ROUD 81: Young Logie

AKA: The Laird o' Logie, The Gallant Laird o' Young Logie, May Collean, The Laird of Ochiltree

The queen pleads for the Laird’s release. From “Stories of the Scottish Border”, Mr and Mrs Platt (1910). Illustration by Morris Meredith Williams

In the late 16th century, there were a number of plots to kidnap and oust James VI of Scotland. Chief among the conspirators was Francis Stewart, the Earl of Bothwell, who was also the king’s cousin. Bothwell led an unruly life of treason, betrayal and violence, culminating in these attempts at capturing King James, and ending up with his expulsion from Scotland and ultimate destitution and demise in Italy.

One character who aided in these attempted acts of treason was John Weymyss, Laird of Logie in North Fife. In 1591, he was part of Bothwell’s attemps at insurrection, and was captured and imprisoned as a result. This ballad is the story of his escape.

Young Logie lets fly a volley of shots from his pistols to signal his escape. With, in the words of Francis Child, “peculiar sagacity”, the king recognises these shots as those of the escaping Laird. From “The Book of Ballads” (1967)

In all known versions of the ballad except one, the crime for which the young Laird is imprisoned is not mentioned - all ballads start with the fact of his imprisonment. In the one version that mentions it, the crime he is supposedly, and harshly, locked up and awaiting execution for is the stealing of a kiss.

That Lady Margaret (actually a Danish noblewoman, Margaret Vinstarr), one of the queen’s servants, helped Weymyss escape is also historically accurate, though the specific details of that assistance does vary between versions of the song. And the final romantic coda, the reuniting of the lovers, is also true, and they married in 1593. What is not recorded in the song was that their joy was relatively shortlived. In 1597, Weymiss was executed in the Middelburg in the Netherlands, where he was accused of plotting to capture a gunpowder tower for the Spanish.

Music

This is a very rarely performed ballad today. There is a playlist, but it contains only one song. But it’s a good one:

Bandoggs were a shortlived folk supergroup, comprising of Pete and Chris Coe, Nic Jones and Tony Rose. They released one album in 1978, toured once and then split up to pursue their solo careers. Considering the trajectory of said careers, this was probably a wise decision, although they did make a beautiful sound when they were all making music together, as evidenced here.

There are a couple of other modern recordings out there. Here is Ewan MacColl, with his unaccompanied version.

And once again Katherine Campbell’s excellent album of songs from the repertoire of Amelia and Jane Harris comes to our rescue with this haunting rendition (this is just a short clip, buy the album for the full song, and many other rare Scots ballads).

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In addition to these relatively modern recordings, a number of rather scratchy but interesting source recordings can be found in the collection of James Madison Carpenter, a Methodist minister and folklore collector from Mississippi. He spent some time in Scotland between 1927 and 1955 and collected some priceless recordings. For this song, he has versions from Leslie Durno, Bell Duncan and Alexander Robb, all from Aberdeenshire.

Sources

If you love reading stuff in the Scots dialect (and who doesn’t) you can read a contemporary account of the story of the real Laird of Logie, written probably around 1596.

As for the history of the song, outside of the characteristically comprehensive commentary by Francis Child, there is little else to find of useful insight - the few other collectors and anthologists merely repeat the true story behind the song, eg. Aytoun, Scott, Chambers, and Motherwell.

The only other observation to be made is the association with the far more famous tale of a woman pleading for her lover’s life - Geordie. There is nothing to suggest that these ballads are related other than a crossover of subject matter, though it’s easy to see why Geordie, a less convoluted and more heartfelt tale (and probably more relatable for a wider range of social classes) became the more popular within the tradition.

Draft pages and Audio Guide