Squire's Daughter- (Manch) Shelmerdine broadside c.1800
[From a broadside printed by W. Shelmerdine and Co., Manchester c. 1800. One of three early versions of my B, "Cruel Father."
The Cruel Father versions have a much different story than Butcher Boy and the other Died for Love versions. Except for the opening lines, suicide and ending, it is a different ballad. The different titles include: "The Cruel Father or Deceived Maid," "Answer to Rambling Boy;" and "The Squire's Daughter." Cruel Father appears to have originated in the last half of the 1700s. A traditional English version titled "Isle of Cloy" was collected by E.J. Moeran in Suffolk in the 1930s while a traditional US version was collected by Sharp in Virginia in 1918. According to Renwick other US version that have "cannonball" or are titled "Oh Willie" are part of this family of songs. The Cruel Father has these identifying characteristics with variation:
1) A maid, who is a squire's daughter near Auchnacloy falls in love with a prentice boy/rambling boy. When her "cruel" father finds out about their love, he separated them by sending the boy to sea. A similar theme with a different ending is found in the Drowsy Sleeper" broadsides.
2) Several months after he rambling boy is send to sea on a man-of-war, there's a battle and he dies by a cannonball. That very night his bloody ghost visits the father.
3) A fortnight later she hangs herself with a rope. Her father finds her hanging in her room. In the ballad-- "He took a knife and cut her down/And in her bosom a note was found." The note, written in blood, blames the "cruel father" for her "sad overthrow."
4) The ending of "Cruel Father," is the standard: "Dig me a grave, both wide and deep/ Place a marble-stone for to cover it/ And in the middle a turtle dove/To show young virgins I dy'd for love!" Both the suicide and ending show Cruel Fathes association with Butcher Boy (see Cox: Folk-Songs of the South).
Notice that in Cruel Father there is no false lover, no pregnancy is mentioned and that she does not hang herself because of her false lover but because her cruel father separated them and sent her lover to sea where he was killed by a cannonball. Cruel Father therefore, is a different ballad with enough in common to be a variant of this family of ballads.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Squire's Daughter- broadside by W. Shelmerdine and Co., Manchester c. 1800.
A squire’s daughter near Auchen Coley,
Fell in [love] with a servant boy,
When her father came to hear,
He parted her from her dearest dear.
He anguish to increase the more,
Sent her love where the cannons roar,
To act the part of a gallant tar,
On board the Terrible man of war.
The ship was scarce three months at sea,
Till she fell in with a bloody frea.
It was the poor lad's lot to fall,
When he lost his life by a cannon ball.
The very night this young man was slain,
His ghost unto her father came,
With greivous groans by the bed he stood,
His neck and breast were smear'd with blood.
His father seeing this sad sight
He lay trembling with the fright
Being almost ready to die with fear
Till the grim ghost did disappear
The lady hearing this sad news
Her sense full surely it did confuse
That very night on a beam of oak,
She hanged herself with her own bed rope.
He went upstairs and cut her down
And in her breast a note was found.
And it is written as you see,
Cruel father you have ruined me.
Cruel father the worst of all men
You have brought me to this sad end,
You sent my love where cannons roar,
Which prov'd his death and overthrow.
Now since it's so my love is slain
And buried deep in the watery main,
Adieu false world my leave I'll take,
I'll die a maid for my true love's sake.