" as lawyers look for work and gawkers look for sensation -- when the notice the body of Lord 'Size. Witnesses are sought and questioned. The jury is trying to reach a verdict when the body comes to life 
AUTHOR: Words: John Shield
EARLIEST_DATE: 1900 (Stokoe/Reay)
KEYWORDS: humorous trial judge lawyer
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 142-144, "My Lord 'Size" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3164
NOTES: According to Stokoe, this "is commemorative of an unlucky accident that actually occurred to one of Her Majesty's Judges of Assize, Baron Graham, about the year 1810." Though, in 1810, the King was George III and it wouldn't have been Her Majesty's Judge....
The whole thing reminds me very much of the Barrister's Dream in _The Hunting of the Snark_, though such courtroom jokes are common in English literature (see, e.g., _The Pickwick Papers_). - RBW
File: StoR142
===
NAME: My Lord Knows the Way
DESCRIPTION: "My Lord knows the way through the wilderness -- all I have to do is follow (x2). Strength for today is mine all the way, and all I need for tomorrow; My Lord knows...."
AUTHOR: Sidney E. Cox
EARLIEST_DATE: 1951
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
FSCatskills 81, "My Lord Knows the Way" (2 texts, tune under #80; sung as a medley with #80, "Heavenly Sunlight (Heavenly Sunshine)")
ST FSC081 (Full)
File: FSC081
===
NAME: My Lord Says There's Room Enough in Heaven for Us All: see Room Enough (File: JDM094)
===
NAME: My Lord, What a Morning: see When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)
===
NAME: My Lord, What a Mourning: see When the Stars Begin to Fall (File: LoF237)
===
NAME: My Love is a Rider: see The Bucking Broncho (The Broncho Buster) [Laws B15] (File: LB15)
===
NAME: My Love Is Like a Dewdrop: see Farewell He (File: FSC41)
===
NAME: My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose
DESCRIPTION: "My love is like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June, My love is like a melody that's sweetly sprung in June." The singer promises to love "Till all the seas gang dry" and return to his love though his voyage takes him "ten thousand mile"
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: love nonballad separation return beauty
FOUND_IN: Britain
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 140, "My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose" (1 text)
DT, REDREDRO*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #453, p. 582, "A red red rose" (1 text, 1 tune, from 1794)
Roud #12946
RECORDINGS:
Mrs. McGrath, "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)
NOTES: The irony of this song, of course, is that Burns himself was about as constant as -- well, we won't go into that....
I don't know if this song ever did much in tradition, but it's certainly one of the more often-printed of Burns's poems (printed, e.g., as item CXC in Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_). - RBW
File: FSWB140C
===
NAME: My Love Is on the Ocean: see Farewell He (File: FSC41)
===
NAME: My Love is so Pretty
DESCRIPTION: The singer waxes lyrical in his love's praise -- telling how she turns everyone's heads with her straight, slender figure, "mouth always twittering," and "cheeks like cauliflower." He joyfully prepares for his wedding.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage nonballad youth
FOUND_IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 7-9, "My Love is so Pretty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FO007 (Partial)
Roud #4677
File: FO007
===
NAME: My Love John: see The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out) (File: FJ166)
===
NAME: My Love Lays Cold Beneath My Feet
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls telling tales by the fire. She says she would comfort her love if he appeared. But "My love's laying so cold beneath my feet." She says that he promised to marry her and no other, "but don't my love lay so cold beneath my feet"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: early 1960s (collected from Caroline Hughes)
KEYWORDS: love death burial separation
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MacSeegTrav 61, "My Love Lays Cold Beneath My Feet" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2513
NOTES: When Paul Stamler indexed this book, he despaired of this piece as a conglomerate. MacColl and Seeger couldn't classify it with anything, either.
Caroline Hughes seems to have been one of those unusual people who could gather together lines from all sorts of songs and produce a relatively coherent result. I strongly suspect this is the result of such a process; of the six opportunities for rhyme in the song, only three actually do rhyme, and always with the same word (e.g. "feet" is rhymed with "feet"), and stanza one has an aabc rhyme while stanza 3 is abab. (There are no rhymes in stanza two).
Most such songs have a dominant element, and we would classify them there. This song simply does not. It is, as best I can tell, absolutely unique. So I think we have to classify it separately, a de facto composition of Caroline Hughes. - RBW
File: McCST061
===
NAME: My Love She's but a Lassie Yet
DESCRIPTION: "My love, she's but a lassie yet (x2), We'll let her stand a year or twa, She'll no be half sae saucy yet!" Singer tells of a hard courtship, calls for more drink, and concludes, "The minister kisst the fiddler's wife, He couldna preach for thinkin' o't."
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (_Scots Musical Museum_ #225); cf. (Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book of c. 1744)
KEYWORDS: courting love youth
FOUND_IN: Scotland
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, p. 226, "My Love is but a Lassie Yet" (1 tune)
Opie-Oxford2 523, "My love, she's but a Lassie Yet" (3 texts)
DT, LUVELASS*
ST MCB226 (Full)
Roud #8979
NOTES: The verse, "We're all dry wi' the drinkin' o't... The minister kisst the fiddler's wife, He couldna preach for thinkin' o't" precedes Burns; it appeared (in a more English version) in the _Pretty Songs of Tommy Thumb_ in 1744 (see Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #23, p. 37). Whether there is more to the piece than that I do not know. - RBW
Opie-Oxford2: "This song fragment ... had all the while quietly been residing in the English nursery. where it appeared about 1744.... Burns also borrowed the title 'My Love, she's but a Lassie yet'. The tune appears in Walsh's _Caledonian Country Dances_ (c.1740), and in Johnson's _Twelve Country Dances_ (1749) under the title 'Foot's Vagaries', as well as in the _Museum_." - BS
File: MCB226
===
NAME: My Love's a Plooman
DESCRIPTION: "My love is a ploughman and follows the plough." The singer has promised the ploughman that she will love him.  She says she will be true and never rue her promise.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming love promise
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Greig #130, p. 1, "The Plooman Laddie" (1 fragment: only the first verse)
GreigDuncan3 446, "My Love's a Plooman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #5957
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Plooman Laddie (I)" (llyrics)
NOTES: Greig #135, p. 3, explains that a correspondent says the first verse of his composite "The Plooman Laddie" is from a different song. This is the verse printed in GreigDuncan3 [also verse 1 of Ord]. - BS
File: GrD3446
===
NAME: My Lovely Irish Rose
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls leaving Mary, his "lovely Irish Rose," and sailing to America. "The strangers' land is fair to see, the strangers too are kind," but he'd rather be home. Nothing compares with Mary and "those many happy days spent with my Irish Rose"
AUTHOR: Fred Kearney (source: McBride)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1988 (McBride)
KEYWORDS: love emigration farewell home separation America Ireland
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 51, "My Lovely Irish Rose" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: McBride: "This song is common all over Ireland thanks mainly to recordings of it done on 78 rpm records in the 1930' and 40's." - BS
File: McB1051
===
NAME: My Lovely Nancy: see Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)
===
NAME: My Lovely Sailor Boy: see The Sailor and His Bride [Laws K10] (File: LK10)
===
NAME: My Lovie Was a Shoemaker: see The Gallant Shoemaker (File: Ord102)
===
NAME: My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire)
DESCRIPTION: "My lovin' father, When the world's on fire, Don't you want God's bosom For to be your pillow? Hide me, oh thou, in the rock of ages, Rock of ages, cleft for me." (Similarly with mother and perhaps other relatives)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, Carter Family)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 637, "My Lovin' Father" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ST R637 (Full)
Roud #4225; also probably 5119
RECORDINGS:
The Carter Family, "When the World's On Fire"  (Victor V-40293, 1930/Montgomery Ward M-4229, 1933)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "This Land Is Your Land" (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Charlie Monroe's Boys "(New) When the World's On Fire" (Montgomery Ward M-7574, 1938) 
NOTES: The version of this recorded by the Carter Family, or one of its relatives, is probably the tune-source for Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." - RBW
File: R637
===
NAME: My Lowlands Away: see Lowlands (My Lowlands Away) (File: PBB100)
===
NAME: My Lula Gal: see Bang Away, Lulu (I) (File: EM173)
===
NAME: My Lula Lou
DESCRIPTION: "On the banks of the noble Cumberland I spent many happy hours Wandering there with my Lula Lou, Kentucky's sweetest flower." "She buckled on my sabre there." "The fatal shot has done its work"; now he waits for her to join him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (Fuson)
KEYWORDS: soldier separation love
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fuson, pp. 124-125, "My Lula Lou" (1 text)
ST Fus124 (Partial)
Roud #16367
NOTES: The ending of this song, at least as found in Fuson, is confused: The boy is shot, "and fainted and fell, and fell as dead," but "to-day his heart faints for your voice." - RBW
File: Fus124
===
NAME: My Lulu
DESCRIPTION: "My Lulu hugged and kissed me, She wrung my hand and cried, She said I was the sweetest thing That ever lived or died." The singer praises Lulu and threatens any who court her. (He will follow her anywhere, but she deserts him)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation abandonment floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Sandburg, p. 378, "My Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 178, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 182-184, "Lulu" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST San378 (Full)
Roud #3435
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Pig at Home in the Pen" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: I suppose this could be a clean version of one of the "Bang Away, Lulu" songs, but the scansion appears slightly different. - RBW
File: San378
===
NAME: My Ma Was Born in Texas
DESCRIPTION: "My ma was born in Texas, my pa in Tennessee," and the singer was born as they moved to California. He left home to become a cowboy. He married a girl; she proved to have seven children. He caught her with another man and shot him; he is sentenced to life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: courting infidelity murder prison punishment
FOUND_IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Fife-Cowboy/West 33, "My Ma Was Born in Texas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4808
NOTES: This was collected by Edith Fowke in Lakefield, Ontario. Don't ask me how it got there. - RBW
File: FCW33
===
NAME: My Mammy Don't Love Me
DESCRIPTION: "My mammy don't love me, She won't by me no shoes, Won't give me no corn-licker, Won't tell me no news." The man asks what he has done: "killed nobody, I've done no hanging crime." She(?) says that a man who mistreats her will treat others the same
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1921 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes drink crime punishment execution
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 314, "My Mammy Don't Love Me" (1 text)
NOTES: The text in Brown is so short as to be almost meaningless; is it the story of a wild woman separated from her husband? Of a wild boy? It may well include floating material which adds to the confusion. - RBW
File: Br3314
===
NAME: My Mammy Stoled a Cow
DESCRIPTION: "Steal up, young ladies, My mammy stoled a cow. Steal up, my darlin' chile, My mammy stoled a cow." "Stoled that cow im Baltimo', My mammy stoled a cow." "Steal all around, don't slight no one, My mammy stoled a cow."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: dancetune theft animal
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 116, "My Mammy Stoled a Cow" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Scarborough claims that the reported theft in this song is "used merely as an excuse to bring in the directions of stealing up in the dance." - RBW
File: ScaNF116
===
NAME: My Mammy Told Me (Don't Marry No Girl You Know)
DESCRIPTION: "My mammy told me long years ago, 'Son, don't you marry no girl you know. Spend all your money, sell all your clothes, Then what'll become of you the Lord only knows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: marriage warning
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 316, "My Mammy Told Me" (3 short texts)
File: Br3316
===
NAME: My Man John: see The Keys of Canterbury (File: R354)
===
NAME: My Martha Ann: see Mary Ann (File: FJ142)
===
NAME: My Mary Ann: see Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy) (File: HHH037)
===
NAME: My Maryland: see Maryland! My Maryland (File: RJ19130)
===
NAME: My Minnie Ment My Auld Breeks: see Robin Tamson's Smiddy [Laws O12] (File: LO12)
===
NAME: My Mither She Feed Me: see The Bed-Making (File: Ord199)
===
NAME: My Mother and Your Mother
DESCRIPTION: "My mother and your mother Were hanging out clothes; My mother came to your mother And snipped off her nose."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry, from Mrs. Henry C. Gray, or her maid)
KEYWORDS: mother clothes fight
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #581, p. 234, "(My mother and your mother)"
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 240, (no title) (1 short text)
NOTES: The text given here is sort of a reconstruction of something I vaguely remember. It's sort of an infant game; on the last line, the speaker grabs the listener's note between index and middle fingers and pretends to cut it off as with a scissors.
