Silk Merchant's Daughter (I), The [Laws N10]

DESCRIPTION: A girl's parents send her lover away. She dresses in men's clothes and follows him. Their ship sinks. In a lifeboat, she is chosen by lot to be killed for food; he is to kill her. (She reveals herself); they spot (land or a ship) and all are saved
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1794 (Journal of the Polly)
KEYWORDS: love exile cross-dressing ship wreck disaster cannibalism reprieve rescue sailor
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland,England(South)) Ireland
REFERENCES (28 citations):
Laws N10, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter"
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "SILK MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER, THE"
Greig/Duncan1 177, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Ox 239, "As I Was A-Walking by Newgate One Day" (1 text)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers,pp. 91-92, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #4, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 296-298, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, pp. 150-251, "The Jolly Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 184-185, "Constant Lovers (The Silk Merchant's Daughter)" (1 long but incomplete text, 2 tunes)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 25, "The Castaways" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 63-64, "The Merchant's Daughter Turned Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 1, "To Fair London Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 43, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 71, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 99, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (fragments of a text with narration of the plot as recalled by the informant)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 107, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (2 texts)
Morri, #212, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 35, pp. 148-149, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Grimes-StoriesFromTheAnneGrimesCollection, p. 29, "Seafaring Man" (1 text)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 43, "The Silk-Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, which Laws describes as "almost completely rewritten"; the boy goes to sea to avoid the girl)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 10, p. 21, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 fragment, probably this)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #42, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 64, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
Roberts/Agey-InThePine #37, The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 64, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text)
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 61, "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 441, SLKMRCHT
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 78, "The Old Miser" (1 text, missing most of the action; it might be Laws N6 or Laws N10 or something else)
Roud #552
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "To Fair London Town" (on IRTLenihan01)
Dellie Norton, "The Silkmerchant's Daughter" (on OldTrad1, FarMts4)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2698), "New York Streets" ("As I was a walking up New York street"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 11(3744), "The Silk Merchant's Daughter" ("As I was a-walking up New London street", unknown, n.d.; Harding B 25(1778), "The Silk Merchant's Daughter"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Ship in Distress" (plot) and references there
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39]" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Jamie and Nancy of Yarmouth
New England
The Rich Merchant's Daughter
File: LN10

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