Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 27 Aug 25 - 05:19 AM

Mike,
Re the Duncan Wiliamson story I have another possible explanation. As you know I visited E C Ball in 1974 and through him became acquainted with his wife Orna and her family the Reedy's and visited them quite often after E C died in 1978. On one occasion at least they told me that there had been a Scottish minister at a church in their region who was very interested in their music and had recorded some of it. He had returned to Scotland and unfortunately they didn't know how to contact him.

Re Ray Driscoll, after his death his wife Sheila told her friend that much of his life story as told by him was not quite accurate. Which even she only found out after his passing.

Aside from this matter Ray when he discovered the May Day festival in Padstow, attended every year and even dressed in the costume worn by the locals and joined in which apparently pissed them off he being an outsider.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 26 Aug 25 - 04:18 AM

Hi Kevin,

you might be interested in the following. About 30 years ago I was recording material from the Scottish Traveller Duncan Williamson. On one occasion he asked me to put the recording machine on. I did so and Duncan began singing a very complete version of the Child Ballad The Farmer's Curst Wife. It immediately struck me that this was the version, word for word and note for note, as sung by the Appalachian singer E. C. Ball. Ball had been recorded by several collectors including Alan Lomax and John Cohen and recordings of him singing this ballad had appeared, over the years, on various LPs and CDs. At one time Duncan had been married to an American folklorist and I presume that at some point he had heard one of the E. C. Ball recordings. Duncan had little interest in where the song came from. He had heard it, liked it, learnt it and enjoyed singing it.

Subject: To Mike Yates, About Ray Driscoll's 'Queen Jane'
From: GUEST,Kevin W. aka Reynard the Fox on Youtube
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 12:14 PM

Hello Mike,
I think I know the source of Ray Driscoll's "Death of Queen Jane".

It may have come from "John Jacob Niles - Sings American Folk Songs" (1956). Take a listen here:
https://youtu.be/biI88z2HzU4

Ray's version was recorded by Gwilym Davies in 1993. The Ray Driscoll CD booklet notes say he learned the song from an itinerant farmworker in Shropshire called Harry Civil, who used to work on a nearby farm and sleep in the barn.

My best explanation is that Harry Civil heard the Niles recording somewhere, or learned the song from someone who did. The words and tune are so close that it can't be a coincidence I think.

I'm sorry for drifting off here, but there's another interesting example of an American song being collected from an English singer who learned it directly or indirectly from a record.

The Devil's Nine Questions (Child 1). Jeff Wesley sang it under the title "Ninety-Nine and Ninety" to John Howson at Whittlebury, Northamptonshire, in 1988. And he had one stanza that went:

A babe's more innocent than a lamb
    Sing ninety-nine and ninety
And she-devil is meaner than womankind.
    And I am the weaver's bonny.

The song originally came from folklorist Miss Alfreda Marion Peel (1890–1953) of Salem, Roanoke County, Virginia, USA. She collected it from a Mrs. Rill Martin of Mechanicsburg, Bland County, Virginia, formerly of Giles County, on September 11, 1922.

And Mrs. Martin sang "The Devil" in that verse. She-Devil, amusing as it is, goes back to a misreading of Miss Peel's original manuscript. A 78 RPM record by Burl Ives immortalised this mistake in 1944, incidentally enabling us to track later recordings of the song from traditional singers back to the Ives recording if they include the She-Devil line. So there's that.

But there are also examples of genuine shared tunes between British and American singers, of course. Like The Douglas Tragedy (Child 7) which was sung by Robert Henley Shiflett (1903–1978) of Brown's Cove, Albemarle County, Virginia, USA. Recorded by George D. Foss on July 15, 1961. And by Betsy Whyte (Bessie Townsley) (1919–1988), a Traveller of Montrose, Angus, Scotland, around the same time. Different words, but very close tunes.

Or "Young Hunting" (Child 68) aka "Lady Margaret". Sung by Martin McDonagh, a Traveller of Lanabawn, Roscommon, Co Roscommon, Ireland on May 22, 1974. Recorded by Tom Munnelly. And "Song of a Lost Hunter". Sung by Frank Proffitt of Watauga County, North Carolina. Recorded by Frank Warner in 1959. Completely different words, but clearly variants of the same tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 11:52 AM

Mike Yates wrote:

I actually suspect that somebody in England had picked the tune up from Sharp's collection and that was how Ray came to be using it. But, who knows...?