At least, that's what I remember. The Baring-Goulds have a different version of the rhyme ("My mother and your mother Went over the way, Said my mother to your mother, It's chop-a-nose day"), and their version of nose-chopping is two-handed.
Henry's informant had a very different version: Instead of nose-chopping, Mother #1 merely PULLED Mother #2's nose. Curiously, Henry's informant also claimed that there was more to the song.
Incidentally, while actually chopping off the nose was not common in history, slitting the nostrils as a punishment for crime is well-attested. - RBW
File: MHAp240A
===
NAME: My Mother Bid Me: see Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings) (File: R066)
===
NAME: My Mother Said (Gypsies in the Wood)
DESCRIPTION: "My mother said that I never should Play with the gypsies in the wood. The wood was dark; the grass was green; In came Sally with a tamborine." "I went to the sea -- no ship to get across... Sally tell my mother I shall never come back."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1870 (Kilvert, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: playparty Gypsy mother separation floatingverses
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Opie-Oxford2 362, "My mother said that I never should" (1 fragment)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #603, p. 240, "(My mother said that I never should)"
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, third edition, 1928 (type reset 1953), p. 535, ("My Mother said that I never should") (1 short text)
Roud #13187
NOTES: The second verse of this, of course, floats in part; I have no idea whether it was originally integral to this song, which is thought to be quite old though the Baring-Goulds claim it was not published before de la Mare. (The Opies, of course, found an earlier reference in Kilvert). - RBW
File: BGMG603
===
NAME: My Mother Said that I Must Go
DESCRIPTION: "My mother said that I must go To fetch my father's dinner, o. Chappit tatties, beef and steak, Two red herrings, and a bawbee bake."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Montgomerie)
KEYWORDS: mother father food nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 145, "(My mother said that I must go)" (1 text)
File: MSNR145
===
NAME: My Mother Was a Lady
DESCRIPTION: Two (drummers) come to a hotel for dinner, and harass the waitress. Eventually she bursts out, "My mother was a lady... I came to this great city To find a brother dear...." One drummer knows her brother, and offers to marry her
AUTHOR: Edward B. Marks
EARLIEST_DATE: 1896 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: family servant brother separation marriage
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
LPound-ABS, 107, pp. 218-220, "The Two Drummers" (1 text)
DT, MTHLADY
Roud #2982
RECORDINGS:
Mack Allen [pseud., for Vernon Dalhart], "Mother Was a Lady" (Harmony 721-H, 1928)
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Supertone 9628, 1930)
Ted Chestnut, "My Mother Was A Lady" (Champion 15524 [as Cal Turner]/Supertone 9180 [as Alvin Bunch], 1928)
Jerry Colonna, "My Mother Was a Lady" (Columbia 35371, 1940)
Walter Dalton, "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Perfect 12468, 1928)
Morgan Denmon, "The Two Drummers" (OKeh 45306, 1929; rec. 1927)
Warde Ford, "My mother was a lady (Brother Jack)" (AFS 4201 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Beatrice Kay & the Elm City 4, "My Mother Was a Lady" (Columbia 35460, 1940)
Jimmie Rodgers, "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Victor 21433, 1928; Bluebird B-5482, 1934; Victor 23193, n.d.; rec. 1927)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Two Drummers" (on AKStorm01)
Frankie Wallace [pseud. for Frankie Marvin], "If Brother Jack Were Here" (Domino 0261, c. 1928)
NOTES: "Drummer" = "salesman." - PJS
File: LPnd217
===
NAME: My Mother-In-Law
DESCRIPTION: Dialect song. The singer grumbles "My life is all troubles... I'd rather be sent off to jail or to Congress Dan live all my life mit my mother-in-law." He complains of her ugliness. He claims she beats him. He says he married his wife, not her family
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1942 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: family abuse humorous
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 395, "My Mother-In-Law" (1 text)
Roud #4650
File: R395
===
NAME: My Mother's Last Goodbye
DESCRIPTION: Charlie "left my dear old homestead and went away to sea" after his parents tell him "let no false pride make you forget the loving ones at home," When he returns his parents have died. "My gold it had no joy for me for all its joys was fled"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1980 (recording, James McDermott)
KEYWORDS: rambling return separation death gold father mother
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
McBride 20, "Darling Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9705
RECORDINGS:
James McDermott, "My Mother's Last Goodbye" (on Voice12)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "There's No One Like Mother to Me" (subject)
File: RcMMoLaG
===
NAME: My Name is Ben Hall
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Ben Hall, from Murrurundi I came; The cause of my turn-out you all know the same... I was forced to the bush my sorrows to drown." Hall recalls his skill as a robber, and toasts his imprisoned companions
AUTHOR: Tune fitted by J. S. Manifold
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964
KEYWORDS: abuse outlaw police Australia
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Manifold-PASB, p. 47, "My Name is Ben Hall" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Ben Hall" (subject)
cf. "The Ballad of Ben Hall" (subject)
cf. "The Death of Ben Hall"  (subject)
cf. "Streets of Forbes" (subject)
NOTES: Based on something found in Paterson's _Old Bush Songs_, but significantly modified by Manifold. The result probably does not qualify as original. For background, see the several other Ben Hall songs. - RBW
File: PASB047
===
NAME: My Name is Death: see Death and the Lady (File: ShH22)
===
NAME: My Name is Donald Blue: see Whiskey Is My Name (Donald Blue) (File: HHH835)
===
NAME: My Name is Edward Gallovan
DESCRIPTION: Edward Gallovan from Wexford courts Mary Riley. He tells her they will sail to America with 20 pounds she has saved. He kills her intending to use her money to escape. The body is found. He is convicted and executed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: courting execution murder trial gallows-confessions
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 92, "My Name is Edward Gallovan" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST CrSNB092 (Partial)
NOTES: Creighton-SNewBrunswick calls this "The Wexford Girl" though the singer's title is "My Name is Edward Gallovan." Creighton then goes on to make this an instance of "The Wexford Girl." Except that Wexford, probably Ireland, is mentioned and that a man murders a woman I see no connection. - BS
Nor I; there are several things here which remind me of other songs (the obvious example being the first line, which may have come from "The Flying Cloud"; the only other reference to the murderer calls him "James"). But "The Wexford Girl" is not one of those songs. Roud nonetheless lumps them. - RBW
File: CrSNB092
===
NAME: My Name is Edward Kelly
DESCRIPTION: The early adventures of Ned Kelly, told in the first person. He turned to robbing when his sister was harassed by police. He has escaped all attempts to catch him. He hopes to die in battle like Donahue rather than be treated like a government slave
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1964 (Manifold)
KEYWORDS: outlaw Australia escape abuse
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1855 - Birth of Ned Kelly
1880 - Execution of Kelly. His last words are reported to have been "Such is life."
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 112-114, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 64-65, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 91-93, "My Name is Edward Kelly" (1 text)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Ye Sons of Australia" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Song (Farewell Dan and Edward Kelly)" (subject)
cf. "Kelly Was Their Captain" (subject)
cf. "Ballad of the Kelly Gang" (subject)
cf. "Stringybark Creek" (subject)
cf. "The Kelly Gang Were Strong" (subject)
NOTES: This song dates itself to Kelly's twenty-fourth year. Despite his hope to die in battle, he was captured and executed the next year. - RBW
File: FaE112
===
NAME: My Name Is John Johanna: see The State of Arkansas (The Arkansas Traveler II) [Laws H1] (File: LH01)
===
NAME: My Name is Laban Childers
DESCRIPTION: A song of a volunteer who served in the First World War. He describes how troops were assembled and trained, with many local young men leaving their homes and work. His friend Martin Borders is killed. He says he will not forget
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1939 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: war soldier work separation death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Thomas-Makin', pp. 99-100, (no title) (1 text)
File: ThBa099
===
NAME: My Name is Morgan (But It Ain't J. P.): see Bill Morgan and His Gal (File: RcBMAHG)
===
NAME: My Name is Yon Yonson
DESCRIPTION: "My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin, I work in the lumber mills there, Ven I valk down the street, all the people I meet, say, 'Hello, vot's your name?' and I say...." and repeat until someone rebels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962 (Songs for Pickin' and Singin')
KEYWORDS: humorous cumulative
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 71, ("My Name is Yon Yonson") (1 text)
NOTES: The form quoted in the description does not appear to be original. Wyman's version is not in dialect (I've quoted Leisy's text, even though I've never heard a Norwegian who could pronounce "th" but could not pronounce "w"; it's either or neither). Also. Wyman's last line is simply "All the people I meet Ask how I came to be there." I suspect the latter form would not have been remembered had not someone "circularized" the poem. But since no author is known, there are variant texts, and Leisy has a tune, this *might* be a folk song. So here it is. - RBW
File: xMNIYY
===
NAME: My Name's Been Written Down
DESCRIPTION: "How'd you know your name been written down? (x2) On the wall, oh, it's been written down. (x2) Oh, the angel told me, been written down. (x2) Well, the Lord told me, been written down. (x2) Ain't you glad your name been written down. (x2)" Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 67-68, (no title) (1 text); pp. 244-245, "My Name's Been Written Down" (1 tune, partial text)
File: CNFM067B
===
NAME: My Native Hame
DESCRIPTION: "Far far frae thee my native hame across the mountains high." The singer misses "the heather hills and glens." He would like to return where there are "no black coal pits ... but air aye pure and clear ... where the Ythan water rins"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: homesickness travel mining nonballad home
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
GreigDuncan3 523, "My Native Hame" (1 text)
Roud #6005
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Go Bring My Guid Auld Harp Once Mair" (tune, per GreigDuncan3)
File: GrD3523
===
NAME: My Old Brown Coat and Me: see The Old Brown Coat (File: R791)
===
NAME: My Old Hammah: see Take This Hammer (File: FR383)
===
NAME: My Old Horse Died
DESCRIPTION: Singer tells of disasters: horse dies, mule goes lame, storm blows house away, earthquake swallows wreckage, land is repossessed. He dies, but wife & kids are comforted, because he was insured with Banker's Life [Insurance Co.]
AUTHOR: Words: advertisement; tune "Chicken Reel" (trad.), set by Dock Boggs
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963 (recording, Dock Boggs)
KEYWORDS: death disaster storm humorous family horse animal
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Dock Boggs, "My Old Horse Died" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Roud #11580
NOTES: Does this belong [in the index]? It's certainly narrative, and it has entered the repertoire of old-time revival performers. Toss-up, but I say yes, if only for the novelty of the thing. And most traditional performers were far les picky about including non-traditional material in their performances than their revival heirs. - PJS
File: RcMOHD
===
NAME: My Old Kentucky Home
DESCRIPTION: "The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home; 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay...." The song lists the troubles of the poor tired slave (soon to die? far from home?), "Weep no more, my lady... We will sing one song for the old Kentucky home far away..."
AUTHOR: Stephen C. Foster
EARLIEST_DATE: 1853 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: home slave exile age
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Dean, p. 72, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 134-138, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hill-CivWar, pp. 217-218, "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 246, "My Old Kentucky Home" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 384-385, "My Old Kentucky Home"
DT, KENTYHOM
ST RJ19134 (Full)
Roud #9564
RECORDINGS:
George Alexander, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Oxford 3354, n.d.)
