No to be Married Ava

DESCRIPTION: "Our Girzie was noo thirty-six, Though some rather more did her ca', And ane quite sae auld to get married Has little or nae chance ava." The old maid finds herself teased, and desperately offers to wed any man, whatever his faults, rather than stay unwed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (according to Ford)
KEYWORDS: oldmaid courting husband
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 308-310, "No to be Married Ava" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan7 1379, "I'd Raither Be Married to Something" (1 text, 1 tune)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, pp. 66-67, "The Old Maid" (1 text)
Roud #7161
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Old Maid's Song (I)" and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Wooed and Married and A'
NOTES [82 words]: Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong: "This humorous ditty, to the tune of 'Woo'd and Married and A'', was composed about the year 1826 or 1827 by a young probationer of the Church of Scotland, a native of Ayrshire, who is now settled as a minister of a parish in Aberdeenshire."
Ford: "The song first appeared, says the editor of Ayrshire Ballads, in a small weekly publication issued at Kilmarnock, in 1827.... [it] was latterly improved and set out in every-day Scotch, by Dr. A. Crawford...." - BS
Last updated in version 3.2
File: FVS308

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography