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Oh No Not I

Date April 1952
Track ID 4419
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1952.01.A3

Original Tape ID

SA1952.001

Summary

Song about a man whose advances are rebuffed because of his social class. The man asks the woman to marry him but she refuses, saying her family would be ashamed because of his "low degree". The couple have an encounter nonetheless, and the woman falls pregnant. She then asks him to marry her but he turns her down, reminding her of her earlier refusal.

Learned from Jimmy May, Mains of Coldwells, when Willie Mathieson was about fifteen.

Item Notes

Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 8 verses. Variant of an 18th century broadside, 'No, My Love, Not I', published by J. Evans (London) sometime between 1780 and 1812, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads collection. Several variants are also popular in Newfoundland.

See:
Willie Mathieson's MSS I:18

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Ellon

Village/Place - Ellon

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R1403

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good