Climax Quartet, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Columbia 512, 1900)
Ford Hanford, "My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe [medley] (Victor 18767, 1921)
Harry Macdonough, "My Old Kentucky Home" (Victor 636, 1900)
Standard Quartette, "My Old Kentucky Home" (CYL: Columbia 2248, rec. 1894)
NOTES: Spaeth (_A History of Popular Music in America_, p. 114) reports that the text of this song was derived from a poem called "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night." - RBW
File: RJ19134
===
NAME: My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night: see My Old Kentucky Home (File: RJ19134)
===
NAME: My Old Pinto Pal
DESCRIPTION: The singer declares "I'm headin' once more for the prairie;" he longs for and recalls the joys of cowboy life. But his pinto pal is old; he decides to set the tired horse free, for it is "dearer to me than a gal," and "not once have I known you to fail"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: horse cowboy freedom
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 89, "My Old Pinto Pal" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Ohr089
===
NAME: My Old Sow's Nose: see The Sow Took the Measles (File: LoF015)
===
NAME: My Ole Mistus Promised Me
DESCRIPTION: "My ole mistus promised me When she died she'd set me free." "Good mornin', John. Howdy." "She lived so long her head got bald...." Rest involves her mistreatment: "My old mistus killed a duck, Didn't give me nuffin' but de bone to suck." Etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: slave hardtimes work freedom death age floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 417, "My Ole Mistus Promised Me" (1 text)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 223-224, "My Ole Mistis" (1 short text, with a "Johnny get de hoecake" chorus, 1 tune); there are sundry related texts with the "My ole mistus/marster" stanza on the nect several pages
Roud #11723
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Raise a Ruckus" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Old Marse John" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Down Below" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The initial stanzas, about the promise of freedom at the owner's death, is common and supplies the heart of several songs. But all seem to be distinguished by their choruses. It is possible that this is one of the elements that went into the Lomax conglomeration "Old Marse John" -- but it's such a kitchen sink that proof is impossible. - RBW
File: Br3417
===
NAME: My Pappy He Will Scold Me: see Chickens They Are Crowing (File: R541)
===
NAME: My Pappy's Whiskers: see Father's Whiskers (File: FSWB241A)
===
NAME: My Parents Raised Me Tenderly: see The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)
===
NAME: My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (I -- The Soldier Boy)
DESCRIPTION: The singer tells how his parents brought him up and sent him to school. He works for a time, but -- influenced by drink -- enlists in the army. He learns the drill, but also finds he will have to serve at least twenty years. He hopes eventually to return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink family money loneliness separation army war
FOUND_IN: Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H466, pp. 79-80, "My Parents Reared Me Tenderly" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1018-1019, "The Soldier Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8003
NOTES: The first two lines, "My parents reared me tenderly I being their only son But little did they ever think I'd follow the fife and drum", are in common with "The Bold Deserter" and the first line with "The Girl I Left Behind (I)" [Laws P1A/B]. There is no other connection with those ballads. - BS
The reference to serving the Queen found in Peacock (not in the Henry version) forces us to the reign of either Anne (reigned 1702-1714) or Victoria (1837-1901); there was no standing army in the time of Elizabeth.
Enlistment was still for life early in Victoria's reign, but the references to the wars inclines me to think that -- if the reference to serving the Queen is original -- the reign of Anne is meant, since Victoria's reign was relatively peaceful (at least in Europe) while Anne's reign corresponded almost exactly with the War of the Spanish Succession, with British troops in Flanders (mostly under Marlborough) the whole time. - RBW
File: HHH466
===
NAME: My Parents Reared Me Tenderly (II): see The Girl I Left Behind [Laws P1A/B] (File: LP01)
===
NAME: My Ploughman Boy: see The Bonny Sailor Boy [Laws M22] (File: LM22)
===
NAME: My Pony
DESCRIPTION: "One morning bright and early, so early, so early, My shining boots my pride, Out near Miss Anna's cottage... where she could see me ride." Hoping to impress Anna, the singer spurs his pony, which throws him in the dirt. Anna laughs at him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting horse humorous animal
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph 464, "My Pony" (1 text)
Roud #7606
File: R464
===
NAME: My Pretty Little Pink: see Little Pink (File: San166)
===
NAME: My Pretty Maid (I): see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: My Pretty Maid (II): see Rolling in the Dew (The Milkmaid) (File: R079)
===
NAME: My Pretty Quadroon
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a slave, mourns for his lost Cora, "my pretty quadroon." His master had been kind, but coveted Cora, and when the slave grieves, the master sells the singer down the river. He contemplates suicide until he hears the trumpets of the Union army
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (recording, "Beverly Hill Billies")
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a slave, mourns for his lost Cora, "my pretty quadroon". His master used to be kind, so much so that the singer "had not...a wish to be free" The master covets Cora, and when the slave tears his hair in grief, the master turns hard, and sells the singer down the river. He contemplates suicide, but hears the trumpets of the Union army and regains hope.
KEYWORDS: hardheartedness sex separation slavery lover Civilwar jealousy
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 79, "My Pretty Quadroon" (1 text)
Roud #4965
RECORDINGS:
Beverly Hill Billies, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Brunswick 441, 1930)
Bud & Joe Billings (Frank Luther & Carson Robison), "My Pretty Quadroon" (Victor V-40282, 1930)
Dixieland Swingsters, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Bluebird B-8109, 1939)
The Happy Chappies, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Columbia 2252-D, 1930)
Jim & Ken, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Champion 16812, 1934; Champion 45074, c. 1935)
Light Crust Doughboys, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Vocalion 02992, 1935)
Carson Robison Trio, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Banner 773/Challenge 785/Conqueror 7593/Jewel 6024/Romeo 1388, 1930) (Broadway 8280, n.d.; Crown 3140, 1931)
Texas Jim Lewis, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Decca 5990, 1941)
Vagabonds, "My Pretty Quadroon" (Victor 23849/Bluevird B-5072/Montgomery Ward M-4307, 1933)
NOTES: In the tortured stratification of racism, a "quadroon" was someone whose ancestry was one-fourth Negro -- hence, someone with fairly light skin, and therefore of high status in the African-American community. This song was enormously popular in minstrel shows and vaudeville, well into the twentieth century. But I can't for the life of me remember the author. - PJS
The description here seems to be that of the original poem, or perhaps a Civil War adaption. As it circulates in oral tradition, however, the details can be lost and it may become a lament simply for a girl lost (perhaps by death). - RBW
File: Be079
===
NAME: My Ramblin' Boy
DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls the "ramblin' boy" with whom he traveled, who stuck with him in all conditions. On a cold night in a hobo jungle, the ramblin' boy dies. The singer speculates that he will still be rambling in the afterlife
AUTHOR: Tom Paxton
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: rambling death friend
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Silber-FSWB, p. 61, "My Ramblin' Boy" (1 text)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Ramblin' Boy
NOTES: Like several other Tom Paxton songs, this has not really entered oral tradition, but it certainly has a strong place in the repertoire of professional folksingers, who ramble more than most. I *have* seen it listed as traditional -- and by people who really should have known better. - RBW
This shouldn't be confused with versions of "Wild and Wicked Youth" that are called "Ramblin' Boy". - PJS
File: FSWB061
===
NAME: My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare
DESCRIPTION: "I am a jolly carter and a jolly good soul am I. I whistle and sing from morn till noon, all troubles I defy." The singer described how "my rattlin' mare and I" work together. He does not overburden the horse, and she does her work well
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: horse work nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
GreigDuncan3 456, "The Country Carrier" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
SHenry H664, p. 41, "My Rattlin' Oul' Grey Mare" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1400
File: HHH664
===
NAME: My Rolling Eye: see Seventeen Come Sunday [Laws O17] (File: LO17)
===
NAME: My Sailor Boy (A Sailor Boy in Blue)
DESCRIPTION: "My boy he is a sailor, A sailor boy in blue, I know he has my heart, And I hope he will prove true.... And soon he will return again To his own dear Mary Jane." She describes the gifts her has promised to bring her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation gift love
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H759, p. 288, "My Sailor Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 49, "My Bonny Boy in Blue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5238
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "The Bonny Boy in Blue" (on IRTLenihan01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" (theme)
NOTES: Sort of a cross between "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" and "Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" - RBW
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 49: "It is possible, even likely, that he [Tom Lenihan] learned it from the American recording of Nan Fitzpatrick which she made when she joined forces with the very popular Frank Quinn. Fn 144: Frank Quinn and Nan Fitzpatrick with violin, banjo and piano accompaniment 'My Bonny Boy in Blue' on Columbia Records, 33477-F. Matrix (w) 113025. 'Connamara Dan' is on the reverse side." - BS
File: HHH759
===
NAME: My Scolding Wife: see The Scolding Wife (I) (File: R397)
===
NAME: My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel
DESCRIPTION: "O how I long for solid roads In the merry month of June ... How jolly I will feel A-spinning down to Rustico On my seventy-six geared wheel." The singer lists his favorite stops on the way to Mary's "big front door" at Rustico.
AUTHOR: Mary Fleming? Ambrose Cosgrove?
EARLIEST_DATE: 1965 (Ives-DullCare)
KEYWORDS: courting technology
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 25-26, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 151-152,251, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12477
RECORDINGS:
John O'Connor, "My Seventy-Six Geared Wheel" (on MREIves01)
NOTES: Dibblee/Dibblee: Maybe "seventy-six geared wheel" refers to a geared bicycle built in 1876.
The Rusticos are on the north coast of Queens, Prince Edward Island.
Dibblee/Dibblee claims the author is Mary Fleming, the Mary of the song. Ives-DullCare claims the author is Ambrose Cosgrove.
Ives-DullCare speculates that "seventy-six" "is probably a then-current way of referring to a bike's power (a derivation involving gear-ratio and wheel size, perhaps), Mr Cosgrove is saying that he's riding the last word in bikes.... [The] distance [was] some forty miles, and not all of it first-class highway." - BS
File: Din025
===
NAME: My Sins Are All Taken Away (I): see Free at Last (File: FSWB368A)
===
NAME: My Sins Are All Taken Away (II): see All My Sins Been Taken Away (File: Ch085)
===
NAME: My Sister Don't Love Me
DESCRIPTION: "My sister don't love me; She will not take me in Just because I'm teachin' She must live above sin; What need I to fear when Thou art near? Thou carest, Lord, for me." Similarly with mother, brother, and presumably other ungrateful relatives
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Henry, from "Aunt" Martha Hardwick)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad mother brother sister
FOUND_IN: US((Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 191, "My Sister Don't Love Me" (1 text)
NOTES: New verse: "My sister don't love me, Because I'm a jerk, Who insists on saying, I know better than you do, And won't listen, Because I've misread the Bible so thoroughly." The only thing I'm sure of about this song is, I don't want to be around anyone who would sing it and mean it!
File: MHAp191
===
NAME: My Sister She Works in a Laundry: see My God, How the Money Rolls In (File: EM107)
===
NAME: My Size Is Small
DESCRIPTION: "My size is small, My heart is large, God bless the girls, I love them all."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
File: MHAp243A
===
NAME: My Son Ted (I): see Mrs. McGrath (File: MA126)
===
NAME: My Son Ted (II): see The Wars of America (File: LoF017)
===
NAME: My Stetson Hat
DESCRIPTION: The singer praises his hat: "Stained with alkali, sand, and mud, Smeared with grease and crimson blood, Battered and bent from constant use, Still you have stood the darned abuse." "You've been a good pal... You dirty old gray Stetson hat."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1935 (Hoofs and Horns)
KEYWORDS: clothes cowboy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ohrlin-HBT 83, "My Stetson Hat" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Soldier's Joy" (tune)
File: Ohr083
===
NAME: My Sweet Farm Girl
DESCRIPTION: "My sweet farm girl, she's my joy and pride (x2)." Double-entendre song; singer describes his girlfriend and her abilities to do chores around the farm while the singer "keeps her garden free from bugs and weeds."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1931 (recording, Carolina Tar Heels)
KEYWORDS: sex farming work bawdy nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (0 citations)
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster, "My Sweet Farm Girl" (Vocalion 02780/Conqueror 7942, 1934)
Carolina Tar Heels, "Farm Girl Blues" (Victor 23516, 1931)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Sweet Farm Girl" (on NLCREP3, NLCRCD1)
NOTES: Individually, the verses of this song can be regarded as "clean" -- enough so that I didn't notice the bawdiness on casual hearing. But the overall effect of the song (which may conclude, "She loves her daddy Because I'm long and hard") is very salacious. - RBW
File: RvMSFG
===
NAME: My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine
DESCRIPTION: "Once I had a sweetheart, noble, brave, and true... Out on the high seas he sailed... Anchored at Havana... Down went the Maine.... Rouse ye, my countrymen, rouse... Strike down the cowardly fiends Who slaughtered the crew of the Maine."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1924 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: disaster ship death love separation
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1895 - Cubans rebel against Spain
Feb 15, 1898 - Explosion of the battleship "Maine" in Havana harbor
April 25, 1898 - Congress declares war on Spain
FOUND_IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Randolph 689, "My Sweetheart Went Down with the Maine" (1 text)
BrownII 236, "The Battleship Maine" (2 texts)
DT, SWTMAINE
Roud #6621
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "On the Shores of Havana" (theme)
cf. "The Spanish War" (theme)
cf. "Manila Bay" (theme)
cf. "Battleship of Maine" (theme)
cf. "Marching to Cuba" (theme)
NOTES: When the Cubans rose in revolt against inept Spanish rule, the U.S. government -- spurred on by William Randolph Hearst's newspapers -- decided it should be involved. The U.S.S. _Maine_ was dispatched to pressure to the Spanish. (The _Maine_, it should be noted, was not a battleship; originally designed as an armored cruiser, it lacked the coal capacity for that role and wound up as an unsatisfactory battleship/cruiser hybrid.)