I strongly, strongly suspect you are (almost) right. I've drawn the clear conclusion from many years of ballad study that we don't pay enough attention to print and recordings. The number of "traditional American" songs that come from Carter Family and Vernon Dalhart recordings is astronomical. And remember that Cecil Sharp produced a number of school songbooks in the early twentieth century.

Without knowing the particular tune involved, my guess is that it was from one of Sharp's school songbooks.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 10:28 AM

Thinking further about ballad tunes in Britain and Appalachia has reminded me about the following. Some 30-odd years ago I recorded a number of songs from a singer called Ray Driscoll, who was then living in London. One song, unique to Ray and inspired by the Child Ballad of Lord Randal, was called "The Wild, Wild Berry" and soon became popular with singers who heard the recording. Ray also had a good version of another Child Ballad, namely "The Death of Queen Janes". He told me that he had learned it as a young man when he was working as a farm labourer in Shropshire. He had both words and tune from a fellow farm worker. What was particularly interesting was the fact that Ray's tune was identical to one collected for this ballad by Cecil Sharp from an Appalachian singer. So, had Ray's source learnt the song directly from Sharp's published Appalachian collection? Or was Ray's tune British, one which had travelled to American centuries ago and had survived unchanged? I actually suspect that somebody in England had picked the tune up from Sharp's collection and that was how Ray came to be using it. But, who knows...?

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 08:46 AM

Thank you for pointing out the Aunt Molly Jackson recording, which is new to me. Maybe I am getting old, but her tune does not seem to be that used by Joe Rae. It could be, of course, that her delivery (typical of some Appalachian ballad singers) is causing me to hear the tune incorrectly.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: Reinhard
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 12:31 AM

Aunt Molly Jackson's version was also added to the thread Origins: Annachie Gordon in 2020, though somewhat strange sorted in six-line verses.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 04:03 PM

Nice work, Kevin.

FWIW, the phrase "easy on the eye" meaning "good-looking" seems to date only from about 1917 and is often applied to movie actors. It jumped out at me.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Kevin W. aka Reynard the Fox on Youtube
Date: 24 Aug 25 - 01:49 PM

I want to get better at writing about folk songs. Looking back at what I wrote about Archie D. I felt I was being too harsh on Aunt Molly Jackson and dwelled too much on the tune similarities which are presumably a coincidence. She told Alan Lomax that she arranged these unusual ballads from print as we can hear at the end of the Lady Nancy (Child 269) recording. I'm still learning as I go along. I enjoy doing version comparisons of folk songs as a hobby.

Here's my rewritten article on Aunt Molly Jackson's Archie D. (I wish I could delete or change my article above):

I did not recognise "Archie D." as a version of Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie (Child 239) previously but that's exactly what it is. Aunt Molly Jackson arranged it from print. Child 239 is rare in oral tradition and has never been found outside of Scotland. Gavin Greig and the Reverend James Bruce Duncan collected three fragmentary texts and two tunes in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1908, and a more complete text with tune was collected from Joe Rae of Ayrshire in the 1990s who learned it from his grandfather.

Aunt Molly Jackson was known to arrange songs from a copy of Francis James Child's ballad books she was given by folklorist Tillman Cadle and his wife Mary Elizabeth Barnicle sometime before the Lomaxes recorded her. She made her own version of "The Birth of Robin Hood" (Child 102) because she liked and could identify with the Robin Hood character. She adapted it from Child 102, Version B, from Peter Buchan's "Ballads of the North of Scotland" (1828). She sang many genuine folk songs that agree with other Kentucky versions, mind you, but the ones that haven't been collected from other singers in America are likely to be her own creations which she was open to admit to Alan Lomax. She told him she composed the songs based on texts from a ballad book.

