In Seaport Town- Sina Boone (NC) 1918 Sharp I
[Single stanza with music from Sharp and Campbell, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917 and 1932. Additional text from Sharp's MS. The 1932 notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 48. In Seaport Town.
Texts without tunes :—Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 259; xxix 168. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 305 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes:—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 160; ii. 42; v. 123. Miss Broadwood's Traditional Songs and Carols, p. 28. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 12 (also published in English Folk-Songs, Selected Edition, i. 4, and One Hundred
English Folk-Songs, p. 4). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxxv. 359.
Sharp diary 1918 page 274. Saturday 28 September 1918 - Burnsville:
Directly after breakfast we tramped off to try & find Mrs Sina Boone of Shoal Creek, sister of Mrs Willard Boone of Plum Branch. The creek branches off at Wisdom[?] and Mrs Sina lives at the head about 2_ miles up the creek. We found her at home and quite ready to sing much to her own delight and that of her husband. She sang two good songs and then we adjourned for dinner — we having fortunately had our dinner already got off with cups of coffee! Then she sang a lot more and we had a long talk with the family on the porch her son and his wife joining the party
I. In Seaport Town- Sung by Mrs. SINA BOONE at Shoal Creek, Burnsville, N. C., Sept. 28, 1918 Pentatonic. Mode 4.
1. In Seaport Town there lived a merchant,
Who had two sons and a daughter dear,
And among them all was the servant boy
Who was the daughter's dearest dear.
2. One evening they was in the room a-courting,
Her oldest brother he chanced to hear,
He went and told to her other brother,
Let's deprive her[1] of her dearest dear.
3. And then so early in the morning,
A-hunting, a-hunting they must go,
But little did he think of the bloody murder,
A hunting he agreed to go.
4. When they came back in the evening,
she inquired for the servant boy;
"O he got lost in the wild woods hunting,
And his fair face you shall see no more."
5. So she arose so early next morning,
She gave a sigh and a bitter groan,
She hunted til she found in a ditch of briars,
Where her true love had been killed and thrown.
6. His eyes were of some bloody butcher,
His lips were of some salty brine.
She kissed his cold lips and a-crying;
"He's the dearest dear of mine."
7. Since my brothers have been so cruel,
As to pierce your sweet life away,
One grave shall preserve us together,
As long as life I'll stay with you.
1. MS has "him"