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Gil Brenton / Lord Bangwell’s Adventure

[ Roud 22 ; Child 5 ; Ballad Index C005 ; DT GILBRENT ; Mudcat 15301 ; trad.]

David Herd: Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. James Kinsley: The Oxford Book of Ballad Emily B. Lyle: Andrew Crawfurd’s Collection of Ballads and Songs Sigrid Rieuwerts: The Ballad Repertoire of Anna Gordon, Mrs Brown of Falkland Sir Walter Scott: Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

Andrew Crawfurd and William Motherwell collected Lord Bangwell’s Adventure from Mary Macqueen (Mrs. William Storrie, 1786-1854) of Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire in between 1826 and 1828. It was printed in 1997 in Emily B. Lyle’s book Andrew Crawfurd’s Collection of Ballads and Songs. Jo Miller sang Lord Bangwell’s Adventure on the accompanying Scottish Text Society cassette Mary Macqueen’s Ballads.

Hammered dulcimer player Cammi Vaughan from Tucson played the tune of Gil Brenton on her 2005 album Lass of Roch Royal.

Nancy Kerr sang Gil Brenton to her own tune in April 2021 on the Sheffield Live programme Thank Goodness It’s Folk in their “Friday’s Child” series going through the Child ballads week by week.

Nancy Kerr also sang Gil Brenton as the title track of The Magpie Arc’s December 2025 album Gil Brenton.

Lyrics

Nancy Kerr sings Gil Brenton

There were three sisters in one hall
Bow down, bow down
And I the flower of them all
Bow down you lofty tree

Unto the greenwood I did go
To pick the cherry and the sloe

And by there came such a fine young man
His hair was of the gold so grand

He seemed to me like some royal son
But he kept me there so long, so long

He kept me there so long, so long
Till maids of morning sang their song

We were sisters, we were seven
We were the fairest under heaven
We weaved for seven year’s to work
To shape and sew the King’s son’s sark
After seven year’s are done
He’s off unto the greenwood gone

He kept me there from night till morn
When bitter frosts did greet the dawn

He kept me there from dawn till day
Till buck and doe did cease their play

And when at last his play was done
And he left me lying there alone

A lock of hair of the gold so grand
Was clasped so tightly in my right hand

Gil Brenton he sent o’er the foam
He’s bought a wife and he’s brought her home
She’s dressed herself in the finest pall
But still she let the tears downfall

O is your saddle set awry
And that’s what makes you to mourn and cry?
Or is your stirrup set to side
And so you weep and you cannot ride?

It’s not my steed that gives me strife
But that I must be Gil Brenton’s wife
For Brenton’s bride if she be a maid
May settle safely all in his bed

And Brenton’s bride, if she virgin be
May pray for life and for liberty
But seven sisters has Brenton wed
And seven sisters he’s brought to bed
And he’s cut the flesh from their breast bone
And sent all seven mourning home

We were sisters, we were seven
We were the fairest under heaven
Cut we were and battered, bruised
Us disfigured, here misused
Cut we were, and now undone
By bloody handed Gil Brenton

When all were seated at the feast
He laid his hands upon my breast
And how he cursed and how he swore
Behold this base and a common whore

For I have wooed one meek and mild
But gained a woman ripe with child
This maid I took for to be my bride
She has a child between her sides

And while we were at supper sat
The pains they struck me all in my back
And when my baby it was born
It looked just like some noble man

And it was written all on his skin
“It’s true I am Gil Brenton’s kin”

And it was written on his breast bone
“It’s true I am Gil Brenton’s son”

And a lock of hair of the gold so grand
Was clasped so tightly in his right hand

But I shall dress myself in silk
And wash my child in the morning’s milk