Florence Bateman - Gypsy Laddie (105-08)

Before the song, Miramichi Folk Song Festival emcee, Ken Homer, mentions that Mrs. Florence Bateman and Alan Mills both came up from Boiestown by bus and that they were talking about songs when a song called The Gypsy Laddie  came up and Mills asked her to sing it the festival.This song is sung a cappella. This song is about a nobleman s young daughter who runs off with a gypsy laddie and her father goes out looking for her; she refuses to return so she can stay with her gypsy laddie. The refrain seems to consist of vocables. The song appears in old British at least as far back as the period of 1821-1838 (when it was being printed in Gateshead, England); it appears to have quickly spread to London, Dublin, and elsewhere. Click here for that earliest Gateshead text and here to see other early versions and where they were printed

Outstanding research and versions described here with much speculations on origins, some reproduced below from CSU Fresno's ballad index:

"Hall, notes to Voice17, re "The Gypsy Laddies": "Francis James Child locates the history behind the ballad to the expulsion of the Gypsies from Scotland by Act of Parliament in 1609, and the abduction by Gypsies of Lady Cassilis (who died in 1642), her subsequent return to her home and the hanging of the Gypsies involved. [ref. Child, IV, pp. 63-5.]"

Recorded in 1962  A version of the song appears online at http://www.contemplator.com/child/gypsylad.html

105-08 [[Category:B]]