US & Canada Versions: 105. Bailiff's Daughter
[The Bailiff's Daughter (of Islington), Child 105, is a story of a youth who is in love with the Bailiff's daughter. They are parted after he is apprenticed in London for seven years. Then she disguises herself and seeks him to see if he is still true. They meet; he asks about his love. She says she is dead; he grieves; she reveals herself, and she becomes or intends to be his bride.
The earliest record of this ballad is a seventeenth century broadside ballad published by Phillip Brooksby sometime between 1672 and 1680 (Chappell; Roxburghe, Vol. 6). As pointed out by Coffin (Flanders headnotes, 1963) this ballad is similar to a number of other ballads, which Child does not mention or include. It is similar to the ballad theme of Hind Horn (without the ring) and other "Lover's Return" ballads. In the US there is a similar ballad, sometimes titled "Mary and Willie" (Laws N28; Meade I-A31) that perhaps could be an appendix to the "Bailiff's Daughter." Other titles include "Little Mary," "Sailor's Bride," "Single Sailor," and "William and Mary" and it has been collected by Randolph, Flanders and others. Rawn (1916) has noted the similarity of the ballad, "A Pretty Fair Maid/Miss" also called "The Maiden in the Garden" or "The Broken Token" which is Laws N42, to "The Bailiff's Daughter."
According to Morris, 1950: "This ballad, definitely bourgeois in its social tone, has not had the widespread popularity in America that the numerous printed versions indicate it has enjoyed in England." Although The Bailiff's Daughter was never popular in North America as it was in England, it has been found here across the Eastern seaboard from Newfoundland down to Florida and points westward to Oklahoma. According to Kittredge (JAF 1917), "Child had a copy from Indiana ('received from an Irish lady,' 2 : 426) which he did not print." The earliest version is likely from Theodosia Bonnet Long born in 1818 in South Carolina probably through her father Alex Long (b.1780) of Irish parentage. Another old version is from Mrs. Griffin of Georgia then Florida which clearly predates the Civil War.
Not many traditional singers would know what a bailiff is-- the word would have no meaning and a number of corruptions of that word and the location, Islington would be expected. In British Ballads in the Cumberland Mountains by Hubert G. Shearin (The Sewanee Review, Vol. 19, No. 3) 1911, he has the following:
Last summer a gray-bearded old fiddler was singing for me the Bailiff's Daughter of Islington. "What does that word Bailiff mean ?" I asked him. "Oh, shucks," came his prompt and logical reply, "that's just in the song."
Shearin, however, failed to give the text to this version!
Currently I have 29 versions in my collection from North America. This is almost all of the extant traditional versions.
R. Matteson 2015]
CONTENTS:
There Was A Youth- Griffin (GA-FL) c.1870 Morris
Bailiff's Daughter- Case (MO)1880 Belden/Kittredge
Bailiff's Daughter- Joynes (VA) 1915 Davis
Bailiff's Daughter- Wadsworth (IN) 1916 Kittredge
Bailiff's Daughter- Powell (KY) 1917 Sharp A
Bailie of Hazling Town- Pace (KY) 1917 Sharp B
Inn-Keeper's Daughter- Payne (NL) 1920 Greeleaf
The Comely Youth- Long (MS) 1926 Hudson
Bailiff's Daughter- Alexander (ME) 1927 Barry
Bailiff's Daughter- Reade (VA) 1928 Davis B
Bailey's Daughter- Sims (NL) 1930 Karpeles
Bailiff's Daughter- Young (NS) 1933 Creighton C
The Bailiff's Daughter- Shepard (VT) 1933 Flanders
Bailiff's Daughter- Sullivan (VT) 1933 Flanders D
Bailiff's Daughter- Burditt (VT) pre1934 Flanders
The Bailor's Daughter- (TN) pre1936 Crabtree
Bailiff's Daughter- Roast (NS) 1937 Creighton A
Bailer's Daughter of Ireland- Clevenger (NJ) 1939
Bailiff's Daughter- Buckley (MA-RI) 1939 Linscott
Bailiff's Daughter- Fairbanks (VT) 1939 Flanders C
Bailiff's Daughter- Timmons (NC) 1945 Abrams REC
Bellyan's Daughter- Duncan (NS) 1950 Creighton B
Bailey Daughter- Long (WV) 1950 Gainer
Bailiff's Daughter- Clayton (MA) 1955 REC
The Bailey's Daughter- Coberley (MO) 1959 Hunter
The Valiant's Daughter- Vian (OK) 1960 Parler
Bailiff's Daughter- Wood (OK-UK) pre1964 Moores
Bailiff's Daughter- Winters (TN) 1966 Burton
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Page 37 of Mountain Life & Work vol. 31 no. 2 Summer, 1955 {kentucky]
Sung by a young woman in a log cabin
Baliff's Daughter
There was a youth, a well-loved youth,
And he was a squire's son,
He loved the bailiff's daughter, dear
That lived in Islington.
