The poem is by Joseph Grigg (b. 1720). Ananias Davisson of the Valley of Virginia named and claimed the tune in his Kentucky Harmony (1815). Annabel Morris Buchanan has found a tune with the title ‘Retirement’ in a manuscript tune book which she judges to be from the eighteenth century. No text accompanies the tune, and no source is given. It follows:
A comparison of the two tunes indicates rather plainly that Davisson wrote the tune down from oral tradition, and that his noting was indicative of the manner in which it was actually sung.
No. 98
[PILGRIM], OSH 201
Hexatonic, mode 2 b (I — 3 IV V 6 7)
Come, all ye mourning pilgrims dear,
Who’re bound for Canaan’s land,
Take courage and fight valiantly,
Stand fast with sword in hand.