Three brothers in Scotland cast lots to determine which of them shall rob on the sea to maintain them. The lot falls on the youngest, Henry Martyn, A, B; Robin Hood, C; Andrew Bodee, D. The pirate meets and stops an English ship the very first day (third, A b; fifth, B, C). There is a brisk fight, and the English ship is sunk by shot, A, B. She is plundered and then scuttled, C. In A a, Henry Martyn gets a deep wound and falls by the mast.
The ballad must have sprung from the ashes of ‘Andrew Barton,’ of which name Henry Martyn would be no extraordinary corruption. Only one copy, A a, preserves the trait of Barton’s death, an incident not quite in keeping with the rest of the story of the new ballad.
Robin Hood, C, is always at the service of any ballad-monger who wants a name for his hero. But it will be remembered that he is credited with taking a French ship in ‘The Noble Fisherman,’ No 148, and that is enough to explain his appearance here. ‘Andrew Bodee’ may just conceivably be a corruption of Andrew Wood, who displaces Patrick Spens in two versions of No 58 (A b, D). Motherwell knew of a copy in which the hero was called Roberton: MS., p. 660.
A
Taken down by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. a. From Matthew Baker, an old cripple, Lew Down, Devon. b. From Roger Luxton, an old man at Halwell, North Devon.
1
In merry Scotland, in merry Scotland
There lived brothers three;
They all did cast lots which of them should go