Johnny Barbour- Shepard (VT) 1939 Flanders C1
[From Flanders, Ancient Ballads, version C1, 1963. Their (Coffin's) notes follow. First printed in Ballads Migrant in New England, Flanders/Olney, 1953.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Willie o Winsbury
(Child 100)
"Willie o Winsbury" is to be found once in a while in the New World, but except in Newfoundland it enjoys little currency. Josiah Combs recorded an incomplete text from West Virginia in his Folk-Songs des Etats-Unis (Paris, 1926), 140. and Barry lists a questionable fragment lodged in Child 99 "Johnny Scot." Otherwise, one must go to the Flanders archives or to a book like Elisabeth B. Greenleaf and Grace Mansfield, Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland, (Cambridge, Mass., 1924), 28, for versions. The A and B texts below are somewhat different from the Newfoundland tradition, although the hero is named Barbour in both an English rather than a Scottish trait. Flanders B, where the hero is first down rather than last and where the King's version is unmotivated, is somewhat worn, but Flanders A is a particularly full example. Flanders C1 and C2 are much like Child D from the Percy Papers. Jean-Smith, 117 (English), and Greig and Keith, 75-77 English), give further listings for this ballad.
All three of the tunes for Child 100 are related. Analogues in other collections are rare and seem largely confined to Northeast of the continent. For melodic relationship to the entire group, see GN, 28, 30, 32.
C1. [John Barbour] As sung by James E. Shepard of Baltimore, Vermont. Taken down by his daughter, Mrs. Agnes Torp, in the fall of 1939, and copied literatim et punctatim from her notes. He learned this from a neighbor, an Englishman named Clifford Hollingsworth, whose father came from England. See: version C2. H. F. F., Collector; Fall, 1939
Johnny Barbour
As I looked over yon castle wall
As I looked over yon
I saw a ship a-sailing in the bay
As she was sailing on
As she was sailing on.
I saw my daughter standing on the deck
She looked both pale and wan
She looked as though she had some sea sickness by her side
Or she'd lain with some young man
man, or she'd lain with some young man.
'Tis I have no sea sickness by my side
Nor have lain with no young man
But all that grieves my poor heart sore
My darling state (sire) look on
Oh my darling state look on.
Is he a lord or knight," quoth he
Or is he man of fame
Or is he one of my seven sailor boys
That sail the raging main
Main, that sail the raging main.
No, he's no lord nor knight," quoth she
Neither is he a man of fame
But he is one of your seven sailor boys
Johnny Barbour is his name
Name, Johnny Barbour is his name.
Let this be so, dear daughter, he sayed
Is what you tell to me
By this time tomorrow morning
'Tis hang-ed he will be
Be, 'tis hang-ed he will be.
Let this be so, dear father, she sayed
Is what you tell to me
Don't you hang Johnny Barbour, dear father, she sayed
Or no good you'll get of me
Me, no good you'll get of me.
So he called down his merry men all
By one by two by three
Johnny Barbour always used to be the first
But the very last man was he
He, the very last man was he.
Johnny Barbour he came tripping down the stairs
Dressed in his suit of silk
His two black eyes as black as claw
And his teeth as white as milk
Milk, and his teeth as white as milk.
If I were a woman as I be a man
His bed-fellow I'd be
Be, his bed-fellow I'd be.
Will you marry my daughter? the old man sayed
And take her by the hand
Will you sit and dine at the table with me
And be heir to all my land
Land, and be heir to all my land.
Yes, I'll marry your daughter, Johnny Barbour sayed
And take her by the hand
I'll sit and dine at the table with you
But a fig for all your land
Land, and a fig for all your land.
For to let you know, kind sir, he sayed
Broad Scotland I own free
And . . . is my own
Where you could give your daughter twenty pounds
I could give her ninety-three
Three, I could give her ninety-three.