By curious coincidence Aunt Molly Jackson's tune is similar to the traditional tune Joe Rae (1937–2019) of Ayrshire, Scotland, used for Achnachie Gordon. Joe told Mike Yates in 2001 that his grandfather, John Rogerson, learned Achnachie Gordon in South Africa, where it was sung by a fellow Gordon Highlander sometime during the Boer War.

Robert B. Waltz on the Mudcat Café Forum kindly pointed out an observation by William Bernard McCarthy on Child 239's unusual stanza pattern for me. Standard ballad meter is 4343 rhymed xaxa. Child 239 is 4444 rhymed aabb. The peculiar stanza pattern of Child 239 lends itself to such a tune. Perhaps both sources recalled and borrowed from another tune that follows this pattern. We may presume that the similarity with Joe Rae's tune is a coincidence. The 2nd half of Nic Jones' folk revival tune for "Annachie Gordon" also resembles both tunes unless my ears are failing me. The "Buchan's bonny" part is different, but when Nic Jones sings "For Annachie Gordon, oh he's bonny and he's braw", that's similar. Nic Jones adapted the Child 239 tune found in Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs.

Joe Rae's "Achnachie Gordon" can be heard here:
https://archives.vwml.org/songs/RoudFS/S227171
Recorded by Mike Yates at Joe's home in Bigholm, Ayrshire, Scotland, on April 12, 2001. From the CD "The Broom Blooms Bonny" (2001) Musical Traditions MTCD313. Previously printed in Sheila Douglas' "Come Gie's a Sang" (1995) pp.4-5.

Joe's text follows Child 239, Version A, from Peter Buchan's "Ballads of the North of Scotland", II, 133, 1828, closely, leaving out a few incomplete and inessential stanzas.

Archie D. - Sung by Aunt Molly Jackson (Mary Magdalene Garland Stewart Jackson Stamos) (1880–1960) of Clay County, Kentucky. She learned songs from her great-grandmother, Nancy MacMahan, at an early age and was also known to write her own songs and arrange ballads from print. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in New York on May 27, 1939.

Part 1:

Archie D. was beautiful and easy on the eye
He tempted all the women they could not pass him by.
He tempted every woman, just as he tempted me
I'll die if I don't get my lover Archie D.

Up spake her old father as he walked by the door
Oh Jean my darling...

Up stepped her old father as he passed by the door
Oh Jean you're playing the tricks of a whore
You are caring for a man that cares little for thee
You must marry Bill Shelton and forget Archie D..

To marry Bill Shelton, I'd rather be dead
I'd rather marry my Archie and beg for my bread
Oh Jean you're foolish, you don't understand
Bill Shelton has money and a lot of free land.

You have money for yourself Jean and land and money to give me
But you'll never have nothing if you marry Archie D..
But I love Archie, and Archie he loves me
I'll die if I don't get my lover Archie D..

Then up spoke her father, he spake in renown
Saying cheer up my daughter, get on your wedding gown
Go marry Bill Shelton for ten thousand pounds
Oh cheer up my darling and get on your wedding gown.

Part 2:

...ready my daughter and led through the town
Than marry Bill Shelton...

Get ready my daughter and go to town with me
And marry Bill Shelton and forget this Archie D..
I'll marry no man but my love Archie D.
For I dearly love Archie and I know he loves me.

Yes I dearly love Archie and I know he loves me
And I'll die if I don't get my love Archie D..
Jean sat in her chamber and closed up her door
Saying farewell dear father you shall see me no more.

Archie may be drownded in the blue briny sea
I'll die if I can't get my love Archie D..
I'm sure I can never be Archie D.'s wife
So I have decided to end my own life.

That evening young Archie come home from the sea
And asked one of her maidens where Jeannie might be
She has destroyed her life sir because she loved thee
She destroyed her life for the love of Archie D..

Oh this is a pity oh this is a sin
Please take me to the chamber that my darling died in
Then she led him to the chamber where Jean Gordon lay
He kissed her pale lips as cold as the clay.

Saying I always intended to make her my wife
Then he kneeled down by the side of her and ended his own life.

Joe Rae's "Achnachie Gordon" for comparison:

Achnachie Gordon is bonny and braw,
He would tempt ony woman that ever he saw.
He would tempt ony woman, sae has he tempted me,
And I'll dee if I getna my love Achnachie.

