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It's of a Young Damsel

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Place Collected: Tewkesbury
Date collected: 1908 (9 Jan)
Collector: Sharp, Cecil
Roud Number: 9402

This song appears unique in oral tradition to Mrs Smithers and yet the song can be traced back to at least 1780 when it was printed in “A Sailor’s Songbag: An American Rebel in an English Prison, 1777-79“, in Massachusetts. It also appears on a broadside as “The Constant Maid and Deceitful Squire”. But Mrs Smithers has provided the only ever tune for this song.

Notes by Gwilym Davies 6 July 2015