I've always thought of Peggy Gordon as a song of Nova Scotia origin; it is in Helen Creighton's Maritime Folk Songs, for example, and I can't recall coming across it in any Scots folk song books.

A few weeks ago, I came across "Sweet Maggie Gordon" in a circa 1884 New York vaudeville songster...

PEGGY GORDON

Oh! I wish my love and I were sailing,
Far from land as far could be;
Sailing on the deep blue waters,
Where I'll have no more to trouble me.

Chorus:
Sweet Maggie Gordon, you are my bride,
Come and sit thee on my knee;
And tell to me the very reason,
Why I am slighted so by thee.

Oh! the sea is deep; I cannot cross over,
Nor neither have I wings to fly;
But I wish I had some jolly boatsman,
To carry over my love and I.

I wish I had a glass of water,
I will tell to you the reason why;
While I am drinking, I am thinking,
Of my true love with a sigh.

I hear a strong echo of "Carrickfergus" in this song. Therefore I would be inclined to think this is a song made made in North America with some Old World verses and some new ones. The Creighton version has another echo of Carrickfergus in the 10th and last verse...

"I'll sing no more till I get a drink."

Does anyone have any info to share on the origins of this rarely collected but (today) very popular song?

All the best,
Dan Milner