When the _Maine_ blew up with a large loss of life, Hearst and his minions pounced quickly. Never mind that the Spanish had nothing to gain from destroying the ship. Never mind that the most likely cause of the disaster was an internal explosion. Spain had to be punished!
The Spanish did all they could to avoid war; after brief delays to save face, they gave in to every American demand. The Americans would have none of it. On April 11, President McKinley asked for a declaration of war; on April 25, he received it. Americans set out to "free" Cuba and the Philippines. (The Philippines, in particular, were so thoroughly "freed" that they soon rose in revolt and did not achieve independence until 1947.) "Remember the Maine," went the battle cry.
The U.S. army was pitifully bad; the vast majority of its losses in the war were caused by disease and supply problems -- but so dreadful were the Spanish forces that by the end of the summer both the Philippines and Cuba were under U.S. control. In December the Spanish were forced to accept the humiliating Treaty of Paris, and the war ended. The U.S. was now an imperialist power -- and all because of songs like this one and Hearst's headlines. - RBW
File: R689
===
NAME: My Sweetheart's a Mule in the Mines
DESCRIPTION: "My sweetheart's a mule in the mines, I drive her without any lines, On the (bumpers/dasher) I sit and tobacco I spit All over my sweetheart's behind."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927
KEYWORDS: animal mining work humorous
FOUND_IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Lomax-FSNA 65, "My Sweetheart's a Mule" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 864-865, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, p. 127, "My Sweetheart's the Mule in the Mines" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 27, "My Sweetheart's The Mule In The Mines" (1 text)
DT, MYSWEETM*
Roud #4756
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "My Sweetheart in the Mines" (on PeteSeeger07, PeteSeeger07b)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon" (tune)
File: LoF065
===
NAME: My Sweetheart's Dying Words
DESCRIPTION: The dying girl says, "Dear Charlie dear, don't grieve for me... For when I'm dead and leave this world, I'll pray for you and the other girl." Recalling his love, she dies. "Twas then I realized she'd been true." He says he will never marry the other girl
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love betrayal death
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 169, "My Sweetheart's Dying Words" (1 text)
Roud #6581
NOTES: Really smart, Charlie: Betray one, then betray the other because the first one is dead. You sound like a corporate CEO testifying to congress about where the missing ten billion dollars went.... - RBW
File: BrII169
===
NAME: My Tra-La-La-Lee
DESCRIPTION: In this formula song, the singer successively feels the girl's heel, calf, knee, thigh, etc., has sex, and is told in the last line "Boy, I'm a whore, and you've got the C-L-A-P."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: bawdy whore sex disease
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 126-127, "My Tra-La-La-Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The melody in its last phrase owes much to "Home on the Range." - EC
File: RL126
===
NAME: My True Love's Gone A-Sailing
DESCRIPTION: "My true love's gone a-sailing right o'er yon western main"; she promises to remain a maid till he returns, even though his absence leaves her uneasy. An old man comes courting her, but she stays true. She wishes she could see her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1926 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation sailor money age
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
SHenry H160 p. 292, "My True Love's Gone A-Sailing" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3820
NOTES: This looks very much like a Riley ballad to me, but the confused ending makes it impossible to be certain. - RBW
File: HHH160
===
NAME: My Warfare Will Soon Be Ended
DESCRIPTION: "My warfare will soon be ended, My trouble is almost done, My warfare is almost ended, And then I am going home." "God bless the holy people, The Presyterian two (?) Those shouting Methodists (?) And the praying Baptists too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1920 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownII 294, "William Shackleford's Farewell Song As Sung by Shackleford" (1 text)
ST BrII294 (Full)
NOTES: Brown's informant described this as the last words of William S. Shackleford (for whom see the notes on the song with the same title). But it is clearly a generic hymn. Shackleford, a lay preacher, may have sung it at the gallows, but he probably did not originate it; both verses are attested in other religious songs. - RBW
File: BrII294
===
NAME: My Welcome: see Rye Whiskey; also The Rebel Soldier (File: R405)
===
NAME: My Wheelie Goes Round
DESCRIPTION: "My wheelie goes round (x2), And my wheelie casts the band, It's not that my wheelie has the wit, It's my uncanny hand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
GreigDuncan3 475, "Spinning Rhyme" (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 173, "(My wheelie goes round)" (1 short text)
Roud #5882
NOTES: It probably goes without saying that this refers to a spinning wheel, not a bicycle or motorcycle or the like -- but I'm saying it just in case. - RBW
File: MSNR173
===
NAME: My Wife Died on Saturday Night
DESCRIPTION: "My wife died on Saturday night, Sunday she was buried, Monday was my courting day, and Tuesday I got married." "Round and round, up and down, everywhere I wander, Round and round, up and down, looking for my honey." That's all, folks.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1918 (Cecil Sharp collection)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage wedding death burial floatingverses
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Eddy 153 (last of several "fragments of Irish songs" - 1 fragment, which could be this or "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)")
SharpAp 202, "A Monday was my Courting Day" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3619
RECORDINGS:
Dr. Humphrey Bate & his Possum Hunters, "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (Brunswick 271, 1928)
New Lost City Ramblers, "My Wife Died on Saturday Night" (on NLCR07, NLCRCD2)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)" (floating verse)
cf. "Way Down the Old Plank Road" (floating verse)
NOTES: A fragmentary song, really just floating verses and a dance tune. But it's indexed because, compact though it may be, that first verse tells a coherent story. - PJS
This verse, to be sure, is shared with "The Old Gray Goose (I) (Lookit Yonder)." But the rest goes in different directions.
To add to the confusion, there is a nursery rhyme (Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #131, p. 106):
I married a wife on Sunday,
She began to scold on Monday,
Bad was she on Tuesday,
Middling was she on Wednesday,
Worse she was on Thursday,
Dead was she on Friday,
Glad was I on Saturday night,
To bury my wife on Sunday.
The Baring-Goulds also compare the well-known poem of "Solomon Grundy." - RBW
File: RcMWDOSN
===
NAME: My Wife Went Away and Left Me
DESCRIPTION: Abandoned by his wife, the singer appeals to her to come back. She replies that she will come back "When the grocery man puts sand in the sugar, The milkman makes milk out of chalk, Boys stay home with their mothers...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment humorous husband wife
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Rorrer, p. 78, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (1 text)
Roud #3686
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me" (Victor 21520, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "My Wife Went Away and Left Me"  (Columbia 15584-D, 1930; rec. 1928; on CPoole03)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Things Impossible" (lyrics)
NOTES: Rorrer reports that this song bears similarities to a song by Charles D. Vann called "Then My Darling I'll Come Back to Thee." It is not clear whether they are the same song, though, or whether that song merely influenced this.
There are several sourthern versions of this song, and there is an English song with common lyrics, "Things Impossible." These two are surely derived from the same original, but the setting is different; the English song is an appeal to marry, the American a plea to a woman to reunite with her ex-love. Possibly Vann rewrote the English text and created the popular American version. I separate them; Roud lumps them. - RBW
File: RcMWWALM
===
NAME: My Worry Sure Carryin' Me Down
DESCRIPTION: Opening recitation describes the singer's hard life in prison. The song begins with the lament, "Lord, my worry sure carryin' me down... Sometimes I feel like, baby, committin' suicide." The singer is failing, "goin' down slow, somethin; wrong with me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1963
KEYWORDS: prison hardtimes loneliness disease suicide nonballad
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 133-135, (no title) (1 text, 1 tune)
File: CNFM133
===
NAME: My Yallow Gal
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my daddy was a fool about a yallow gal." "God knows I'm a fool about a yallow gal." The singer describes the various things (walking, talking, having sex), but the consistent result is "I didn' get nothin' from my yallow gal"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Lomax)
KEYWORDS: love courting sex
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 245-246, "My Yallow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jackson-DeadMan, pp. 285-287, "Yelllow Gal" (1 text, 1 tune, plus mention of four more)
Roud #11657
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Yaller Gal" (theme)
File: LxA245
===
NAME: My Young Love Said to Me: see She Moved Through the Fair (Our Wedding Day) (File: K165)
===
NAME: My Youthful Days
DESCRIPTION: "My youthful days I freely wasted In drinking brandy and such pastime, And other joys which I have tasted Have made me sail to a foreign clime"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1960 (Creighton-SNewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: drink travel exile
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 105, "My Youthful Days" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #2780
NOTES: The current description is all of the Creighton-SNewBrunswick fragment. - BS
File: CrSNB105
===
NAME: Na Leannain Bhriotacha (The Stuttering Lovers)
DESCRIPTION: Birds fly into a poor man's corn. His daughter follows. A fisherman's son follows her. They kiss. The poor old man finds them: "If that's the way ye're minding the corn I'll mind it myself in the morn"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1906 (sheet music "arranged by Herbert Hughes," according to Bruce Olsen)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous bird father farming
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 12, "The Stuttering Lovers" (1 text, 1 tune); 12A, "Na Leannain Bhriotacha" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9669
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "The Stuttering Lovers" (on IRClancyMakem02)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: Translated as "Na Leannain Bhriotacha" to Gaelic by Father Tomas O Ceallaigh.
The fourth line of each verse mimics stuttering (for example, "I'll mind it myself in the m-m-m-m-m-morn"). The effect is preserved in the Gaelic (for example, "Rachad na bhfiel me f-f-f-f-fein")
IRClancyMakem02 cover notes: "'The Stuttering Lovers' ... was collected and arranged by Herbert Hughes."
John Moulden pointed me to the late Bruce Olsen's Roots of Folk website which has been moving and I can no longer find. Fortunately John quoted a good part of the reference. He pins down the IRClancyMakem02 reference for Hughes to 1906 sheet music. Olsen then refers, for a source, to "English MS Harleian 6057, c 1632." No stuttering in this version, but the same repetition pattern. The birds fly into the corn. "The little boy ...spiede his dame In the middle of all the green and kisses her. "'It's enough to tempt a woman,' quote she, 'That never knew man before." The old man finds them making love, chases the boy away, and he'll keep the birds to himself tomorrow. - BS
File: OLcM012
===
NAME: Nabob, The
DESCRIPTION: "When silent time, wi' lightly feet, Had trod on thirty years, I sought again my native land Wi' mony hopes and fears." The singer finds a new generation in the land; all is changed. He misses the old, asking the forgiveness of his old friends' children
AUTHOR: Susanna Blamire (1747-1794)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1824 (Smith, _The Scottish Minstrel_, according to GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: age return home
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Greig #5, p. 2, ("When silent time, wi' lightly foot") (1 text) 
GreigDuncan3 538, "The Nabob" (5 texts, 4 tunes)
Ord, pp. 361-362, "The Nabob" (1 text)
Roud #4592
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.14(125), "Traveller's Return" ("When silent time wi' lightly foot"), unknown, no date
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(215), "Traveller's Return," unknown, c.1840
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Traveller's Return
Auld Lang Syne
Silent Time
File: Ord361
===
NAME: Nach Mbonin Shin Do
DESCRIPTION: There is no money this year "but we'll drink all we earn, and we'll pay what we owe." "The gentry who fed upon pheasants and wine" will be reduced to eating what we eat. If the markets improve "every stout farmer will draw the long bow"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1891 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Ireland nonballad patriotic food money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
OLochlainn-More 49, "Nach Mbonin Shin Do" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9765
File: OLcM049
===
NAME: Nachul-Born Easman: see Casey Jones (I) [Laws G1] (File: LG01)
===
NAME: Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)
DESCRIPTION: "My name it is (Jean) and my age is (fifteen)... Yet there's nae bonnie laddie tae tak me awa." The girl describes her clothes and her good dowry, but confesses to having no luck in seeking a man
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: loneliness courting
FOUND_IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
SHenry H230, p. 255, "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away'" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 315-317, "Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 102, "(Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen)" (1 short text, which despite the first line appears more likely to be this piece)
Roud #895
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)" (lyrics, theme)
NOTES: Ford has anecdotal evidence that this was written by Thomas Scott of Falkirk. If this be true, the song has surely wandered far, becoming little more than a singing game in some of the more corrupt versions.
