Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Little Sir Hugh / The Jew's Daughter (Child No. 155) - Sung by Betsy MacDonald, a Traveller at Forfar, Angus, Scotland. Learned from her husband John MacDonald who got it from his mother. Recorded by Dr. Linda Williamson on August 13, 1975.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/39167?l=en
Compare this to a fragment Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger recorded from Betsy's husband John MacDonald in 1969:
youtube.com/watch?v=hxHp0HSMWVs
Note by Kevin W.:
The anti-Jewish agenda from which this song sprung certainly leaves a bad taste. As for traditional singers, I believe it to be of little relevance to the continued popularity of the song in oral tradition. The appeal lies in the haunting tale of the abduction of a little boy and the supernatural element of the boy speaking to his mother from the well. It is the sort of drama one might find in any modern fantasy novel.
Song transcription:
There was four-and-twenty merry merry boys
They were playing at the ball
When one of these merry merry boys
The best player of them all
For he hit the ball a kick and another with his knee
And he put it through the Jew's window
For she picked an apple of yonder tree
And she picked it fresh and fair
And she wiled him in tae the first braw room
She wiled him in tae two
For she wiled him in tae the third braw room
Where all his heart's blood run
For she put a mantle below his head
And she dressed him like a swan
She put a mantle below his head
Where all his heart's blood run
Now every mother has her son
But poor Sir Hugh's got none
Little Sir Hugh / The Jew's Daughter (Child No. 155) - Sung by Betsy MacDonald, a Traveller at Forfar, Angus, Scotland. Learned from her husband John MacDonald who got it from his mother. Recorded by Dr. Linda Williamson on August 13, 1975.
The original recording can be listened to here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/39167?l=en
Compare this to a fragment Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger recorded from Betsy's husband John MacDonald in 1969:
youtube.com/watch?v=hxHp0HSMWVs
Note by Kevin W.:
The anti-Jewish agenda from which this song sprung certainly leaves a bad taste. As for traditional singers, I believe it to be of little relevance to the continued popularity of the song in oral tradition. The appeal lies in the haunting tale of the abduction of a little boy and the supernatural element of the boy speaking to his mother from the well. It is the sort of drama one might find in any modern fantasy novel.
Song transcription:
There was four-and-twenty merry merry boys
They were playing at the ball
When one of these merry merry boys
The best player of them all
For he hit the ball a kick and another with his knee
And he put it through the Jew's window
For she picked an apple of yonder tree
And she picked it fresh and fair
And she wiled him in tae the first braw room
She wiled him in tae two
For she wiled him in tae the third braw room
Where all his heart's blood run
For she put a mantle below his head
And she dressed him like a swan
She put a mantle below his head
Where all his heart's blood run
Now every mother has her son
But poor Sir Hugh's got none
