Ballad of Little Musgrave: History

                       

1930s AAA road sign preserved
on display in the village

The Ballad of Little Musgrave, known in the USA as Matty Groves:

...is a Border ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a man and a woman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. Wikipedia

Our Musgrove surname derives from Musgrave, a family from Great and Little Musgrave in Westmoreland - now incorporated by Cumbria -  on the English/Scottish border. More than just a great old ballad, this is part of our family's oral history. In this series of posts, we attempt to bring that perspective to the Ballad of Little Musgrave.

The Textual Evidence

Anthony Wood 

Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695)...was an English antiquary (a person who studies or collects antiques or rare books ed.). Wood bequeathed his library (127 manuscripts and 970 printed books) to the Ashmolean Museum,...In 1858 the whole collection was transferred to the Bodleian. Wikipedia

The Bodleian is the primary research library of the University of Oxford. Their website hosts three original copies, known as broadsides, of The Ballad of Little Musgrave.

One of the broadsides comes from Wood's collection. On the reverse is an MS note by Wood stating that the protagonists were alive in 1543.

James Child

Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads.

His collection includes fourteen versions of The Ballad of Little Musgrave. All three broadsides on Oxford University's site are based on the third version - 81C - in the Child Ballad collection. They were all printed in the later seventeenth century; circa 1660-80. We take the position the printed versions he collected were edited from the original ballad.

The External Evidence

The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play in five acts by Francis Beaumont (a younger contemporary of Shakespeare ed), first performed at Blackfriars Theatre in 1607.  Wikipedia

Francis Beaumont

In Act V scene III, one of the characters sings the line;

And some they whistled, and some they sung,

"Hey, down, down!"

And some did loudly say,

Ever as the Lord Barnet's horn blew,

"Away, Musgrave, away!"  

This chorus differs from the three printed versions. In 1607, fifty years before the broadsides, an earlier version existed.

This version of the ballad was probably passed down orally.  The expression, "Hey, down, down," is found in many border ballads. It's a timekeeping device used in place of words. Think la-di-da or bee-boppity-doo.

The Historical Background

This study assumes the ballad represents some event and is informed by the 1543 date given by Woods. If true, the lovers in this triangle lived their lives under Henry VIII; known for his Protestant Reformation. This particularly angered the populations on the northern border. Only seven years before 1543, the north borderlands broke out in revolt.

Banner of Five Wounds of Christ
carried on the Pilgrimage of Grace

"The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular uprising that began in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland and north Lancashire, under the leadership of lawyer Robert Aske. The "most serious of all Tudor rebellions", it was a protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church." Wikipedia

The uprising was successful, but the promises given the leader were not kept. Aske couldn't restart the rebellion; it had lost momentum...except in Cumberland and Westmoreland. A revolt broke out there, but King Henry channeled his anger at the earlier uprising onto this area, put down the rebellion and hanged almost two hundred people.

Cuthbert Musgrave

Saint Cuthbert

Our own ancestor* (see relationship notes below), the grandson of the first Cuthbert, Cutbert (no 'h' ) was seventeen years old in 1543. Born about 1526 in Crookdale, Bromfield, Cumbria, England,  he was named for Saint Cuthbert, (born: ca  634 – died: 20 March 687):...

...a monk, bishop, and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in what might loosely be termed the Kingdom of Northumbria, in North East England. Wikipedia

The date of Cutbert Musgrave's death is unknown, but he married twice; first in 1557 and again in 1566.

This post serves as a historical foundation for reading the Ballad of Little Musgrave. In our next post, we'll try to isolate the earliest version of this tale by comparing available texts and try to sort out its original meaning.

We'll end with a reminder of the circumstances in Westmoreland, a part of Cumbria today, seven years before 1543. 

What was the Pilgrimage of Grace? | Tudor Rebellions

Part of a series on The Ballad of Little Musgrave.

1. Distinguished Surname      4. Versions       7   Origin.     
2. Border Reivers                   5.  History        8.  Author               
3. Ballad                                 6. Text              9. Story
                                              10. Minstrels

Have you been following this series on the Ballad of Little Musgrave? Do you have any thoughts on it? Tell me below in the comment section.