For the vexed relationship between this song and "Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament)," with which it shares much, see the notes to that song. - RBW
File: HHH230A
===
NAME: Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (II): see Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230)
===
NAME: Nae Bonnie Laddie Will Tak Me Awa': see Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away; also Queen Mary (Auld Maid's Lament) (File: HHH230A)
===
NAME: Naebody Comin' to Marry Me: see My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher (Nobody Coming to Marry Me) (File: BrII185)
===
NAME: Nails
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, this world is like a bag of nails and some are very queer ones...." The singer describes the world in terms of nails: "The doctor nails you with a bill"; "the undertaker wishes you as dead as any doornail...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1838 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(204))
KEYWORDS: work
FOUND_IN: Australia Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
OLochlainn-More 96, "The Bag of Nails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 182-183, "Nails" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(204), "The Bag of Nails," W. Wright (Birmingham), 1831-1837; also Firth b.26(28) View 2 of 2, "The Bag of Nails"
File: FaE182
===
NAME: Nairn River Banks
DESCRIPTION: The singer wanders by Nairn River banks, where he sees a pretty girl herding her flock and lamenting her soldier. A boy brings her a letter from him, saying he is fighting the French in Spain with Wellington, but hopes to come back to her soon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love separation soldier Spain
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1809 - Wellington takes command in the Peninsula (to 1814)
1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Greig #28, p. 1, "Nairn's River Banks" (1 text) 
GreigDuncan1 92, "Nairn's River Banks" (14 texts, 10 tunes)

Ord, pp. 314-315, "Nairn River Banks" (1 text)
Roud #3780
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Nairn's Bonny Banks
The Banks o' Nairn
The Water o' Nairn
NOTES: Ord calls this a "real Bothy Song," though he admits that it is found in broadsides. But the texts generally seem to be in very exact, even flowery, English, with not a hint of dialect; I have to think it is in origin a broadside, and the traditional versions close to the original. - RBW
One of Greig's correspondents said the song was "written by a Mr Gordon, whose widow was living in Nairn some 30 or 40 years ago." (1908) - BS 
File: Ord314
===
NAME: Nairn's River Banks: see Nairn River Banks (File: Ord314)
===
NAME: Name the Boy Dennis Or No Name At All: see I'll Name the Boy Dennis, Or No Name At All (File: Dean034)
===
NAME: Nancy: see under The British Grenadiers (File: Log109)
===
NAME: Nancy (I) [Laws P11]
DESCRIPTION: The singer offers Nancy his love while confessing his lack of wealth. She is not interested. By the time she changes her mind he has found another love. Nancy warns others against her mistake
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Karpeles-Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: poverty courting rejection
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES: (5 citations)
Laws P11, "Nancy I"
Creighton/Senior, pp. 189-190, "Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 60, "Proud Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 77, "Jenny Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 733, DRNANCY*
Roud #1002
RECORDINGS:
Marie Hare, "Jenny Dear" (on MRMHare01)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Dearest Nancy
File: LP11
===
NAME: Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty) [Laws P12]
DESCRIPTION: Nancy rejects the singer's offer of marriage. He expresses the wish that her marriage be troubled. His wish comes true; her husband ignores her. Years later, having grown rich, he rubs it in by giving the now-poor girl money. She regrets her error
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1905 (Belden)
KEYWORDS: marriage curse poverty rejection
FOUND_IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Laws P12, "Nancy (II) (The Rambling Beauty)"
Belden, pp. 191-193, "The Rambling Beauty" (3 texts)
SharpAp 163, "Loving Nancy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gardner/Chickering 34, "False Nancy" (1 text, perhaps mixed with "The Banks of Sweet Primroses")
Ord, pp. 176-177, "The Rambling Beauty" (1 text)
DT 496, LVNGNANC
ST LP12 (Full)
Roud #563
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Rejected Lover" [Laws P10] and references there
NOTES: This is rather a difficult item, because the family is so fractured. Laws lists neither the Ord nor the Gardner/Chickering text with his piece, and indeed the various texts have few words in common. But the plot is the same, and Laws allows both the Ord and Gardner/Chickering titles. So here they are. - RBW
File: LP12
===
NAME: Nancy B, The
DESCRIPTION: Recitation; the speaker, tired of lumber camps, signs on as cook of the lumber ship "Nancy B." They anchor in the bay. After only one lighter load, however, a storm comes up. The storm last 16 days; it's cold and hard to cook, but no one complains.
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST_DATE: 1941 (Beck)
KEYWORDS: work cook sailor ship recitation storm
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Beck 102, "The 'Nancy B'" (1 text)
Roud #8883
NOTES: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be102
===
NAME: Nancy Dawson
DESCRIPTION: "There lived a lass in yonder glen, Wham auld and young did brawly ken." Nancy Dawson's parents would wed her to "the laird o Mucklegear," ancient Bauldy Lawson. She loves a young man; the wedding is set, but she flees with her love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: lover courting age beauty elopement abandonment
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 71-75, "Nancy Dawson" (1 text)
Roud #6717
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Hazelgreen [Child 293]" (plot)
NOTES: There is a (feeble) poem by Herbert P. Horne called "Nancy Dawson"; they are unrelated.  It may be that this piece inspired that, however; at least, the name "Nancy Dawson" was well enough known that one of the ships involved in the Franklin search was named _Nancy Dawson_. And it can't be named after the Horne poem; Horne wasn't born until 1864.
Linscott says that "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" and "Gathering Nuts in May" use the tune "Nancy Dawson." That does not appear to be this song; though no tune seems to have been recorded, the stanza forms don't match. - RBW
File: FVS071
===
NAME: Nancy from London (I): see Pretty Nancy of London (Jolly Sailors Bold) (File: R078)
===
NAME: Nancy from London (II): see William and Nancy (II) (Courting Too Slow) [Laws P5] (File: LP05)
===
NAME: Nancy Lee
DESCRIPTION: "Of all the wives as e'er you know. Yeo ho! Lads, ho! ... There's one like Nancy Lee, I know..." Chorus: " The sailor's wife the sailor's star shall be, Yeo ho! We go across the sea." Composed song in which a sailor sings the praises of his wife.
AUTHOR: Frederic Edward Weatherly (1848-1929)/Tune: Stephen Adams (a.k.a. Michael Maybrick)
EARLIEST_DATE: 188? (composed); 1948 (Shay)
KEYWORDS: wife husband separation sailor nonballad love
FOUND_IN: Britain US
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Harlow, pp. 159-161, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-SeaSongs, pp. 170-171, "Nancy Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ShaSS170 (Partial)
Roud #5014
NOTES: Adams and Weatherly were a very successful British songwriting team during the 1880s & 90s. Stephen Adams's real name was Michael Maybrick, and he was brother to James Maybrick, one of the favorite contenders for having been Jack the Ripper. - SL
For Weatherly, the reputed author of "Danny Boy," see the notes to that song. - RBW
File: ShaSS170
===
NAME: Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38]
DESCRIPTION: Nancy's father does not want her to marry Jimmy. He is persuaded to allow them to marry AFTER Jimmy completes a voyage. On his way he breaks a lady's heart and is murdered by a man hired by Nancy's father. His ghost reveals the truth, and Nancy dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1818 (Garret, _Merrie Book of Garlands, vol. ii_)
KEYWORDS: murder courting ghost sailor
FOUND_IN: US(SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Laws M38, "Nancy of Yarmouth (Jemmy and Nancy; The Barbadoes Lady) [Laws M38]"
GreigDuncan2 222, "Jamie and Nancy of Yarmouth" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
BrownII 61, "Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text)
SharpAp 63, "Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 682-686, "Jimmy and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-NovaScotia 41, "Jimmie and Nancy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 437, JIMNANCY
Roud #187
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Chowan River" (plot)
File: LM38
===
NAME: Nancy Till
DESCRIPTION: "Down in the cane brake close by the mill" lives pretty Nancy Till. The singer goes to serenade her, asking her to come along; "I'll row the boat while the boat rows me." When they part, he bids her to be ready the next time he arrives in the boat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1915 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting ship river
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 409, "Nancy Till" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more)
Roud #2836
RECORDINGS:
Eleazar Tillet, "Come Love Come" (on USWarnerColl01) [a true mess; the first verse is "Nancy Till", the chorus is "Come, Love, Come, the Boat Lies Low," and it uses part of "De Boatman Dance" as a bridge.)
File: Br409
===
NAME: Nancy Whisky
DESCRIPTION: The weaver sets out to sample the pleasures of drink and a roving life. After extensive drinking, he finds himself broke and despised. He vows to return to weaving, and warns others of the evil of drink
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1907
KEYWORDS: drink poverty weaving warning
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(Lond,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES: (7 citations)
Greig #90, p. 1, "The Dublin Weaver" (1 text)
GreigDuncan3 603, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Nancy Whisky" (9 texts, 7 tunes) 
Kennedy 279, "Nancy Whisky" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H745, pp. 47-48, "Long Cookstown/Nancy Whiskey" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 372-373, "The Calton Weaver" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 234, "The Calton Weaver" (1 text)
DT, CALTONWV
Roud #883
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "Nancy Whisky," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1880-1900
SAME_TUNE:
It's Very Strange (per broadside NLScotland, RB.m.143(125))
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I Am a Weaver
NOTES: One title for this song is "The Calton Weaver"; Calton was a village, swallowed up by Glasgow in the early 20th century. - PJS
Also collected and sung by Ellen Mitchell, "The Carlton Weaver" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)). 
GreigDuncan3: "Greig prints a composite text ...." - BS
File: K279
===
NAME: Nancy, the Pride of the West
DESCRIPTION: "We have dark lovely looks on the shores where the Spanish From their gay ships came gallantly forth...." The singer praises Nancy's beauty, her sighs, her laugh, her everything, and says that she holds a thousand in thrall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1901 (OConor); we have a parody before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.18(188))
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H495, pp. 227-228, "Nancy, the Pride of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 150, "Nancy, the Pride of the West" (1 text)
Roud #7977
NOTES: It gives me a certain amount of pleasure to note that this odious piece probably isn't traditional in origin or, very likely, survival. The evidence of its composed nature comes from several references:
The "shores where the Spanish... came forth": Presumably a reference to the ships of the Spanish Armada, many of which were wrecked in Ireland, generally off the northwest coast (the number is given by David Howarth, _The Voyage of the Armada_, p. 210, as 26). Few of these Spaniards survived long. (There were later instances of Spanish in Ireland, notably at the battle of Kinsale in 1601 -- but Kinsale was in the south, and this is a song about "the pride of the West.")
"The statue the Greek fell in love with": Clearly a reference to Pygmalion and Galatea (Ovid, Metamorphoses, X.254 and following.) - RBW
Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue has no copies of "Nancy, the Pride of the West" but has a parody: Bodleian, Firth c.18(188), "Nancy, the Pride of the East," J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 11(1206), Harding B 15(212b), 2806 c.8(177), Harding B 11(3796), 2806 c.18(217), "Nancy, the Pride of the East."
This Nancy has "eyes ... like rubies so fine" and leaves the East "For Jemmy is the boy I adore ... He is the pride of the North Country" - BS
File: HHH495
===
NAME: Nancy's Courtship: see Two Lovers Discoursing [Laws O22] (File: LO22)
===
NAME: Nantucket Lullaby
DESCRIPTION: "Hush, the waves are rolling in, White with foam, white with foam, Father toils amid the din, While baby sleeps at home." "Hush, the ship rides in the gale... Father seeks the roving whale...." "... Mother now the watch will keep..."
AUTHOR: Words: unknown / Music: Lucy Allison
EARLIEST_DATE: 1943
KEYWORDS: lullaby sailor mother father whaler
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Botkin-NEFolklr, p. 571, "Nantucket Lullaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: BNEF571
===
NAME: Nantucket P'int: see Nantucket Point (File: Harl191)
===
NAME: Nantucket Point
DESCRIPTION: "Uncle Josiah and old Uncle Sam, they built them a sloop in the shape of a clam." The sloop is finished and launched but they find that they can't sail her. After much trouble they get the boat moored and swear they won't build any more.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1945 (Harlow)
KEYWORDS: ship humorous
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Harlow, pp. 191-192, "Nantucket P'int" (1 text)
NOTES: The idea of a ship in the shape of a clam isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. It has been done -- admittedly with mixed success. In the 1870s, the Russian admiral Andrei Aleksandrovic Popov designed the "Popovkas" (or "Popoffkas") -- battleships (eventually named the _Novgorod_ and _Admiral Popov_) with circular hulls for maximum stability as gun platforms. Lincoln P. Paine's _Ships of the World_, p. 424, says they worked well enough, but Richard Humble, _Battleships and Battlecruisers_, p. 41, reports they could only be steered into a current: "They spun like tops when coming downstream and their decks were flooded by the slightest seaway."
