Kath'rine Jaffrey- Bassett (AL/OK) 1964 Moore
[Mrs. H. F. Bassett, born in Alabama, learned this ballad from her mother, which was passed down from her grandparents who came from Scotland. Collected in Oklahoma by the Moores pre1964.
This is one of two US traditional versions based on the Scottish ballad Katharine Jaffray (See also Brown). The other versions found in US Northeast and Canada are based on the British (Irish) broadside, Squire of Edinburgh.
R- Matteson 2013]
Kath'rine Jaffrey- sung by Mrs. H. F. Bassett of Tulsa, who was born at Dadeville, Alabama. Mrs. Bassett learned her songs from her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Adair. Mrs. Adair's father, Henry Jackson Lake, was the family singer of his generation; he kept alive the songs of his parents, who came from Scotland when they were twenty-two years old. This ballad is also known by Mrs. Cale Starr, who lives near Westville.
There was a maid of Edinburgh,
Kath'rine Jaffrey was her name.
She was courted by her father's son
Who thought her love he'd gained.
He told her father and her mother
And all her nearest kin,
And when he told the maid herself
Oh her heart sank within.
She wrote a letter to her love
And sealed it with a ring:
'This very night I'm forced to wed
With the farmer's only son."
He looked to the east and the west,
He mounted on his steed;
He rode till he came to Edinburgh,
And asked the bride to see.
He took her by the milk-white hand
And led her from the hall.
He mounted her on his fastest steed,
And he took his leave of all.
The baffled groom looked right and left,
An angry man was he.
"That churlish dog of an Englishman
Has whisked my bride away."
The blood ran down to Camden Bank,
And into Camden Brae.
All through the woods the trumpet called,
"Foul play, foul play, foul play."