But she was shy and didn't believe,
That he did love her so,
No, nor at any time would she
Any favorance to him show.
[Notes from Ballads and Songs; Belden 1940]
The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington
(Child 105)
This is a seventeenth century broadside ballad. Child gives only one version, from a collection of broadside prints, tho he had an American text. It is one of the few ballads on the returned disguised lover theme (this time with the sexes reversed.) which he admitted to his collection. It is still sung both in Great Britain and in America; probably more often than collectors' records
show, since it has held pretty closely to print and would therefore seem negligible to folklorists. Many of the reports listed below are of the tune only.
It has been reported since Child's time from Aberdeenshire (LL 82-4), Oxfordshire (FSUT 124-5), Surrey (JFSS I 209), Sussex (JFSS I 125), Dorset (JFSS VII 34), and Somerset (JFSS VII 34-5) ; and from Maine (BBM 225-7), Vermont (GGMS 74-6, CSV6-7), Virginia (TBV383-4, 585), Kentucky (SharpK I 219-21), Mississippi (FSM 115-6) and Indiana (JAFL XXX 332). Kittredge JAFL XXX 332 prints the tenth stanza of Mrs' case's version as an 'amusing variation', which it is; but it is by no means unique, the same or a similar stanza appearing in the Aberdeenshire and the two Kentucky texts.
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[Notes from Traditional Ballads of Virgina; Davis, 1929. ]
THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON
(Child, No. 105)
The solitary text of this ballad found in Virginia is Virginian by fairly recent adoption. The contributor, Mrs. Levin Joynes, of Richmond, Virginia writes, September 27, 1915 " 'The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington' was sung to me in my childish days by a cousin, who lived in England, and I understood from her that it was an old English ballad. No doubt it was brought to Virginia by
some of the early settlers. I have written it from memory, so no doubt it is very faulty." On the contrary, it is an excellent version, corresponding very closely with the Child text, the stanzas omitted or compressed being those which could best be spared or pared. Besides this text, Virginia tradition preserves a single stanza (B), with the tune.
The story is identical with that recorded by child. "A fond youth and a coy maid, a bailiff's daughter, having been parted seven years) the maid disguises. herself to go in quest of her lover, and meets him on her way. He asks her whether she knows the bailiff's daughter. The bailiff's daughter is dead long aqo, she replies. Then he will go into a far country. The maid assured of his faith, reveals herself, and is ready to be his bride."
The thirteen Child stanzas are represented by eight in the Virginia text, Child 3,4, and t are omitted, Child 8, 9,and 10 are compressed into Virginia 5 and 6, and child 13 is dropped from the Virginia copy. In spite of minor variations, the two represent single version.
During Professor Child's collecting days, Mr. F. H. Stoddard informed him that "'The Bailiff's Daughter' is still very much sung, and may be heard any day at a country cricket-match." It does not seem, however to be current in oral tradition in Virginia. The present editor happens to be familiar with a lovely old air, but it comes from a juvenile songbook he saw some years ago. The B melody is similar and is appropriate to this tender ballad with its
happy ending.
For American texts, see Bulletin, No. 4, p. 7 Hudson, No. 16 (and Journal, XXXIX, 106; Mississippi); Journal, XXIX, 201 Rawn and Peabody, Georgia. This survival, the author writes, is "similar" to the Child ballad XXX 321, (Kittredge, Missouri, Indiana, both fragments); Shearin, p. 4; Shearin and Combs, p. 8. For additional references, see Journal, XXX, 321.
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[Notes from British Ballad From Maine, 1929, Barry Eckstorm and Smyth.]
THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON
(Child 105)
In JAFL, XXXIX (1926), 100-102, there is an eight stanza version of this ballad called "The comely youth," recovered in Mississippi. The name of the town has been changed to Hazling town, and there are several other changes; for example, the girl, instead of disguising herself as a beggar, dresses in fine silk, and instead of asking for a penny, she begs a kiss. Her lover buys her jewels and they have a merry wedding.
Stanza 2 of the Mississippi text (corresponding to Child B and 4 as in our text) shows how the ballad is breaking down; for instead of "an apprentice for to bind," we have something without sense:
When his cruel parents came this to find,
That he was so inclined,
They sent him away down to London city,
Oh, and bid him a printer's bind, bind,
And bid him a printer's bind.
