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Descriptive Summary

Repository: Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
Location: f
Call No.: MS Eng 1486
Title: Transcripts and notes concerning the "Brown manuscript" of Scottish popular ballads,
Date(s): 1793-1920.
Quantity: 5 v. (.5 linear ft.)
Abstract: Transcripts of the original manuscript of Scottish popular ballads that was furnished to William Tytler by Anna Brown in 1783.

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Acquisition Information:

Historical Note

The original ballad manuscript was produced in 1783 for William Tytler (1711-1792), who was a Scottish antiquarian, lawyer, and historian. The information for the original transcription of ballad text was furnished by the singing and dictation of Mrs. Anna Gordon Brown (d.1810), of Falkland and recorded by her nephew, Robert Eden Scott (1769-1811). Anna Brown was the wife of the Rev. Andrew Brown (d.1805) and the daughter of Professor of Philosophy, Thomas Gordon (1713-1797) of Kings College Aberdeen. Robert Eden Scott was a philosopher and his mother was Elizabeth Scott, daughter of Thomas Gordon and sister of Anna Gordon. The current location of the original manuscript is not known, but for many years, it was in the hands of the Fraser-Tytler family. [See item (5) below for additional information concerning the genealogy of the families involved with these manuscripts].

Some of these transcripts were produced for and collected by American philologist and Harvard professor Francis James Child for his research for: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898). Many of these materials were organized and annotated after Child's death by his protégé, George Lyman Kittredge.

Arrangement

Arranged in chronological order.

Container List

• (1) Ritson, Joseph, 1752-1803, transcriber. Scotish ballads : AMs transcript, [1793 Jan. 19 - 1794 July 17]. 4to. pp.(10), 102 in 1v.
  A copy of a collection of Scottish ballads known as William Tytler's Brown manuscript .
  Acquisition Information: Gift of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, Philadephia, Pa. Received: 1920 Dec. 15.

  Recataloged from: 25241.37.5*
  ccustodhist: Includes bookplates of: Marsden J. Perry, Thomas Galsford, and Joseph Frank.

• f (2) A faithful transcript of popular ballads, written from the recitation of his aunt Mrs. [Anna] Brown of Falkland, for his own amusement by Mr. R[obert Eden] Scott, professor of Greek in King's College, Aberdeen, 1799 : Ms (in unidentified hand) transcript, 1874. 4to. ff. (4), 43, xv. in 1 v.
  Also known as the Jamieson-Brown Ms.
  Includes note by George Lyman Kittredge and table of contents in the hand of Francis James Child, as well as his annotation on the fly-leaf: "This is a copy, made in 1874, of a manuscript which was formerly the property of Robert Jamieson [1780?-1844], and which was lent me by David Laing, Esq., of the Signet Library, Edinburgh."
  Spine title: Popular ballads of Scotland.
  At the end of this volume there are transcript copies of correspondence providing more information about the compilation of these ballad texts and biographical information about the persons involved.
  For additional information see Jamieson's letter to The Scots Magazine, October, 1803, LXV, 697.
  Acquisition Information: Bought with the Subscription fund of 1858; received: 1874 July 3.

  Recataloged from: 25241.15F*
  ccustodhist: Annotated: "Purchased at the sale of the late Mr. Pitcairns, 1855 Dec. 19. Mr. Laing of the Signet Library seemingly desired it. Bought at the sale of the Library of Mr. Adam Sim, of Coulter.

• (3) Lord Woodhouselee's grand-daughter's manuscript: Scottish songs and ballads, probably before 1830 : Ms (in unidentified hand) transcript, ca. 1881. ff.8, p.(2), 121 in 1v.
  Includes AMs by both Francis James Child and George Lyman Kittredge.
  GLK annotation: "... made under the direction of Miss Mary Fraser Tytler (afterwards Mrs. G.F. Watts), but not with her own hand, of a Ms. thus described by Child (Ballads, V, 398): 'Scottish Songs and Ballads, copied probably before 1830 by a granddaughter of Lord Woodhouselee, mostly from print or from A.F. Tytler's Brown Ms., but containing two or three versions of popular ballads not found elsewhere.' " Another GLK annotation states: "The present copy was made ... in 1881. In a letter of Oct. 27 ... Miss Mary Fraser Tytler writes: 'I am having my aunt's collection of Ballads copied for you and will send them as soon as they are ready. ... My aunt married in 1830 and as she lived much abroad afterwards it is most probable that the collection was made before her marriage.'..."
  Mary Fraser Tytler is the niece of the grand-daughter referred to in the title.
  Spine title: Scottish songs and ballads; Woodhouselee manuscript.
  Acquisition Information: Bequest of Francis James Child; received: 1913 Dec. 26.

  Recataloged from: 25241.37*

• (4) Watts, Mary S., transcriber. The Brown ballad manuscript of Alexander Fraser Tytler; copied for Prof. F.J. Child by Miss Mary Fraser Tytler : AMs transcript, 1881. ff.(2), pp.(1), 51 in 1 v.
  A copy of Alexander Fraser Tytler's Brown Ms. containing nine ballads sent to Alexander Fraser Tytler by Mrs. Brown of Falkland. This transcript was made for Professor Francis James Child and includes two ballads that were lost from William Tytler's Brown Ms. and also includes a "tracing copy" to be used to correct errors in the earlier transcript made by Miss Tytler.
  Includes notes by George Lyman Kittredge.
  Spine title: Watts. Brown Ballad Ms.
  Mary S. Watts is Mary Seton Fraser Tytler Watts (1849-1938), the wife of George Frederic Watts.
  Acquisition Information: Bequest of Francis James Child; received: 1913 Dec. 26.

  Recataloged from: 25241.39*

• (5) Kittredge, George Lyman, 1860-1941. Notes on the Ms. of Ballads in the hand of Joseph Ritson (a transcript of William Tytler's Brown Ms.) which was presented to the Harvard College Library by Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach in December 1920, with some remarks on the various Brown MSS. of ballads : AMs, Cambridge, 1920 Dec. 95p. in 1v.
  Acquisition Information: Gift of Professor George Lyman Kittredge; received: 1921 Jan. 21.

  Recataloged from: 25241.37.6*