In comes her faither skipping on the floor,
Says, "Jeannie, you are trying the tricks of a whore.
Ye're carin for them that cares naething for thee.
Ye maun mairry Saltoun, forget Achnachie."

"Achnachie Gordon he is but a man,
Although he be pretty, whaur lies his free land?
Saltoun's houms[*] they lie bonny, his toors they stand hie,
Ye maun mairry Saltoun, forget Achnachie."

"Ye that are my parents to church may me bring,
But unto young Saltoun I'll ne'er bear a son.
For son or for daughter I'll ne'er bow my knee,
And I'll dee if I getna my love Achnachie."

When Jeannie was mairrit from church was brocht hame,
When wi aa her maidens sae merry should hae been.
When wi aa her maidens sae merry should hae been,
She's called for a chamber to weep there her lane.

"Come to your bed, Jeannie, my honey and my sweet,
For to style you mistress, I do not think it meet."
"Mistress or Jeannie, it is aa yin tae me,
For it's in your bed, Saltoun, I never will be."

Then oot spak her faither, he spak with renown,"
Some o' you that are her maidens, ye'll loose aff her goun.
Some o' you that are her maidens, ye'll loose aff her goun,
And I'll mend the mairriage wi ten thousand croon."

Then yin o' her maidens they loosed aff her goun,
But bonny Jeannie Gordon she fell in a swoon.
She fell in a swoon low down by their knee,
Sayin, "Look on, I dee for my love Achnachie."

That very same mornin Miss Jeannie did dee,
Aye and hame come Achnachie, hame frae the sea.
Her faither and mither welcomed him at the yett,
He said, "Where's Miss Jeannie that she's nae here yet?"

Then forth come her maidens all wringing their hauns,
Sayin, "Alas for your staying sae lang frae the land.
Sae lang frae the land and sae lang frae the fleed,
They hae wadded your Jeannie and noo she is deid."

"Some o' you that are maidens, tak me by the haund,
An show me the chamber that Jeannie dee'd in."
He's kissed her cauld lips that were caulder than stane,
An he's dee'd in the chamber that Jeannie dee'd in.

[*] houms = low-lying land by a river

The original recording of Aunt Molly Jackson's "Archie D." can be found here:
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1458
And here (the recording is split in two parts):
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1460

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 05 Aug 25 - 07:26 PM

I don't have much of an opinion on this, but one point that's noteworthy is that Child 239 has a very unusual stanza pattern. (This isn't my observation; it's William Bernard McCarthy's.) Standard ballad meter is 4343 rhymed xaxa. Child 239 is 4444 rhymed aabb.

Is there another tune that scans 4444 and rhymes aabb? It might be that all these sources are remembering and borrowing from that tune.

Subject: RE: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Kevin W. aka Reynard the Fox on Youtube
Date: 05 Aug 25 - 03:38 PM

It seems obvious that Aunt Molly Jackson's "Archie D." is one of her ballad recreations, not a text learned from tradition. But how can it be that her and Joe Rae's tunes for this ballad are so similar?

To make matters more complicated the 2nd half of Nic Jones' folk revival tune for "Annachie Gordon" also resembles both tunes unless my ears are failing me. The "Buchan's bonny" part is different, but when Nic Jones sings "For Annachie Gordon, oh he’s bonny and he’s braw", that's similar.

The Liner Notes of Nic Jones' album "The Noah's Ark Trap" (1977) say:
For Annachie Gordon I adapted the tune found in Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs and collated verses from Lord Saltoun & Auchanachie (Buchan’s Ballads of the North of Scotland), Young Annochie (Murison MS), and Lord Saltoun & Annachie (Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs).

So the Child 239 tunes from Aunt Molly Jackson, Joe Rae and Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs are all similar. I wish I had an explanation but this mystery might remain unsolved.

