Index of Child Ballads

Child #	Child Title	Tunebook Title
1	Riddles Wisely Expounded	The Devil's Nine Questions
2	The Elfin Knight (Scarborough Fair)	Scarborough Fair
3	The False Knight Upon the Road	The False Knight Upon the Road
4	Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight	Lady Isabel
7	Earl Brand	Earl Brand
10	The Twa Sisters	The Two Sisters (Wind and Rain) The Two Sisters (Bow Down)
11	The Cruel Brother	The Cruel Brother
12	Lord Randall	Lord Randall
13	Edward	Edward
14	Babylon or The Bonnie Banks o' Fordie	Three Young Ladies
16	Sheath and Knife	Sheath and Knife
18	Sir Lionel	Old Bangum
20	The Cruel Mother	The Cruel Mother
26	The Three Ravens	The Twa Corbies
30	Lord Lovell	Lord Lovell
32	King Henry	King Henry
35	Allison Gross	Allison Gross
44	The Two Magicians	The Two Magicians
46	Captain Wedderburns Courtship	Captain Wedderburn's Courtship
49	The Two Brothers	The Two Brothers
51	Lizzie Wan	Lizzie Wan
53	Young Beichan	Lord Bateman
54	The Cherry-Tree Carol	The Cherry-Tree Carol
56	Dives and Lazarus	Dives and Lazarus
68	Young Hunting	Young Hunting
73	Lord Thomas and Annet	Lord Thomas
74	Fair Margaret and Sweet William	Fair Margaret and Sweet William Lady Margaret
75	Lord Lovell	Lord Lovell
76	Lord Gregory	The Lass of Loch Royal
78	The Unquiet Grave	The Unquiet Grave
79	The Wife of Usher's Well	Lady Gay
81	Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard	Mattie Groves
84	Bonny Barbara Allen	Barbara Allen (1) Barbara Allen (2)
85	Lady Alice (Giles Collins)	George Collins
93	Lamkin	Lamkin
105	The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington	The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington
110	The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter	Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
113	The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry	Great Silkie
167	Andrew Bartin (Henry Martyn)	Henry Martin
170	The Death of Queen Jane	The Death of Queen Jane
173	Mary Hamilton	Mary Hamilton
200	The Gypsy Laddie	The Wraggle-taggle Gypsies
209	Geordie	Geordie
217	The Broom of Cowdenknows	Broom, The Bonny, Bonny Broom
243	James Harris (The Daemon Lover)	The House Carpenter
250	Henry Martyn (Andrew Bartin)	Henry Martin
274	Our Goodman	Five Nights Drunk
278	The Farmer's Curst Wife	The Farmer's Curst Wife
279	The Jolly Beggar	The Jolly Beggar
286	The Sweet Trinity	The Golden Vanity
299	The Trooper and Maid	The Trooper and Maid

Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry. In 1876 he was named Harvard's first Professor of English, a position which allowed him to focus on academic research. It was during this time that he began work on the Child Ballads. Child's work The English and Scottish Popular Ballads was published between 1882 and 1898, at first in ten parts (the tenth, posthumously) and then in five quarto volumes. It was for a long time the authoritative treasury of the subject. The "English" and "Scottish" of the title notwithstanding, it was an international piece of research, with references that include thirty different language sources. While Child was primarily a literary scholar with little interest in the music of the ballads, his work became a major contribution to the study of English-language folk music. Further research into traditional ballads was conducted by Bertrand Bronson whose book Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads was published by Princeton University Press in four large volumes between 1959 and 1972. The material for Child's book was mostly derived from texts in previously published books. Most of the ballad texts were derived from The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (sometimes known as Reliques of Ancient Poetry or simply Percy's Reliques), a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Bishop Thomas Percy and published in 1765.

Last updated: by Darryl Bush