All of Child's copies were the same version from various printed broadsides of the seventeenth century.
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[Two ballads were recorded by Abrams in 1945. The first recording is Laura Timmons of Watauga County, NC. Becasue of hte poor quality of the recording only parts of the ballad can be recovered. In the second recording Abrams says Pat Frye's ballad is Child 105 but clearly by my partial transcription below-- it isn't. It's a related ballad sometimes titled "Mary and Willie" (Laws N28; Meade I-A31).]
A. Bailiff's Daughter of Islington- W. Amos Abrams Collection; Laura Timmons "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington"
Recorded on July 5, 1945, Laura Timmons performs "Bailiff's Daughter of Islington."
The was a youth, a beloved youth,
And he did love her so,
But when his friends did understand
His fond and foolish mind,
They sent him off to Clarendon,
An apprentice to bind.
And when he seven long years
and never his love did see,
For many a kiss I've shed for grace,
While she never thought of me.
One day the maid of Islington
[recording skips]
B. [Little Willie] Recorded on August 26, 1945, Pat Fry performs "The Bailiff's Daughter." Abrams collection; Yadkin County Minstrel
. . .my darling
And don't you say so.
If you were forsaken,
To the road don't you go.
I'm going I'm going,
I'm going away.
You don't want to marry so
So why should I stay.
She dressed in men's clothing
Her sword by her side
She absolved herself and them
And away she did ride
Little Willie and his truelove
Was riding along
Little Willie thought his true love
Was a . . . at home
There a glass of good old brandy
And a bottle of good ol' wine
Here's a health to those ladies
We have left (there) behind.
I love unto one woman
Here's health to Little Molly
I know she loves me
She was standing by my side
At the
. . . little Molly,
Had follered me here
This is your own true love
Who loves you so dear
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[This is another related ballad titled "A Pretty Fair Maid/Miss" also called "The Maiden in the Garden" or "The Broken Token" which is Laws N42.]
From: More Songs and Ballads from the Southern Appalachians
by Isabel Nanton Rawn and Charles Peabody
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 29, No. 112 (Apr. - Jun., 1916), pp. 198-202
VII. [Miss Rawn compares the following ballad with "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington " (Child, IV, 426). See also Barry, "The Love Token " (this Journal, 1911, p. 339).- C. P.]
A pretty fair miss all in the garden,
A journeyole (?)* soldier passing by.
He did stop and kindly address her
By saying, "Kind miss, will you marry me?"
"No, kind sir, a man of honor,
A man of honor you may be.
Would you impose upon a lady
Whose bride to you is not to be?"
"I have a sweetheart cross the ocean,
He has been gone for seven long year,
And if he's dead, I hope he is happy,
Or in some battle being slain.
"And if he is to some fair girl married,
I love the girl that married him."
He run his hands all in his pockets
And pulled out rings that she had gave him.
Straight down before him she did fall:
He picked her up all in his arms,
Giving kisses by one, two, three,
Saying, "If I had staid there seven years longer,
No girl but you could have married me."
*probably: jolly old
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Kittredge's notes from 1917 JOAFL: THE BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON (Child, No. 105). [The complete Case ballad was published by Belden in 1940.]
Child had a copy from Indiana ("received from an Irish lady," 2 : 426) which he did not print, as being from a broadside partly made over by secondary tradition.[2] Copies are reported from Virginia (Bulletin of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society, No. 4, PP. 7-8), Kentucky (Shearin and Coombs, p. 8; letter from Professor E. C. Perrow, Feb. 12, 1914), Georgia (Reed Smith, JAFL 28 : 200), Michigan (B. L. Jones).
A text from Missouri (with the tune) is communicated by Professor Belden as sent to him by Mrs. Eva Warner Case. Mrs. Case gives the song from memory, "with the assistance of her mother and grandmother." "It was commonly sung," she writes, "in Harrison County, Missouri, as late as 1890. The settlers here were of Virginia and Kentucky stock, with a sprinkling of Tennesseeans, and many of the songs had been in the family at the time of their coming from England." Mrs. Case's text corresponds pretty closely to the old broadside reproduced (inexactly) by Percy and (accurately) by Child (2 :427-428). It omits stanza 2 only. Stanza II shows an amusing variation.
"Then will I sell my goodly steed,
My saddle and my bow;
I will into some far countrey,
Where no man doth me know" (Child, st. II).
