Hi,

The fact that "Madam" was sung in Virginia c. 1780 shows that the two English broadsides of c. 1760s were probably not the earliest prints.

There are a number of significant versions of "Madam" from North America as well as a traditional stanza from "Madam, I Have Come to Court You" which dates this song to the late 1700s in the US. In 1822 Virginia Congressman and Senator John Randolph (1773-1833) born in Cawsons, Virginia, wrote his niece and asked if she had heard a ballad with the following verse that he had heard as a child:

What care I for your golden treasures?
What care I for your house and land?
What care I for your costly pleasures?
So as I get but a handsome man.

This dates the song to c.1780 in Virginia. To reach America "Madam" would have to first be tradition in England and then have been brought to Virginia-- events that took time in the 1700s. The first full US version, "Yonder Stands a Handsome Lady" was collected from the journal of the Diana, a ship harbored in New York under Captain Hay in 1819. Here's the text from Hungtington's "Songs the Whalemen Sang":

Yonder stands a handsome lady
Who she is I do not know
Shall I yon and court her for her beauty
What says you madam yes or no.

Madam I have gold and silver
Madam I have house and land
Madam I have a world of treasures
And all shall be at your command

What care I for your gold and silver
What care I for your house and land
What care I for your world of treasures
All I want is a handsome man

Madam do not count on beauty
Beauty is a flower that will soon decay
The brightest flower in the midst of summer
In the fall it will fade away.

The sweetest apple soon is rotten
The hottest love now soon is cold
A young man's word is soon forgotten
The coffin is the end of young and old.

A man may drink and not be drunken
A man may fight and not be slain
A man may court a handsome lady,
And be welcome there again.

The verses are standard except the last verse which is similarly found in Barnyards of Delgaty. This version also was probably known in the 1700s in America.

Richie