A later vessel, elliptical rather than actually circular, proved better. Fritdjov Nansen's _Fram_, built in the early 1890s, was designed for polar exploration; Nansen and Sverdrup used her to make what amounted to a Northeast Passage (see, e.g., Pierre Berton, _The Arctic Grail_, pp. 489-498, especially p. 495), and Amundsen later took her to the Antarctic. But the honest truth was, she wasn't much good for ordinary sailing; her round sides and rounded bottom were designed to keep her from being crushed by ice, and made her very slow and almost useless for other tasks. - RBW
File: Harl191
===
NAME: Nantucket Skipper, The: see The Alarmed Skipper (The Nantucket Skipper) (File: ShaSS198)
===
NAME: Naomi Wise [Laws F31]
DESCRIPTION: (John Lewis) takes Naomi for a ride and throws her in the river. When her body is found, he is arrested but not convicted. He confesses to the murder only on his deathbed
AUTHOR: Carson J. Robison
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (recording, Vernon Dalhart)
KEYWORDS: murder river gallows-confession
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1808 - Drowning of Naomi Wise in North Carolina
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Laws F31, "Naomi Wise"
Eddy 94, "Poor Omie (Leoma Wise)" (1 text, 1 tune) (apparently; Laws does not list Eddy's text with either Naomi Wise ballad, but the pattern fits this one)
BrownII 300, "Poor Naomi (Omie Wise)" (5 texts plus 1 excerpt and mention of 2 more; it appears that Laws places text "F"  here, but "G" is also this song, with "A," "D," and "H" being "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4])
DT 730, NAOMIWIS
Roud #981
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart & Co., "Naomi Wise" (Edison 51669, 1925) (Columbia 15053-D [as Al Craver], 1926; rec. 1925) (Silvertone 27351926)
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Poor Omie (John Lewis) (Little Omie Wise)" [Laws F4] (plot)
File: LF31
===
NAME: Napan Heroes, The
DESCRIPTION: Twenty-five shantymen watch a fight between Robert Sweezey and Frank Russell. After an hour "a poke in the stomach" makes Russell give in. Sweezy "conquered the champion from old Point Carr. He's the true Napan hero."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1948 (Manny/Wilson)
KEYWORDS: fight sports logger derivative
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 61-62, "The Napan Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 36, "The Napan Heroes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST IvNB061 (Partial)
Roud #1946
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Morrissey and the Black" (theme)
cf. "Twickenham Ferry" (tune)
cf. "Squid Jiggin' Ground" (tune)
NOTES: Ives-NewBrunswick: This is a parody of "Morrissey and the Black." "According to Louise Manny, the fight took place in 1889 and the casus belli was the love of a woman who later married neither combatant." - BS
Manny and Wilson in fact states that the fight took place "about 1889," and describe the tune as "Twickenham Ferry"/"The Squid Jiggin' Ground." - RBW
File: IvNB061
===
NAME: Napoleon: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte (II): see Napoleon's Farewell to Paris (File: GC089)
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte (III)
DESCRIPTION: "The deeds of famed Napoleon I mean for to relate ... led astray ... Grouchy led the French astray And the great battle of Waterloo was bought with English gold." Having been betrayed by Grouchy Napoleon is banished to St Helena and Louisa laments.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1957 (Ives-NewBrunswick)
KEYWORDS: war exile betrayal Napoleon
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar) Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 42-45, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1943
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wheels of the World" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
cf. "The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes" (for the charge that Grouchy betrayed Napoleon)
NOTES: Ives-NewBrunswick: Other pieces "have the Little Corporal as their hero, [this one] is different in having a true villain, the Marquis de Grouchy, the marshall who failed to keep Blucher from joining up with Wellington at Waterloo." - BS
One suspects broadside origin for this piece, from someone who needed a scapegoat for Napoleon. While the behavior of Emmanuel Grouchy (1766-1847) helped lose Waterloo, he certainly didn't betray Napoleon! His competence can be questioned, but not his loyalty.
Primarily a cavalry officer, Grouchy served well in small roles in Napoleon's first career. Quick to return to Bonaparte's service during the Hundred Days, he was rewarded with a Marshal's baton (the last of Napoleon's Marshals) -- and given command of a third of the army in the Waterloo campaign.
This was a mistake; Grouchy had little infantry experience, and no experience with forces so large (two corps and change). His appointment was one of several organizational mistakes that cost Napoleon dearly at Waterloo.
Napoleon's plan for the Waterloo campaign was brilliant: Two armies, Wellington's (British and Dutch) and Blucher's (Prussian), were concentrating against him. Individually, they were smaller than Napoleon's cobbled-up force,  but together, they were far larger. Napoleon divided his army into three parts, under Ney, Grouchy, and his own direct command. He interposed them between Wellington and Blucher, and proposed to defeat them in detail.
There were actually three battles involved: Ligny and Quatre Bras on June 16, and Waterloo on June 18. At Quatre Bras, Ney was supposed to attack Wellington's rearguard, while Grouchy and Napoleon attacked Blucher at Ligny.
Grouchy's performance at Ligny was competent enough; the Prussians were forced to retreat. But Ney completely muffed the attack at Quatre Bras, first failing to attack when the odds were with him, then going in after the small local force was reinforced. This got him in enough trouble that he took control of d'Erlon's corps, which Napoleon had called upon to polish off the victory at Ligny, and hauled it back to Quatre Bras. Where it didn't fight.
This was disastrous. Napoleon turned his own and Ney's forced to attack Wellington at Waterloo, leaving Grouchy to watch Blucher -- but Blucher had merely been pushed back a few miles. He halted the retreat, marched around Grouchy, and managed to bring up enough of his army to turn the tide at Waterloo.
Grouchy's performance was certainly poor; he lost contact with Blucher, and then just sat rather than trying to find a battle to fight. He did, nonetheless, obey his orders, if woodenly. While his behavior cost Napoleon his last chance to survive at Waterloo, the fundamental fault is Napoleon's for setting up very bad command arrangements -- and, tactically, the fault is almost entirely Ney's (who, indeed, gets the blame in "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon"): He messed up at Quatre Bras, he made it impossible to win at Ligny, and he was in tactical charge at Waterloo but delayed so long that Blucher had time to come up. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon Bonaparte" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001))
Harte: "This particular song was written almost fifteen years after the death of Napoleon [1821]." - BS
File: IvNB042
===
NAME: Napoleon Bonaparte (IV): see The Removal of Napoleon's Ashes (File: Moyl206)
===
NAME: Napoleon Is the Boy for Kicking Up a Row
DESCRIPTION: Hard times now but "money was plenty as paving stones In the days of General Bonaparte." He far exceeded past great warriors. He returned from Elba but was murdered on St Helena. "But his nephew's on the throne of France"; maybe he will make England pay.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1865 (broadside Bodleian, Firth c.16(85))
KEYWORDS: war murder commerce death Napoleon France royalty revenge
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 199, "Napoleon Is the Boy for Kicking Up a Row" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.16(85), "Napoleon is the Boy for Kicking up a Row" ("Arrah, murther, but times is hard"), The Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1865
NOTES: Napoleon's "nephew's on the throne of France": Napoleon III[1808-1873; president 1848-1852; emperor 1852-1870] was the son of Napoleon's stepdaughter and, nominally, his brother Louis Bonaparte. (source: "Napoleon III of France" at the Wikipedia site).
This ballad claims Napoleon "was sent off to a barren isle, Where he was murdered and ill-treated." Apparently the thought that Napoleon was poisoned is older than the speculation of the past fifty years that he was poisoned intentionally (possibly). (see, for example "Arsenic poisoning and Napoleon's death" by Hendrik Ball at the Victorian Web site).
Moylan p. 151: "Times were good during the Napoleonic era as the war effort generated massive demand for goods and services in Ireland. An economic slump ensued after Napoleon's defeat as the war machine was wound down and armies were demobilized." This is like the lines from "The Grand Conversation on Napoleon": "Napoleon he was a friend to heroes, both young and old, He caus'd the money for to fly wherever he did go." Here also is the main theme of "The Grand Conversation Under the Rose": "Come stir up the wars, and our trade will be flourishing." - BS
It's worth remembering that Napoleon poisoned *himself* -- he tried to commit suicide on April 13, 1814, as the allies closed in on Paris (see Alan Schom, _One Hundred Days_, pp. 2-3). Obviously, he failed -- but he was physically never the same. And he died of what may have been stomach cancer -- the sort of thing that, at the time, could easily have been blamed on poison.
Napoleon did have elevated levels of arsenic in his body when he died (though this was not established until recently, based on neutron activation analysis of his hair). This need not have been the result of poison, however, it turns out his wallpaper contained heavy doses of arsenic in the pigment (see John Emsley, _Nature's Building Blocks_, p. 46).
Saint Helena certainly qualifies as barren; according to the 2001 _Statesman's Yearbook_, it didn't even become a British colony until 1834, more than a decade after Napoleon's death. Even now,the population is less than 10,000, and the lone town, Jamestown, has only about 3000.
The alleged good times during the war with Napoleon are more weak memory than anything else; the British government nearly spent itself into the ground, the economy was weak (see "Ye Tyrants of England," e.g., where the people are promised an improved economy once Napoleon is gone), and if times were so good in Ireland, why was there a rebellion in 1798? The one thing Napoleon did was siphon off Irish youths of military age.
Napoleon III certainly wanted to enhance French power at British expense, but he didn't have much nerve. In the Crimean War, he allied with England against Russia. In the American Civil War, he is said to have wanted to support the Confederacy, but was unwilling to do so without British support -- and the British were too cautious (and their millworkers too anti-slavery). Ultimately, Napoleon III ended up dying in England, having done much to strenghen the British Empire despite himself. - RBW
File: Moyl199
===
NAME: Napoleon Song: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon the Brave
DESCRIPTION: "Napoleon is no more, the French did him adore." His victories are listed: "The Austrians he beat." "The Poles he made to flee, and he conquered Italy." "The Hollanders he slew, he Caesar did outdo" ... "There were 14 Kings at war with Napoleon the Brave"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1856 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(225))
KEYWORDS: war death Napoleon
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Zimmermann, p. 106, "Napoleon the Brave" (1 fragment)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(225), "Napoleon the Brave," J. Cadman (Manchester), 1850-1855
NOTES: Zimmermann p. 106 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(225) is the basis for the description. - BS
File: BrdNapBr
===
NAME: Napoleon the Exile: see Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena) (File: E096)
===
NAME: Napoleon's Dream
DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of sailing past Napoleon's grave. He lands and meets Napoleon. Napoleon recalls his victories. His banner was "the standard of freedom all over the world." He says that "Liberty soon o'er the world shall be seen." The singer wakes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 16(77b))
KEYWORDS: freedom dream Napoleon
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 207, "Napoleon's Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(77b), "Dream of Napoleon" ("One night, sad and languid, I went to my bed"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 16(78a), "A Dream of Napolean"[misspelling in text as well as title]; Johnson Ballads 1146[last line illegible], Firth c.16(97), Harding B 26(153), "[A|The] Dream of Napoleon[!!!]"; Harding B 19(86), "Napoleon"
NOTES: Napoleon says "The nations around you shall look with surprise, When freedom to you my descendant supplies.": Napoleon III[1808-1873; president 1848-1852; emperor 1852-1870] was the son of Napoleon's stepdaughter and, nominally, his brother Louis Bonaparte. (source: "Napoleon III of France" at the Wikipedia site). - BS
Napoleon III, like the first Napoleon, was rather contradictory in this regard. He has been called the "Bourgeois Emperor." He did end up a full-blown Imperial head of state (though under constitutional and parliamentary restrictions). But he also liberalized a lot of laws. If he had been smarter about picking his wars, his government might well have survived. But he fought the Crimean War, wasted a lot of energy installing the Habsburg princeling Maximilian in Mexico -- and then picked a war with Prussia. Or, as it would come to be called, Imperial Germany.
Naturally, he lost that, and was pushed from his throne. But the broadsides show that this song was written when he was still new and appeared a vast improvement over the reactionary Bourbon dynasty.
