The Gallow's Tree- Chisolm (VA) 1916 Sharp D
[My Title. From: English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians 1917; Collected by Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp; Edited Karpeles 1932, edition. His notes follow. This appears in Traditional Ballads of Virginia as Davis F.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
Notes: No. 24. The Maid Freed from the Gallows.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 95.
Texts with tunes:—English County Songs, p. 112. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 121.
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, v., 228. American variants:—American Journal of Folk-Lore, xxi., 56; xxvi., 175. Musical
Quarterly, January, 1916, pp. 10 and 11 (without tunes). Wyman and Brockway's
Lonesome Tunes, p. 44.
The Gallow's Tree- Chisolm (VA) 1916 Sharp D
1 Hangman, hangman, hold your rope,
And hold it for a while;
I think I see my father coming,
From a long many mile.
2. Father, father, have you any gold?
Gold for to set me free?
Or have you come to see me hung
Beneath the gallows tree?
3. Son, O son, I have no gold,
Gold to set you free;
I've only come to see you hung
Beneath the gallows tree.
In subsequent verses, "mother," "brother" "sister" and finally "true love" are substituted for "father."
15. Sweetheart, sweetheart, I have gold,
Gold to set you free;
And I have not come to see you hung
Beneath the gallows tree.