Andrew Lammie [Child 233]

DESCRIPTION: Lord Fyvie's trumpeter Andrew Lammie, the fairest man in the county, and Tifty's Annie, are in love. When Annie's father hears of this, he complains to Fyvie; he wants his daughter to marry better. She is adamant; her brother kills her for her effrontery
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Jamieson)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Lord Fyvie's trumpeter Andrew Lammie, the fairest man in the county, and Tifty's Annie, are in love. When Annie's father hears of this, he complains to Fyvie; he wants his daughter to marry better. Fyvie is sympathetic and woud marry her herself were she more wealthy. She is adamant; her brother kills her (breaks her back) for her effrontery
KEYWORDS: love death family poverty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Hebr)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Child 233, "Andrew Lammie" (3 texts)
Bronson 233, "Andrew Lammie" (16 versions+3 in addenda)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 233, "Andrew Lammie" (3 versions: #7, #10, #11)
Chambers-ScottishBallads, pp. 122-126, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
Buchan/Moreira-TheGlenbuchatBallads, pp. 173-177, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #34, pp. 1-2, "Mill o' Tifties Annie"; #16, p. 1, "Mill o' Tifty's Annie" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan5 1018, "Tifty's Annie" (13 texts, 16 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #78, p. 258-262, "Mill o' Tifty's Annie (Andrew Lammie, Child 233)" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Mackenzie-BalladsAndSeaSongsFromNovaScotia 12, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishBallads, pp. 265-267, "Andrew Lammie" (1 text)
DT 233, MILTIFTY* MILTIFT2*
Roud #98
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "Tifty's Annie" (on LStewart1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pretty Betsey" [Laws M18] (plot)
cf. "Charlie Mackie" (lyrics, form, themes)
cf. "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow" (tune, per Greig/Duncan5)
cf. "The Death of Mill o' Tiftie's Annie" (plot)
cf. "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] (theme: girl locked away by father) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Mill o Tifty's Annie
NOTES [345 words]: Ord and Greig have a song, "Charlie Mackie," which looks like a by-blow of this song. The plot is different -- the wealthy girl's parents don't want her wed to Mackie, though he finds his way to her in the end. But not only is the scansion the same, but many of the lines of "Charlie Mackie" are obviously corrupt derivatives of those found in "Andrew Lammie."
There is, apparently, a certain amount of truth in this song: We know little with certainty of Agnes Smith (nicknamed Nannie, hence Annie), save that her grave gives her date of death as January 19, 1673 (or, in other authorities, 1631; the stone, according to Child, eventually became illegible). However, legend has it that she was courted by Andrew Lammie, Lord Fyvie's trumpeter. Fyvie, desiring the girl herself, had Lammie transported to the West Indies. He made it back, but by then she had died, and he himself died cursing Lord Fyvie.
Another legend, according to Peter Underwood's Gazeteer of British, Irish, and Scottish Ghosts, has it that Lammie's ghost still appears to trumpet the deaths of the Lords of Fyvie. Indeed, Underwood lists many ghosts found at Fyvie, perhaps related to a curse laid by Thomas the Rhymer. - RBW
Records of this song are definitely centered in Scotland. Jeannie Robertson believed the story to be "true history," and related it in "prose" very much corresponding to her singing, adding that there was a "weeping Stone" in the graveyard of Fyvie which shed "very moisty watter ... every now an' again," implying as sympathy for the story commemorated by Annie Tifty's gravestone (Roberston-Porter-Gower, 261). - DGE
Greig's text is in four fragments with Greig's comments. The fragments fit Duncan's complete text at Greig/Duncan5 1018A.
The non-fragmentary versions in Greig/Duncan5 (1018A, 1018B and 1018Q) are about as long as Child 233C and are close to that version.
I was not able to read broadside Bodleian, 2806 c.11(1), "Andrew Lammie" or "Mill of Tifty's Annie" ("At Mill of Tifty lived a man, in the neighbourhood of Fyvie"), Brander and Co. (Elgin), n.d. - BS
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C233

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