Squire in Edinboro Town- Morse (ME) 1927 Barry A
[My title. From British Ballads from Maine by Barry, Eckstorm and Smyth, 1929. Barry in BBM (1929) lists three version under the heading, The Squire of Edinburgh Town (the Irish broadside), as secondary ballads to Child 221 Katharine Jaffray.
See also for a very similar version: The Squire of Edinboro Town (Katharine Jaffray)- From the New Green Mountain Songster, Flanders et al. Also from Ancient Ballads. Collected from Mrs. E. M. Sullivan, VT. Collected Flanders 1932.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
A. "A Squire in Edinboro Town" - Taken down from Mrs. Fred W. Morse of Islesford, ME; August, 1927; Barry A
1. There was a squire in Edinboro town
And a squire of high degree;
He fell in love with a country girl
And a comely girl was she.
2. Till at length her father came to her
And an angry man was he.
He requested of his daughter dear
To shun his company.
[Then she promised to wed some one else]
3. She wrote her love a letter
And she sealed it with her ring,
Saying she was to be wed,
All to a farmer's son.
4. The very first line of this letter he read,
He smiled and thus did say,
"I might deprive his bride
All on his wedding day."
5. He wrote her back an answer and told her,
To be sure you dress in green
"And a suit of the same I will put on
For your wedding I will prepare.
For my dearest dear, with you I'll wed
In spite of all that's there.
6. He rode east and he rode west
And he rode all around his land.
Until he found out eightscore men
All in for his clan.[1]
7. He mounted them on a milk-white steeds
[And a single man rode he]
Until he came to the wedding house door
With his company dressed in green.
8. "You are welcome, you are welcome!
Where have you been all day?
Or have you seen those horsemen
That rode along this way? "
9. He looked at her, he laughed at her
And thus to her[2] did say,
"They might have been those fairy troops
That rode along this way."
10. She filled him a glass of the new port wine
And he drank to the company round
Saying, "Happy is the man
Who enjoys the tender bride
For another might like her as well as he,
And take her from his side."
11. Then up spoke the intended groom
[And an angry man was he]:
"If it was to fight that you came here
I am the man for thee."
12 "It was not to fight that I came here
But friendship for to show.
And give me one kiss from your bonny, bonny bride
And away from here I'll go."
13. He took her by the middle small
And by the grass-green sleeve
He took her out of the wedding house door
And the company asked no leave.
14. [The drums did beat, the trumpets sound,
Most glorious to be seen
And back they marched to Edinburgh gone
With his company dressed in green.]
1. All in his Scottish clan.
2. "To them" thrice in broadside.