"The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" is a traditional

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

folk song. It is numbered as Child ballad 105, and as

Roud number The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

483.

Synopsis

The ballad concerns a young

squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Use of the term evolved over time. Initially, a squire served as a knight's apprentice. Later, a village leader or a lord of the manor might come to be known as a ...

's son who falls in love with a bailiff's daughter from Islington, to the north of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. This is considered to be an unsuitable pairing, so his family dispatches him to the City. There a seven-year

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

affords him worldly success, although servitude sharpens his ardour for the maiden he once knew. The bailiff's family falls on hard times. The daughter survives, but is alone, and one day on a roadside encounters the well-beloved youth. She begs a penny. In reply, he asks: "I prithee, sweetheart, canst thou tell me / Where that thou wast born?"; and does she know of the bailiff's daughter of Islington? "She's dead, sir, long ago", the girl asserts sorrowfully. The youth is heartbroken and offhandedly pledges the girl his horse and

tack TACK is a group of archaea acronym for Thaumarchaeota (now Nitrososphaerota), Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), and Korarchaeota, the first groups discovered. They are found in different environments ranging from acidophilic th ...

, for he feels like nothing but departing into exile. She cries: "O stay, O stay, thou goodly youth! / She's alive, she is not dead; / Here she standeth by thy side, And is ready to be thy bride."

First editions

The earliest known text was published (as a broadside) by Phillip Brooksby between 1683 and 1696. The tune dates from 1731 (ballad opera, ''The Jovial Crew'').

Recordings

The song was recorded by such performers as Albert Beale, Tony Wales. One celebrated recording was by Owen Brannigan and

Elizabeth Harwood Elizabeth Harwood (27 May 1938 – 22 June 1990) was an English lyric soprano. After a music school, she enjoyed an operatic career lasting for over two decades and worked with such conductors as Colin Davis and Herbert von Karajan. She was ...

under Sir

Charles Mackerras Mackerras in 2005 Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Engli ...

in 1964. It found considerable success in Japan. A version by

Jon Rennard Jon Rennard (1946 — 29 July 1971) was an English folksinger who recorded two record albums of traditional material as well as his own songs. Biography Born in 1946, Jon Rennard was a folksinger based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Rennard was app ...

was included on his album '' Brimbledon Fair'' (1970).

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