Old Oak Tree, The [Laws P37]

DESCRIPTION: (Betsy) sets out from home to meet her love and never returns. Her widowed mother, after a long search, dies of grief. The girl's body is found during a hunt with the murderer's knife still there. He confesses the crime and (dies/kills himself)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland)
KEYWORDS: homicide suicide gallows-confession
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws P37, "The Old Oak Tree"
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 283-285, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H207, pp. 417-418, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Graham-Joe-Holmes-SongsMusicTraditionsOfAnUlsterman 57, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 15, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 49, pp. 141-143,175, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 11, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 33, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 55, "Squire Nathaniel and Betsy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 100-102, "Old Oak Tree" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 74-77, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 628-629, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 12, "The Old Oak Tree" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Dibblee/Dibblee-FolksongsFromPrinceEdwardIsland, pp. 80-81, "The Old Oak Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson-SongsOfMiramichi 66, "Eliza Long (The Old Oak Tree)" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 514, OLDOAKTR
Roud #569
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "The Old Oak Tree" (on IRRCinnamond02)
Din Dobbin, "Old Oak Tree" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Warde Ford, "Beneath the Old Oak Tree" (AFS 4195 A1; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Mike Kent, "The Old Oak Tree" (on PeacockCDROM) [one verse only];"Betsey" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Tom Lenihan, "The Old Oak Tree" (on IRTLenihan01)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Squire
NOTES [57 words]: Bodleian Library site Ballads Catalogue appears to have two broadsides for this ballad
Bodleian, Harding B 40(5), "The Old Oak Tree" ("The night was dark, cold blew the wind"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899; also Harding B 26(481), "The Old Oak Three," P. Brereton (Dublin), c.1867
However, I was unable to read either of them. - BS
Last updated in version 4.2
File: LP37

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