Farmer's Boy, The [Laws Q30]

DESCRIPTION: A lost boy comes seeking a home, or at least shelter for a night, saying that he can perform all farm tasks. The farmer's wife and daughter convince the farmer to take him in. He serves so well that he marries the farmer's daughter and becomes his heir
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Journal from the Elizabeth); a possibly-related broadside is said to date from before 1689
KEYWORDS: farming work marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(All))
REFERENCES (32 citations):
Laws Q30, "The Farmer's Boy"
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "FARMER'S BOY, THE"
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 368-369, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 134-135, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 2 tunes)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 565, "Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 63-66,174, "The Farmer's Boy" (3 texts, 4 tunes)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #18, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardham-EastRidingSongster 12, p. 16, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #94, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 272-273, "A Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Randolph 118, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 111-113, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 118)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 88, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text plus mention of 3 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 88, "The Farmer's Boy" (2 tunes plus text excerpts)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 110, "To Be a Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 37, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 118-119, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 960, "The Farmer's Boy" (6 texts, 4 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 247, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 120-121, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 19, pp. 27-28, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text plus a fragment)
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 28, pp. 69-71, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #104, "The Farmer's Boy" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, p. 158, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Guigné-ForgottenSongsOfTheNewfoundlandOutports, pp. 127-129, "The Farmer's Boy" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 54, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 216-218, "A Farmer's Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 36 and #4/64, p. 36, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 479, "The Farmer's Boy" (source notes only)
DT 538, FARMRBOY FARMRBO2
ADDITIONAL: Robert Bell, editor, Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (London, 1857 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 148-149, "The Farmer's Boy" (1 text)
Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), p. 90 "The Farmer's Boy" (1 short text)
Roud #408
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Farmer's Boy" (on Abbott1)
Warde Ford, "The Farmer's Boy" (AFS 4215 A2, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
Howard Morry, "The Farmer's Boy" (on NFAGuigné01)
Tony Wales, "To Be a Farmer's Boy" (on TWales1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(1152), "Farmer's Boy" ("The sun went down beyond yon hills"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 26(186), Firth b.26(333), Harding B 11(3663), Firth c.26(199), Harding B 36(27), Harding B 18(164), 2806 c.8(292), Firth b.26(370), Harding B 11(551), "[The] Farmer's Boy"
LOCSheet, sm1847 420620, "The Farmer's Boy," Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1847 (tune)
LOCSinging, as200930, "The Farmer's Boy," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864; also as103730, as103740, "The Farmer's Boy"
Murray, Mu23-y1:045, "The Farmer's Boy," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Poor Little Boy" [Laws Q28] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Boy" [Laws Q29] (plot)
cf. "The Fisherman's Girl" (plot)
cf. "The Poor Smuggler's Boy" (plot)
cf. "The Hobo from the T & P Line" (plot)
cf. "Peter Amberley" [Laws C27] (tune)
cf. "The Preacher in the Dockyard Church" (tune)
NOTES [33 words]: Broadside LOCSinging as200930: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: LQ30

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