Deni,

Here's The Devonshire Farmer's Daughter, and The Farmer from Cheshire (recorded in Suffolk). See also The Highwayman Outwitted which the Digital Tradition database has assigned the number DT #682. Here the farmer is from Lincolnshire. This thread gives a Scottish version where it's the farmer who outwits the highwayman.This tale seems to be pretty widespread, so I don't know if you'd count it as a Devon song. See also The Crafty Farmer and the Crafty Boy in the DT for similar table turning exploits (Child #283).

The Cheshire version is notable not only for its economic telling of the tale, but also for the fact that it doesn't rhyme until verse 5!

THE DEVONSHIRE FARMER'S DAUGHTER

In Devonshire lived a rich farmer,
His daughter to market did go.
Believing that no-one could harm her,
Oft-times she did ride to and fro.

It happened to be on a Wednesday,
A great deal of corn she had sold.
She's gone to receive every penny.
They paid her in silver and gold.

In a portmantle she put it,
In this portmantle put she.
For fear of some beggars or troopers
A robbing all on the highway.

One gay, gallant trooper she's met with
He bade this poor damsel to stay.
But she would not have stayed for the heavens,
But galloped along the highway

He pulled this young girl from her saddle
He gave her his bridle to hold.
While she's in the shaking and [babering?]
O almost a-froze with the cold.

She off with her foot in his stirrup
And away she did ride like a man.
"Come follow me, follow me, trooper.
Come follow me home if you can."

He run, but he could not get after:
His boots they were baffled in snow.
"Come, rein up, my pretty young damsel.
I'll give you back your money and gold."

"No matter, no matter," she shouted,
"You can keep it all now, if you will.
For I've leaved you a bag full of farthings,
A sum of five shilling to tell."

She rode over hills, over mountains,
Till she came to her father's own gate.
Her father was sorely affrighted.
To see her come home in her whites.

"And where have you been to my daughter?
O where have you tarried so long?"
"Some very rough wooers I have met with,
But still I have suffered no wrong.

He looked in the trooper's portmantle,
And in the portmantle he found
Large pieces of gold and of silver
Which mounted to six hundred pounds.

"Here's six hundred pounds here, my daughter.
And I will add six hundred more.
And you now have a plentiful fortune
To keep the cold wind from the door."

DT#682
Laws L2
Recorded by George Deacon (vocal) & Marion Ross (harmonium) originally on Transatlantic. Reissued on compilation double-CD The best of English Folk, 1999. Essential ESCD770.

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THE FARMER FROM CHESHIRE

There was a rich farmer in Cheshire,
And his daughter to market would go.
Thinking of no harm or danger,
For she'd been on that highway before.

She met with an uncivil roadster,
Two pistols he drew from his side.
Saying "Deliver up your money and clothing
Or you will die in distress."

He stripped that poor lady star-naked,
But she mounted that mare like a man.
She galloped over hedgerow and ditches
Till she came to her dear father's door.

"O daughter, o daughter, what's happened?
Why stayest you late from the fair?"
O father, I've been in geat danger,
But the villain has done me no harm."

She put the grey mare in the stable,
And spread a white cloth on the floor.
She counted her money twice over,
And she counted a thousand and more.

But now she's a carriage to ride in,
And a coachman to ride by her side,
Servants to wait at the table,
And plenty of money besides.

DT#682
Laws L2
Collected 1985-87 by John Howson at Wickham Skeith, Suffolk from the singing of Charlie Stringer. Songs Sung in Suffolk Vol 3, (1988), Veteran Tapes VT103

Wassail! V