Subject: Origins: Aunt Molly Jackson Archie D. (Child 239)
From: GUEST,Kevin W. aka Reynard the Fox on Youtube
Date: 04 Aug 25 - 12:47 PM

I was checking the Roud Folk Song Index for entries on "Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie" (Child 239) aka "Annachie Gordon". I expected to see Joe Rae's version which he sang in 2001 and the fragments from the Gavin Greig and James Bruce Duncan Collection but I discovered something I previously missed:
https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/s

In the Alan and Elizabeth Lomax Kentucky Collection there's a recording of Aunt Molly Jackson (1880-1960) of Clay County, Kentucky singing a song she called "Archie D.". I did not recognise it as a version of Child 239 previously but that's exactly what it is.

Aunt Molly Jackson was known to arrange songs from a copy of Francis James Child's ballad books she was given by folklorist Tillman Cadle and his wife Mary Elizabeth Barnicle sometime before the Lomaxes recorded her. She sang her own version of "The Birth of Robin Hood" (Child 102) because she liked and could identify with the Robin Hood character, it appealed to her. She adapted it from Child 102, Version B, from Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland (1828). It makes Aunt Molly Jackson's rare ballads non trustworthy. She sang many genuine traditional songs that agree with other Kentucky versions, mind you, but the ones that haven't been recorded from other singers are suspicious.

Now it dawned on me that in the 1939 recording the Lomaxes made she sang her "Archie D." to nearly the same tune Joe Rae (1937-2019) of Ayrshire, Scotland used for "Achnachie Gordon". Joe told Mike Yates in 2001 that his grandfather, John Rogerson, learned "Achnachie Gordon" in South Africa, where it was sung by a fellow Gordon Highlander sometime during the Boer War.

Molly Jackson's 1939 recording wasn't identified as a version of Child 239 in the 90s and earlier when Joe Rae sang "Achnachie Gordon", nor was it easily available for listening. Joe Rae couldn't have learned the tune from Aunt Molly Jackson.

Does that make Aunt Molly Jackson's "Archie D." a genuine traditional version of this exceptionally rare Child Ballad? And does it validate Joe Rae's version as genuinely traditional too?
I have no definitive answer but I love folk song mysteries like that. It'd be worth comparing the tunes for Child 239 in the Greig-Duncan Collection.

If you're interested, Aunt Molly Jackson's "Archie D." can be heard here:
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1458
And here (the recording is split in two parts):
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1460
Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in New York on May 27, 1939.

And Joe Rae's "Achnachie Gordon" is on my Youtube channel, here:
https://youtu.be/dWDiwSsK8rI
Recorded by Mike Yates at Joe's home in Bigholm, Ayrshire, Scotland on April 12, 2001. From the CD "The Broom Blooms Bonny" (2001) Musical Traditions MTCD313. Previously printed in Sheila Douglas' "Come Gie's a Sang" (1995) pp.4-5.

I've transcribed "Archie D." here:

Part 1:

Archie D. was beautiful and easy on the eye
He tempted all the women they could not pass him by.
He tempted every woman, just as he tempted me
I'll die if I don't get my lover Archie D.

Up spake her old father as he walked by the door
Oh Jean my darling...

Up stepped her old father as he passed by the door
Oh Jean you're playing the tricks of a whore
You are caring for a man that cares little for thee
You must marry Bill Shelton and forget Archie D..

To marry Bill Shelton, I'd rather be dead
I'd rather marry my Archie and beg for my bread
Oh Jean you're foolish, you don't understand
Bill Shelton has money and a lot of free land.

You have money for yourself Jean and land and money to give me
But you'll never have nothing if you marry Archie D..
But I love Archie, and Archie he loves me
I'll die if I don't get my lover Archie D..

Then up spoke her father, he spake in renown
Saying cher up my daughter, get on your wedding gown
Go marry Bill Shelton for ten thousand pounds
Oh cheer up my darling and get on your wedding gown.

Part 2:

...ready my daughter and led through the town
Than marry Bill Shelton...

Get ready my daughter and go to town with me
And marry Bill Shelton and forget this Archie D..
I'll marry no man but my love Archie D.
For I dearly love Archie and I know he loves me.

Yes I dearly love Archie and I know he loves me
And I'll die if I don't get my love Archie D..
Jean sat in her chamber and closed up her door
Saying farewell dear father you shall see me no more.