"If she be dead and I am a-living,
She's lying there so low,
Oh take from me my coal-black steed,
My fiddle and my bow!" (Case, st. Io).
The following fragment was communicated in February, 1916, by Mr. Wallace C. Wadsworth from recitation, apparently in Indiana.
I. One eve the maids of Hazelton
Went out to sport and play,
But the bailiff's daughter of Hazelton
She slyly stole away.
2. There was a youth, a well-beloved youth,
The squire's only son,
And he fell in love with the bailiff's daughter,
And she lived in Hazelton.
Footnotes:
2 It is preserved among the Child MSS. (xviii, 31, article 10) in the Harvard College Library.
3 Compare Shearin, Modern Language Review, 6 : 514; Sewanee Review for July, 1911. 322 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
105. THE BAILIFFS DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 225 / Belden, Mo F-S, 68 / Crabtree, Overton Cnty, 307/ Davis, Trd Bid Va, 383 / Flanders, Cntry Sgs Vt^ 6 / Flanders, Garl Gn Mt Sg, 74 / Flanders, New Gn Mt Sngstr, 61 / Focus, V, 280 / Greenleaf and Mansfield, Bids Sea Sgs Newfdld, 34 / Hudson, F-S Miss, 1 14 / Hudson, F-T Miss, 4 / Hudson, Spec Miss F-L, # 1 6 / JAFL, XXX, 321; XXXIX, 106 / Linscott, F-S Old NE, 160/Morris, F-SFla, 453 / SharpK, Eng F-S So Aplchns, I, 219 / Shearin and Combs, Ky Syllabus, 8 / SFLQ, VIII, Va FLS Bull, #4.
Local Titles: The Bailiff's Daughter, The Bailiffs Daughter of Islington, The Bailor's Daughter, The Comely Youth, There Was a Youth, True Love Requited.
Story Types: A: A loving youth and the very coy bailiff's daughter have been parted for seven years. She had scorned him because she did not feel he really loved her, and his family had sent him away from "his fond and foolish pride". Sometimes, she has been locked up, also. The girl, however, disguises herself in rags, slips off, and goes in quest of her lover. She meets him along the way. When he asks if she knows the bailiffs daughter in her town, she replies that the girl has been dead for a long while. He then says he will go away to a far-off land. On hearing this she reveals her identity and promises to marry him. Sometimes the marriage is included.
Examples: Barry, Davis (A), SharpK (A).
B: The story outline is the same as that of Type A, but the' girl does not disguise herself as a beggar. Rather, she dresses in fine silk and asks for a kiss instead of a penny. The lad buys the girl jewels, and they have a merry wedding. Examples: Hudson, F-S Miss.
Discussion: The Type A stories are similar to Child, but shorter. They derive from print and are generally quite stable. Type B, however, seems to reveal a rather undramatic change that has taken place in the original narrative. However, see Alfred Williams, F-S Uffer Thames, 174 (head-note).
Flanders, New Gn Mt Sngstr, 63 discusses the stability and scope of this ballad in America. For two unique stanzas see this article. See also her Garl Gn Mt Sg, 74 text that follows Child 105 a closely. In addition, A. C. Morris, (SFLQ, VII, 155) notes some interesting intrusions of "cracker" language into the text.
Isabel Rawn (JAFL, XXIX, 201) prints a not uncommon song from Georgia concerning a soldier (or sailor) who returns (at first unknown) to his wife after seven years. She compares this song to Child 105. See also Barry's text, The Love Token, in JAFL, XXIV, 339 and check Owens, SW Sings, n. p., A Pretty Fair Maid where the returning lover is a cowboy.
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Missing versions:
BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON, THE (Mentioned, no source or text)
Source Shearin & Combs, Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-Songs (1911) p.8
Performer
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector
Roud number 483 | Roud number search
BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER
Source Helen Creighton collection (Nova Scotia Archives) AR 5168 / AC 2274 / 1418
Performer Jollimore, Amos
Place collected Canada : Nova Scotia : Terrace Bay
Collector Creighton, Helen
BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON
Source E.C. Beck Collection (Clarke Historical Lib, Central Michigan Univ) [Michigan Miscellany (2) p.9
Performer Ash, Laura
Place collected USA : Michigan : Harrison
Collector Beck, Earl Clifton
BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER OF ISLINGTON, THE (This Lost text is apparently from Shearin)
Source Combs, Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (1967) p.205 item 30
Performer
Place collected USA : Kentucky
Collector Combs, Josiah H.
BAILIFF'S DAUGHTER, THE
Source She's a Gal o' Mine Songster (1871) p.19
Performer
Place collected
Collector