That seemed almost to be the story of the Bonaparte family. Napoleon himself started as a lawgiver, and ended up power-mad. His son the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-1832) was regarded as incredibly promising, but died young. And Napoleon III came in as a liberal reformer and ended up as another Emperor. - RBW
File: Moyl207
===
NAME: Napoleon's Farewell to Paris
DESCRIPTION: "Farewell ye splendid citadel, metropolis called Paris...."  "My name is Napoleon Bonaparte, the conqueror of nations... But now I am transported to Saint Helena's isle." Bonaparte recalls his greatness and laments his fall
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2602)); c.1818 (broadside, NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(139))
KEYWORDS: exile lament Napoleon
FOUND_IN: US(MW) Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Moylan 186, "I Am Napoleon Bonaparte" (1 text, 1 tune); 187, "Napoleon Bonaparte's Farewell to Paris" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 89, "Bony's Lament" (1 text)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 82, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 fragment)
Creighton-NovaScotia 72, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 fragmentary text plus some variants, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 1009-1011, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NAPOLBON
Roud #1626
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2602), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 20(267), Harding B 15(214b), Johnson Ballads fol. 59, Harding B 16(165c), Firth c.16(87), Harding B 11(2600), Harding B 11(2601), Firth c.26(124), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris"; Harding B 11(2599), "Napoleon's Farewell"
Murray, Mu23-y1:043, "Napoleon Bonaparte," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y1:107, "Napoleon Bonaparte"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(139), "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris," unknown, c.1818
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Saint Helena (Boney on the Isle of St. Helena)" (subject)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Napoleon Bonaparte
NOTES: The rather ornate language of this song (references to "citadels" and "bright Phoebus," etc.) seems to have caused it to be rather liable to corruption; Gardner and Chickering's text, for instance, has the first line read "Come all ye splendid city dells"! Creighton comments on the difficulty her informant had in learning the song, and prints part of a broadside text to show why he had such difficulty. - RBW
The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon's Farewell to Paris" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
File: GC089
===
NAME: Napoleon's Lamentation
DESCRIPTION: Napoleon says "I was born to wear a stately crown." He recounts his victories until, after Moscow, "my men were lost through cold and frost." Defeats follow. He bids fare well to his "royal spouse, and offspring great" 
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 
KEYWORDS: war France Napoleon royalty hardtimes wife children
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Moylan 194, "Napoleon's Lamentation" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The ballad is recorded on one of the CD's issued around the time of the bicentenial of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. See:
Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "Napoleon's Lamentation" (on Franke Harte and Donal Lunny, "My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte," Hummingbird Records HBCD0027 (2001)) - BS
This sounds to me rather like "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" [Laws J5], recast to put it in the mouth of Napoleon the Father rather than Napoleon the Son. Of course, I can't tell in which direction the mixture went -- or, indeed, if there might not be a third song that influenced both. - RBW
File: Moyl194
===
NAME: Napper
DESCRIPTION: "Napper come to my house, I thought he come to see me, When I come to find him out He 'suade my wife to leave me." And similar verses about (Napper's) eccentricities: "Napper went a-huntin', He thought he'd catch a coon... He treed a mushy-room."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1914 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: humorous hunting betrayal wife
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
BrownIII 123, "Taffy Was a Welshman" (3 short texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 102-103, "Rise, Ole Napper" (2 fragments, the first of which might be "Old Tyler" or something else; the second appards to be this but is too short for certainty and is mixed with the chorus of "Oh! Susanna"; 1 tune)
Roud #7849
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Tyler"
cf. "Taffy Was a Welshman (I)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: The notes in Brown say that these three fragments are "clearly derived from the familiar Mother Goose rhyme about the thieving Welshman [i.e. 'Taffy Was a Welshman']."
This is a very long stretch; the two have a few similar lines, but *not* the key phrases about Taffy. As they stand, I'd certainly call them separate songs, and possibly not even related.
Brown's "A" text may not be the same as "B" and "C," but it's too short to really deal with separately. The same can be said of Scarborough's miscellaneous one-sentence fragments.- RBW
File: Br3123
===
NAME: Nat Goodwin [Laws F15]
DESCRIPTION: A young mother, sick abed, is denied a last look at her dead baby. Her husband turns her out of the house. He falls in love with another woman and kills his wife. He is executed when his new flame testifies against him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Gardner/Chickering)
KEYWORDS: murder abandonment baby execution husband wife
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 3, 1897 - Shooting of Mrs. (Walter) Goodwin
May 1898 - Hanging of Walter Goodwin
FOUND_IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Laws F15, "Nat Goodwin"
Gardner/Chickering 143, "Nat Goodwin" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 770, GOODWIN
Roud #3670
NOTES: Although this song seems to be known only from the text found in Michigan by Gardner and Chickering, the tragedy took place in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Gardner and Chickering report that after the hanging of Walter Goodwin, "Gertrude Taylor, the girl in the case, did the shooting." They do not report Taylor's eventual fate. - RBW
File: LF15
===
NAME: Nathan Hale
DESCRIPTION: "The breezes went steadily through the tall pines, A-saying o hush...." as Nathan Hale attempts to return to his command. But the British capture him, try him, insult his cause, and hang him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1966
KEYWORDS: rebellion war prisoner execution
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: Sept 22, 1776 - Execution of Nathan Hale by the British as a spy. 
FOUND_IN: US
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scott-BoA, pp. 67-68, "Nathan Hale" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: SBoA067
===
NAME: Nation Once Again, A
DESCRIPTION: "When boyhood's fire was in my blood, I read of ancient freemen... And then I prayed I yet might see... Ireland, long a province, be A nation once again." The youth describes the glories of freedom, and hopes it can be regained
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion freedom
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
PGalvin, pp. 42-43, "A Nation Once Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NTNAGN
ADDITIONAL: Charles Sullivan, ed., Ireland in Poetry, p. 199, "A Nation Once Again (1 text)
Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), p. 305, "A Nation Once Again"  (1 text)
NOTES: Thomas Davis was an Irish poet and patriot. A member of Daniel O'Connell's National Repeal Association from 1841, he started the _Nation_ newspaper in 1842 and was a leader of the "Young Ireland" movement that sought a more modern approach to independence.
Davis died of scarlet fever in 1845, and it never really became clear whether he supported violent revolution or agreed with O'Connell in espousing peaceful reform.
What is truly hard to imagine is the National Ireland that Davis hoped for. As is so often the with Irish leaders, Davis was Protestant. (See Robert Kee, _The Most Distressful Country_, being Volume I of _The Green Flag_, pp. 195-197).
The irony and the problem of the song is that Ireland was *never* a nation; before the English came, it had been a land of many petty chiefs who never united. The closest it came was the period from 1782-1800, when it had a truly independent parliament under the British crown. It proceeded to shoot itself in the foot, with a government so bad that it induced the 1798 rebellion and in turn caused Britain to create a parliamentary union. So the Protestant concept of the Nation of Ireland was one that oppressed Catholics, and the Catholic concept didn't exist.
And, in fact, Ireland never did manage to become the nation Davis wanted it to be, since the Catholic and Protestant parts separated, and each would display strong prejudice toward the members of the other denomination.
The first stanza refers to "Three Hundred men and Three men." The Three Hundred might refer to the Spartans who held Thermopylae against the Persians -- though they're hardly the best example of a free nation, given that the Spartan soldiers were part of an elite class that held down the majority of helots at least as strictly as the British oppressed the Irish.
But three hundred had another significance: It was the number of representatives in the old Irish parliament -- the one which had voted the Union, but which Davis (and O'Connell) proposed to recreate.
The "three men" I'm not sure about; too many possibilities.
For all that I'm carping about the historical accuracy, it cannot be denied that this song, with its stirring tune and brilliant tag line, is a very effective argument for nationalism. - RBW
File: PGa042
===
NAME: National Song Used for Hauling (Russian Shanty)
DESCRIPTION: Russian hauling shanty. Translation: "Let us pull away together, boys, all together it goes - it goes, Pull away, away, together."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong ship
FOUND_IN: Russia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Hugill, p. 573, "National Song Used for Hauling" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Hugi573
===
NAME: Native Mate: see Give Me a Hut (File: MA137)
===
NAME: Native Swords
DESCRIPTION: "We've bent too long to braggart wrong, While force our prayers derided; We've fought too long, ourselves among..." The singer briefly recounts the story of Irish rebellion, concluding, "But now, thank God, our native sod Has native swords to guard it."
AUTHOR: Thomas Davis (1814-1845)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1962
KEYWORDS: Ireland rebellion
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
PGalvin, pp. 41-42, "Native Swords" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Thomas Davis (1814-1845) was an Irish poet and patriot. A member of Daniel O'Connell's National Repeal Association from 1841, he started the _Nation_ newspaper in 1842 and was a leader of the "Young Ireland" movement that sought a more modern approach to independence.
He is probably most famous for writing "A Nation Once Again."
Davis died of scarlet fever in 1845, and it never really became clear whether he supported violent revolution or agreed with O'Connell in espousing peaceful reform. - RBW
File: PGa041
===
NAME: Natural Born Reacher
DESCRIPTION: "De white man say de times is hahd, Nigger never worries, 'case he trust in de Lawd. No matter how hahd de times may be, Chicken never roost too high foh me." He recalls "Freeze," who died in a fight and now cuts no ice. He is a "nachel-bawn reacher."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes theft death
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 232-233, "I'm a Nachel-Bawn Reacher" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST ScNF232B (Partial)
File: ScNF232B
===
NAME: Navvy Boots: see The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)
===
NAME: Navvy Boots On: see The Courting Coat (File: RcWMPBO)
===
NAME: Navvy Boy, The
DESCRIPTION: The navvy boy goes roaming, finding work and shelter with a ganger. The ganger's only daughter wishes marry and travel with him. The girl's mother questions this; the daughter says that her father was a navvy.The old man dies and leaves them 500 pounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting rambling mother father marriage money
FOUND_IN: Ireland
REFERENCES: (2 citations)
SHenry H760, pp. 471-472, "The Navvy Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, NAVVYBOY*
Roud #360
NOTES: It has been suggested that this is a reworking of "The Little Beggarman." There are common elements, but that's quite a stretch. Roud lumps it with "The Roving Irishman," which also has points of similarity but appears a separate song to me. - RBW
File: HHH760
===
NAME: Navvy on the Line
DESCRIPTION: "I'm a nipper, I'm a ripper, I'm a navvy on the line... All the ladies love the navvies, And the navvies love the fun, There'll be plenty little babies When the railway's done." Independent verses generally about the sexual exploits/desires of the navvies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1968
KEYWORDS: railroading courting sex bawdy
FOUND_IN: Australia
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 217, "Navvy on the Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: MA217
===
NAME: Naw, I Don't Want to be Rich: see You Wonder Why I'm a Hobo (File: BRaF461)
===
NAME: Near to the Isle of Portland
DESCRIPTION: A ship "outward bound to the Indies" sinks in a storm. "We were near to the Island of Portland Where our gallant ship went down; There were never a better commander Sailed out of Plymouth town."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: death sea ship disaster storm sailor wreck
FOUND_IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 59, "Near to the Isle of Portland" (1 text)
Roud #17748
NOTES: Portland Bill Lighthouse was built on the Isle of Portland in 1716. Portland is south of Weymouth and about 85 miles by sea east of Plymouth in the English Channel - BS
File: GrMa59
===
NAME: Nearer My God To Thee
DESCRIPTION: "Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee, E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me, Still all my song shall be Nearer my God to thee." Whatever tribulations come, the singer hopes they will cause him/her to come closer to God
AUTHOR: Words: Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (1805-1848)
EARLIEST_DATE: 1841 (Hymns and Anthems)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND_IN: 
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
Silber-FSWB, p. 353, "Nearer My God To Thee" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 387-388, "Nearer, My God, To Thee"
ADDITIONAL: Charles Johnson, One Hundred and One Famous Hymns (Hallberg, 1982), pp. 92-93, "Nearer, My God To Thee" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Climax Quartet, "Nearer, My God, to Thee"  (Climax [Columbia] 518, 1900; Harvard 518 [as unidentified Vocal Quartet], 1903-1906)
Elliott Shaw, "Nearer My God to Thee" (Resona 75016, 1919)
Spencer, Young & Wheeler, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Edison 80074, n.d.)
Unidentified baritone, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Oxford 397, c. 1909)
SAME_TUNE:
Nero, My Dog, Has Fleas (Pankake-PHCFSB, p. 107)
NOTES: The words of this song date from 1841 (or earlier), and proved popular enough that it soon acquired three different tunes.