Archie may be drownded in the blue briny sea
I'll die if I can't get my love Archie D..
I'm sure I can never be Archie D.'s wife
So I have decided to end my own life.

That evening young Archie come home from the sea
And asked one of her maidens where Jeannie might be
She has destroyed her life because she loved thee
She destroyed her life for the love of Archie D..

Oh this is a pity oh this is a sin
Please take me to the chamber that my darling died in
Then she led him to the chamber where Jean Gordon lay
He kissed her pale lips as cold as the clay.

Saying I always intended to make her my wife
Then he kneeled down by the side of her and ended his own life.

And Joe Rae's "Achnachie Gordon" here:

Achnachie Gordon is bonny and braw,
He would tempt ony woman that ever he saw.
He would tempt ony woman, sae has he tempted me,
And I'll dee if I getna my love Achnachie.

In comes her faither skipping on the floor,
Says, "Jeannie, you are trying the tricks of a whore.
Ye're carin for them that cares naething for thee.
Ye maun mairry Saltoun, forget Achnachie."

"Achnachie Gordon he is but a man,
Although he be pretty, whaur lies his free land?
Saltoun's houms[*] they lie bonny, his toors they stand hie,
Ye maun mairry Saltoun, forget Achnachie."

"Ye that are my parents to church may me bring,
But unto young Saltoun I'll ne'er bear a son.
For son or for daughter I'll ne'er bow my knee,
And I'll dee if I getna my love Achnachie."

When Jeannie was mairrit from church was brocht hame,
When wi aa her maidens sae merry should hae been.
When wi aa her maidens sae merry should hae been,
She's called for a chamber to weep there her lane.

"Come to your bed, Jeannie, my honey and my sweet,
For to style you mistress, I do not think it meet."
"Mistress or Jeannie, it is aa yin tae me,
For it's in your bed, Saltoun, I never will be."

Then oot spak her faither, he spak with renown,"
Some o' you that are her maidens, ye'll loose aff her goun.
Some o' you that are her maidens, ye'll loose aff her goun,
And I'll mend the mairriage wi ten thousand croon."

Then yin o' her maidens they loosed aff her goun,
But bonny Jeannie Gordon she fell in a swoon.
She fell in a swoon low down by their knee,
Sayin, "Look on, I dee for my love Achnachie."

That very same mornin Miss Jeannie did dee,
Aye and hame come Achnachie, hame frae the sea.
Her faither and mither welcomed him at the yett,
He said, "Where's Miss Jeannie that she's nae here yet?"

Then forth come her maidens all wringing their hauns,
Sayin, "Alas for your staying sae lang frae the land.
Sae lang frae the land and sae lang frae the fleed,
They hae wadded your Jeannie and noo she is deid."

"Some o' you that are maidens, tak me by the haund,
An show me the chamber that Jeannie dee'd in."
He's kissed her cauld lips that were caulder than stane,
An he's dee'd in the chamber that Jeannie dee'd in.

[*] houms = low-lying land by a river

Joe's text follows Child 239, Version A, from Buchan's "Ballads of the North of Scotland", II, 133, 1828, almost word for word. Neatly leaving out a few incomplete and inessential stanzas. And he did sing ballads from print such as "The Daemon Lover":
https://youtu.be/07ehDDFQZaA

But from what I've read people trusted his word on where he learned his songs. Joe wasn't known to be dishonest about ballad sources.

The problem with traditional singers like Aunt Molly Jackson is that once they're exposed as being dishonest about where they learned their songs their entire song repertoire becomes suspicious which leads to cases where a possibly genuine, valueable song is quickly disregarded as an arrangement from print.

Not that arrangements from print are bad. But they are meaningless to folklore researchers. They can't teach us anything new about the oral tradition of the song and might invalidate honest research.

In fact there was another rare ballad Aunt Molly Jackson sang, "Lady Diamond" (Child 269). This time we can hear in the recording she was honest about learning it from print. I wish Alan Lomax had asked the same question for "Archie D.".

The recording can be heard here:
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1454
And here:
https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/1455

I've transcribed it here:

Part 1:

There was a king in olden times
A king of wealth and fame
He had one child, a beautiful girl
And Nancy was her name.

