Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Archie D. / Achnachie Gordon / Lord Salton / Annachie Gordon / Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie (Child No. 239) - 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.
Note by Kevin W.:
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.
Joe Rae's "Achnachie Gordon" can be heard here:
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.
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.
Song transcription:
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.
...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.
Archie D. / Achnachie Gordon / Lord Salton / Annachie Gordon / Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie (Child No. 239) - 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.
Note by Kevin W.:
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.
Joe Rae's "Achnachie Gordon" can be heard here:
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.
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.
Song transcription:
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.
...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.