The standard tune in America is by Lowell Mason, published in 1859; this often bears the name "Bethany." The tune most often used in the Church of England is "Horbury," said by Johnson to be by John Dykes. British Methodists tend to use the tune "Propior Deo" by Sir Arthur Sullivan. If that weren't confusing enough, I have encountered at least one other attempt by a modern composer to abuse the text.
I do not believe any of the results qualify as true folk songs, but the piece is widespread enough that I chose to include it here.
This seems to be the Official Song of People Dying Under Unfortunate Circumstances in the Absence of Corroborating Witnesses. The story that it was played as the _Titanic_ went down is simply false (a story spread by one Mrs. A. A. Dick; see Wyn Craig Wade, _The Titanic: End of a Dream_ revised edition, Penguin, 1986, pp. 61-62 -- the disproof being that the passengers who claimed they heard the song were British and American both; see Walter Lord, _The Night Lives On_, Avon, 1986, p. 110). Johnson reports that William McKinley's doctor claimed these were the dying president's last words. Interesting how none of these claims are ever capable of verification. In the aftermath of the Johnstown Flood, there were newspaper reports of families singing the song in harmony as they were washed away in the flood; see David McCullough _The Johnstown Flood_ (Simon and Schuster, 1968), p. 221. - RBW
File: FSWB353C
===
NAME: Neat Irish Girl, The: see Polly on the Shore (The Valiant Sailor) (File: Wa057)
===
NAME: Neat Little Window, The: see The Bonny Wee Window [Laws O18] (File: LO18)
===
NAME: Neath the Gloamin' Star at E'en: see The Gloamin' Star at E'en (File: Ord066)
===
NAME: Ned Kelly's Farewell to Greta: see Farewell to Greta (File: FaE114)
===
NAME: Needle's Eye, The
DESCRIPTION: "The needle's eye that doth supply The thread that runs so true, Oh many a beau have I let go Because I wanted you." The remaining verses describe how the singer(s) have courted and passed others by; the needle may have "caught" the (girl)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: playparty courting
FOUND_IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So)
REFERENCES: (4 citations)
Randolph 545, "The Needle's Eye" (2 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
BrownIII 74, "The Needle's Eye" (1 fragment)
Hudson 144, pp. 291-293, "Needle's Eye" (2 fragments)
Linscott, pp. 43-44, "The Needle's Eye" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R545 (Full)
Roud #4506
RECORDINGS:
Margaret MacArthur, "The Needle's Eye" [fragment] (on MMacArthur01)
File: R545
===
NAME: Needlecases
DESCRIPTION: Singer, a peddler, is poor and hungry, and offers to sell the listener needlecases. He was once well-off, but is now homeless and friendless; once a farmer, now in rags. Since the listener won't buy, he's off, but asks listener to buy some if he returns.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Williams)
LONG_DESCRIPTION: Singer, a peddler, is poor and hungry, and offers to sell the listener needlecases. He was once well-off, but is now homeless and friendless; once a farmer, he's now in rags. Since the listener won't buy, he's off, but asks listener to buy some if he returns. Chorus: "Needlecases, will you buy one?/You will buy one, I'm sure/Won't you buy a case o' needles/From Jack that's so poor?"
KEYWORDS: poverty request clothes commerce hardtimes
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South, North))
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Kennedy 233, "Needlecases" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1300
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
Case of Needles
NOTES: We haven't keywords for "peddler" or "street-cry," so "commerce" will have to do. - PJS
File: K233
===
NAME: Neerie Norrie: see Four and Twenty Tailors (File: KinBB13)
===
NAME: Negro Cotton Picker
DESCRIPTION: Composite fragment of cotton-picking items: "Way down in de bottom, when de cotton's all rotten, Can't pick a hundred a day. Aught for aught, and figger for figger, All for de white man an' none for de nigger."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes discrimination
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 211, "Negro Cotton Picker" (1 fragment)
File: Br3211
===
NAME: Negro Reel
DESCRIPTION: "Laws-a-massey, what have you done? You've married the old man instead of his son! His legs are all crooked and wrong put on, They're all laughing at your old man. Now you're married you must obey... Kiss him twice and hug him too."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1927 (Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: marriage nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Sandburg, pp. 134-135, "Negro Reel" (1 short text, 1 tune)
NOTES: This is probably an odd version of "Sally Walker," but as it might be derived from "Oats and Beans" instead, I give it its own category. - RBW
File: San134
===
NAME: Negro Yodel Song
DESCRIPTION: "I love my wife and baby, Each morning so soon. I love my wife and baby." In the Brown text, every other word, starting with "love," is yodelled.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
BrownIII 453, "Negro Yodel Song" (1 short text)
Roud #11794
File: Br3453
===
NAME: Neighbor Jones: see Gossip Joan (Neighbor Jones) (File: Br3144)
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (I)
DESCRIPTION: One night Nell's former lover Jim (Wilcox) calls on her. She disappears for three months, then her mother sees her body on the river. Her lover winds up in prison
AUTHOR: credited to Bessie Wescott Midgett
EARLIEST_DATE: 1912 (Chappell)
KEYWORDS: murder
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (3 citations)
BrownII 307 "Nellie Cropsey" (2 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 61, "Nell Cropsey, I" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 82-84, "Nellie Cropsey" (1 text)
ST MN2082 (Partial)
Roud #4117
CROSS_REFERENCES:
"cf. The Jealous Lover (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II)" [Laws F1]
cf. "Nell Cropsey (III -- Swift Flowing River)"
NOTES: This song is item dF45 in Laws's Appendix II, but should certainly have been listed higher; he did not know the Brown version.
There are extensive historical notes in Brown, which concur with the song in saying that she was very pretty but list her age as 19, not 16 as in the text of the song.
Chappell has four songs associated by title with Nellie Cropsey, but only two (I and IV) mention her name: This one and the Nell Cropsey subfamily of "The Jealous Lover."
To tell this from the Jealous Lover version, consider this first verse:
On the twentieth of November,
A day we all remember well,
When a handsome girl was murdered,
Of her story I will tell. - RBW
File: MN2082
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (II): see Jealous Lover, The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C] (File: LF01)
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (III -- Swift Flowing River)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, swift flowing river, A secret you hold, Way down in the depths Of the water so cold." The singer begs the river to tell its secret. A "fair girl" is missing, "stolen away in the night." "The secret, Oh River, You surely must know."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1934 (Elizabeth City _Daily Advance_); reportedly collected 1902
KEYWORDS: murder river
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1901 - Murder of Ella Maude "Nellie" Cropsey, presumably by her former lover Jim Wilcox
FOUND_IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Chappell-FSRA 62, "Nell Cropsey, II" (1 text)
ST ChFRA062 (Partial)
Roud #4117
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Nell Cropsey (I)" (subject of some versions) and references there
NOTES: Although Chappell lists this as a Nell Cropsey song, and the details (such few as the song contains) fit that case, Cropsey is not mentioned in the text; it might be about another murder.
Roud lumps this with all the other Nell Cropsey songs, but it is clearly distinct. The real question is, Is it traditional? The only collection is Chappell's, from a printed source, allegedly based on a poem (song?) taken down around the time of the murder. - RBW
File: ChFRA062
===
NAME: Nell Cropsey (IV): see The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)
===
NAME: Nell Flaherty's Drake
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, my name it is Neil, quite candid I tell, And I lived in Clonmell, which I'll never deny, I had a large drake..." which she describes in loving terms. One day a thief steals (and kills) the drake. The rest of the song is an extended curse of the thief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2612))
KEYWORDS: animal bird curse thief theft
FOUND_IN: Ireland Australia
REFERENCES: (6 citations)
Meredith/Covell/Brown, pp. 128-129, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H228b, pp. 18-19, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text, 2 tunes)
O'Conor, pp. 14-15, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, pp. 68-69, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
DT, NELLFLAH*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 289, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (1 text)
Roud #3005
RECORDINGS:
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Nell Flaherty's Drake" (on IRClancyMakem03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2612), "Nell Flaherty's Drake", M. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1838-1850; also 2806 b.11(218), 2806 c.16(21), Harding B 15(216b), 2806 b.11(279), 2806 c.8(306), Johnson Ballads 1220, Johnson Ballads 2696, Harding B 11(2610), Harding B 11(2613), Harding B 11(2614), Harding B 11(2615), 2806 c.16(3a), Harding B 11(2611), "Nell Flaherty's Drake"; 2806 b.9(236), Harding B 26(461), 2806 b.11(132) [lines only partly legible], "Nell Flagherty's Drake"
LOCSinging, as109390, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also sb30356b, "Nell Flaugherty's Drake"
Murray, Mu23-y1:062, "Nell Flaherty's Drake," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C; also Mu23-y4:054, "Nell Flaherty's Drake," unknown (Cork), 19C
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(142a), "Nell Flaherty's Drake," unknown, c. 1845
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wee Duck (The Duck from Drummuck)" (plot, subject?)
cf. "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" (plot, lines)
NOTES: Tommy Makem describes this as a song about Robert Emmet (executed 1803). I can't prove it wrong -- but if so, it's the most indirect song I know. Certainly later singers (such as those in Australia) seem to have lost consciousness of any anti-British sentiment. For background on Emmet, see "Bold Robert Emmet" and the songs cited there. - RBW
I have not found "Nell Flaherty's Drake" collected in Newfoundland but Johnny Burke's "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" is so close that he must have known "Nell Flaherty's Drake."  There is no entry for "Nell Flaherty's Drake" in _Newfoundland Songs and Ballads in Print 1842-1974 A Title and First-Line Index_ by Paul Mercer.
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(142a): "'Nell Flaherty's Drake' is an anonymous Irish ballad from the nineteenth century. The drake of the title is believed to be a coded reference to Robert Emmet (1778-1803), who helped to plan and led an uprising against British rule in Dublin in 1803. The uprising went wrong after an explosion at an arms depot, and Emmet was captured and hanged for his part in the uprising and the assassination of the Lord Chief Justice. Irish Home Rule was a volatile subject in Britain in the nineteenth as well as the twentieth century, hence the coding in this song."
This song has the same relationship to "The Bonny Brown Hen" [this adds a villain and curses] that "Betsy Brennan's Blue Hen" has to "Blue Hen" on MacEdward Leach and Songs of Atlantic Canada site, copyright owner Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive.
Broadside LOCSinging as113120: J. Andrews dating per _Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song_ by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: MCB128
===
NAME: Nell of Narragansett Bay: see Little Nell of Narragansett Bay (File: Brew88)
===
NAME: Nellie (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer complains about Nellie's choice of the lily over the rose. Mountain verses: blueberries grow, a castle light-house on top, at its foot the ocean where green-flagged gunships sail to Newry where his "unkind" sweetheart is.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1954 (Creighton-Maritime)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection floatingverses nonballad wordplay
FOUND_IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 79, "Nellie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #688
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" (lyrics)
NOTES: This song shares one verse with "The Streams of Lovely Nancy" [with which Roud lumps it - RBW], which it corrupts:
At the top of this mountain a castle does stand,
It is decked round with ivy and back to the strand,
It is decked round with ivy and marble stone white,
It's a pilot for sailors on a dark stormy night.
Otherwise it shares a confused story line with that ballad but the confusions are not shared: I don't think this is a version of "Streams."
In the language of flowers the white lily stands for virginity and the red rose stands for love.
Newry is about 35 miles southwest of Belfast. - BS
File: CrMa079
===
NAME: Nellie (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Come, listen to me, a story I'll tell... I once loved and courted a dear little girl." But her parents are opposed, and she marries rich Mr. Brown. He is a drunkard and ignores her. She dies. The singer wants to die for love of her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1932 (JAFL 45, collected from Mrs. Emory P. Morrow)
KEYWORDS: love abandonment drink death
FOUND_IN: US(So)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 142-143, "Nellie" (1 text)
Roud #4212
File: MHAp142
===
NAME: Nellie Dare: see The Two Letters (Charlie Brooks; Nellie Dare) (File: R735)
===
NAME: Nellie Douglas
DESCRIPTION: "It's O and alas, and O wae's me," cries Nellie as she prepares to depart friends and employment. Young Abram bids her cease; she has his heart. She says she cannot wed him; he is above her station. He marries her anyway, and makes her a lady
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: love courting nobility marriage
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES: (1 citation)
Ord, p. 123, "Nellie Douglas" (1 text)
Roud #5547
File: Ord123
===