Old Man Came Over the Moor, An (Old Gum Boots and Leggings)

DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother tells her to open the door to an old man. He is come to court her; she will not have him; he is too old. The girl's mother makes her to offer him various attentions; she does, and the old man spoils each. (At last he is sent home)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1733 (Ramsey)
LONG DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother tells her to open the door to an old man. He is come to court her; she will not have him; he is too old. The girl's mother makes her to offer him various attentions; she does, and the old man spoils each. (When the mother asks the daughter to kiss the old man, she says if her mother so likes him she can kiss him herself.) (At last he is sent home)
KEYWORDS: age courting rejection humorous clothes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,Ro,SE,So) Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (48 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 264, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 text)
Randolph 66, "The Old Black Booger" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 129-131, "The Old Black Booger" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 66C)
Rainey/Pinkston-SongsOfTheOzarkFolk, pp. 6-7, "Old Black Booger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 22, "Old Shiboors and Leggins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 42, "An Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 21, p. 30, "The Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (1 fragment)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 171, "The Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 48, "The Old Man Who Vame Over the Moor" (2 texts)
List-SingingAboutIt-FolkSongsInSouthernIndiana, pp. 172-174 (2 texts, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 9, "The Old Man's Courtship" (5 texts)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 9, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 tune plus text excerpt)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #202, "The Old Man's Courtship" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 122, "Old Beard a-Shakin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, p. 217, "Old Shoe Boots and Leggins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #77, "The Old Man's Courtship" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 128-129, "The Carle He Cam' Ower the Craft"; p. 130, "The Dottered Auld Carle" (2 texts)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 457-458, "There Was an Old Man Came Over the Lea" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #149, p. 1, "The Auld Carle" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 815, "The Auld Carle wi' His Beard" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #50, pp. 205-206, "A Dottered Auld Carle"" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harding-FolkSongsOfLancashire, p. 100, "With His Owd Grey Beard New Shaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-MarrowBones, p. 65, "Old Grey Beard A-wagging" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 152-154, "The Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 165, "Old Grey Beard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, pp. 9-10, "There Was an Old Man" (1 text)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 18-19, "With His Old Shoes On and His Leggings"; pp. 20-21, "Crazy Old Man from China" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Gentry/Smith-ASingerAmongSingers, #43, "My Mother She Bid (She Told) Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 131, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 408-409, "(no title)" (2 text, both short)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 307-308, "There Was An Old Man Came Over The Hill" (1 text)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 169, "The Old Man Who Came Over the Moor" (1 text)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 108, "My Mother Bid Me" (5 texts, 5 tunes)
Boette-SingaHipsyDoodle, p. 34, "Ma, I Won't Have Him" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 87, "Mama Told Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 132-134, "Old Shoes and Leggin's" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior-TraditionalSongsOfNovaScotia, pp. 190-191, "The Old Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Pottie/Ellis-FolksongsOfTheMaritimes, pp. 40-41, "Billy Modick"; pp. 130-131, "The Old Man" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Williams-FolkSongsOfTheUpperThames, p. 73, "The Old Grey Man" (1 text) (also Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Gl 161)
VaughanWilliams/Lloyd-PenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs, pp. 76-77, "The Old Man from Lee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-SongsOfTheMidlands, p. 22, "There Was an Old Man Came Over the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 139, "Old Grey Beard" (1 text, 1 tune)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #380, "My mother told me to bury him deep" (1 fragment)
DT, OLDSHOE*
ADDITIONAL: Allan Ramsay, The Tea-Table Miscellany: or, A Collection of Scots Sangs (in three vols) (London, 1733 (ninth edition) ("Digitized by Google")), Vol. I, p. 126, "The Young Lass Contra Auld Man" ("The carle he came o'er the croft") (1 text)
W. H. D. Rouse, "Christmas Mummers at Rugby" in Folklore, Vol. X, No. 2 (Jun 1899 (available online by JSTOR)), pp. 193-194 ("There was an old man came over the sea") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roy Palmer, _The Folklore of Warwickshire_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, pp. 107-108, ("There Was An Old Man Came Over the Sea") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, p. 63, "The Old Man's Courtship" (1 text)
ST R066 (Full)
Roud #362
RECORDINGS:
Frankie Armstrong, "The Old Man from Over the Sea" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Burnett Bros., "Old Shoes a-Draggin'" (Victor 23727, 1932)
[The Stoneman Family and] Uncle Eck Dunford, "Old Shoes and Leggins" (Victor V-40060, 1928; on AAFM1)
Betty Garland, "Old Gum Boots and Leggings" (on BGarland01)
Otis High, "Old Gray Beard A-Flappin'" (on HandMeDown2)
Lawrence Older, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (on LOlder01)
Jeannie Robertson, "Old Grey Beard Newly Shaven" (on FSB01); "Old Grey Beard" (on FSBFTX13)
Betty Smith, "Old Shoes and Leggings" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #181, recorded 05/17/2022)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Maids When You're Young Never Wed an Old Man"
cf. "I Wouldn't Have an Old Man"
cf. "The Brisk Young Lad" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
An Old Man Came Courting Me
The Young Lass contra Old Man
The Carle He Came o'er the Croft
The Auld carle
I'll Not Have Him
The Old Man from Over the Sea
His Old Grey Beard Kept Waggin'
Overshoes and Leggin's
NOTES [81 words]: Roy Palmer's version of this song is included as a part of a Father Christmas play which "was performed every year at Christmastide at Newbold until the end of the nineteenth century." Unfortunately he gives no information on the source of the play, nor when it was first performed. - RBW
The Rouse text is an example of a song of courting, rejection, and, in this case death, inserted into a mummers' "wooing" or "plough" play. For other examples and some discussion see "Sweet Moll." - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R066

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