Thanks all – fascinating discussion.

Chappell's Wikipedia bio is here. It doesn't mention that he ever lived in Edinburgh and he certainly seems to have spent most of his life in London and clearly thought of himself as a collator of English folk songs. He also clearly thought (based on his writing that "the tune is the usual traditional version") that that tune he published was considered to be traditional in England by 1855.

The fact that the same tune was published in 1827 by William Motherwell in Glasgow doesn't prove that it originated in Scotland or that Chappell got it from Motherwell. If it was traditional as Chappell claimed it was, then he wouldn't have had to get it from any written source.

I don't see why it couldn't have been considered to have been the traditional tune for the song in both England and Scotland by 1827. And if it was considered to be traditional in England by 1855 when Chappell published it, as he claimed it was, then it would almost certainly have been around since much earlier than 1827.

The fact that no one here has been able to find it in Bagford doesn't prove it's not there. Chappell said that it was, and not all of Bagford has survived and not all of what has survived appears to have been digitised. The only way to prove that the tune isn't in Bagford would be to find the words of the ballad in Bagford, and if there is no tune with the words then that would prove the tune isn't there. Until then, surely the jury is out?

Anyway it seems to me that:

• By 1855 the Chappell/Motherwell tune was considered to be traditional, probably in both England and Scotland, and it definitely dates back before 1827, as Motherwell did not claim to have written it when he published it then; and it may possibly date back to the 17th century, as Chappell implied that it did. For the sake of anyone new to this thread, the Chappell/Motherwell tune is here in PDF format; and there is a recording here of the first verse sung to that tune by my friend James Eisner.


• As far as I can tell, every British recording of Little Musgrave that has ever been made has either been sung to the traditional American tune that Joan Baez sang the song's American cousin Matty Groves to; or to a tune written in 1970 by Nic Jones, which was based on and is closely related to the tune that Joan Baez sung it to; or to a traditional American tune for another American cousin of the song called "Shady Grove" (which is the tune Fairport Convention sang Matty Groves to); or (as in the case of Martin Carthy) to a traditional folk tune taken from a completely unrelated song.


• The Chappell/Motherwell tune is the only traditional British tune that has survived to the present day, yet seems to have been completely forgotten by the folk singing fraternity.


• I therefore think it's time to revive it! I'm certainly going to start singing Little Musgrave to that tune and I hope others will too.

Dave