This king he had a kitchen boy
And William was his name
He fell in love with the King's young daughter
And brought her body to shame.

When the nightingale sang in the tree
And the beasts lay down to rest
This kitchen boy lay between Lady Nancy's [thighs]
And her head lay on her breast.

When he went into Lady Nancy's room
They pulled her curtains down
Then they both did lay in Lady Nancy's bed
To sport and play around.

Lady Nancy went out in the garden one day
To take a walk alone
Her father saw [by his lovely daughter's form]
She walked in a [familiar] way.

Oh Nancy my child come tell me true
Who done this thing to thee
Was it some lord in London town
Or a baron of high degree?

It was no lord in London town
Or no baron of high degree
It was fair Willie your kitchen boy
I've no cause to lie to thee.
For I love bonnie William he's all my heart
And I know that he loves me.

I shall kill this fair bonnie boy, he said
For doing this thing to thee
Oh do not kill my bonnie fair love
Before you first kill me.

Then the King took out his kitchen boy
And killed him on the plain
His hair was like the strands of gold
His eyes like crystal stream.

Farewell, farewell, Lady Nancy
Farewell, farewell, said he
Our love has caused us much pain
Farewell my love to thee.

Then the King cut out fair William's heart
And put it in a cup of gold
Take that to Lady Nancy's [room then]
For she is careless and bold.

Part 2:

[Spoken: For she is careless and bold?]

Then she washed her true love's heart with tears
That fell from her deep blue eyes
Then all the town's folk gathered all around
To hear her fearful moan/cries.

Oh fare you well my father the King
You destroyed my pride and joy
Since he died for me I shall die for him
This bonnie young kitchen boy.

I have made cruel the King he said
My child, your love to blame
For there's never been such a beautiful boy
As the boy that I've just now slain.

There never has been such a fair young man
As the man I've just now slain
There is nothing too cruel for a King to do
When madness turns his brain.

You should burn for this, my father the King
For taking my love from me
For he was the father of my unborn babe
You have destroyed all three.
For I'm going to curse my painful heart
For I'm going to curse my painful heart
Then my babe will die in me.

Then she stepped into her own bedroom
And quietly closed the door
Saying farewell my cruel old father, the King
My voice you should hear no more.

Then she picked up her own penknife
And pierced it through her heart
Saying go bury me in the arms of my own true love
Do not bury us apart.

Then the King called his servantmen
And told them what to do
Bury Nancy and William breast to breast
And their baby 'tween the two.

[Spoken: Where'd you learn that song? I learned it from the English Poems book about the Kings of England and things like that and I composed the song from the words, from the story.]

(The words in brackets I wasn't certain on)

A traditional version of "Lady Diamond" can be heard here:
https://youtu.be/qoS3n3HBOX0

This is "Lady Daisy", sung by Mary Stewart Robertson, a Traveller of New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland for James Madison Carpenter in 1932. She learned the song from her mother.

I've transcribed it here:

There wis a king, an' a gey merry king,
An' a merry king wis he;
He had an only dochter dear,
An' Daisy wis her name, name,
An' Daisy wis her name.

There wis a boy loved about this house,
Young Roger wis his name,
An' he wouldna keep fae Daisy's room
Till he brocht her body tee shame, shame,
Till he brocht her body tee shame.

Her father went up tee Daisy's room,
...
...
Said, "Tee me ye'll tell nae lee, lee,
Tee me ye'll tell nae lee.

"Is it till a laird? or is it till a lord?
Or is it till a man o fame?"
"No bet it's tee young Roger, the pretty kitchie boy;
What occasion hae I ti lee.

"For his hair hings doon like the threeds o gowd,
An' his teeth like the ivory bone;
His hair hings doon like the threeds o gowd,
An' his eyes like the marble stone."

The king call't oot his merry merry men,
He's call't them by twa's an' by three's,
An' they've taen young Roger, the pretty kitchie boy,
An' they've dashed his heid tee a tree.

An' she's taen up his gay gowd ring,
An' pit it below her heid,
An' washed it wi the tears o her ees,
Bet or meenlicht she wis deid, deid,
Bet or meenlicht she wis deid.