Lady Margret- Shelton (NC) 1916 Sharp E
[My title. Single stanza with music from: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; 1917 Sharp/Campbell and 1932 edition, edited by Karpeles. All of Sharp's versions use the generic title, Fair Margaret and Sweet William. Fair Margaret is not the name that is sung, usually it's Lady (Liddy/Lydia) Margaret (Marget/Margret).
Notes from the 1932 edition follow. The NC Shelton and Hensley families intermarried, both are from Carmen, NC. The ballad is also found in the Hensley family in Kentucky. For more info read: A Nest of Singing Birds by Yates: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/m_sands.htm
R. Matteson 2014]
Yates: They (Ramseys) reminded me of something that Cecil Sharp had once said about the Hensley family of Carmen. "My experience has been very wonderful so far as the people and their music is concerned...I spent three days, from 10a.m. to 5p.m., with a family in the mountains consisting of parents and daughter, by name Hensley. All three sang and the father played the fiddle. Maud and I dined with them each day, and the rest of the time sat on the verandah while the three sang and played and talked, mainly about the songs." One ballad, collected from Rosie Hensley, was Fair Ellender and Sweet William, a version of which I recorded from Evelyn. [Are KY families related? Sharp D and E were taken from the Carmen, NC Hensley family.]
E. Lady Margret. Sung by Miss WONNIE SHELTON at Carmen, N. C, Aug. 11, 1916
Hexatonic. Mode 3, b.
1. Lady Margret was sitting in her dower room,
A-combing back her hair;
She saw Sweet William and his new wedded wife
As they drew near to her.