A Country love song, together with Tom Bowling:

Virtually the same text of “A Country Love Song” was printed in 1724 in Allan Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany, although for some reason, the tune is not included in Alexander Stuart’s Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection of Scots Songs (Ramsay 2:153). The story is old: a girl complains about her faithless lover, stressing her fidelity to him. Yet when another lover presents himself, she accepts his offer of marriage. The lyrics end with an observation by the narrator: “Most men are like Billy, most women like Sue, / If men will be false, why should women prove true.” The song appeared on early sheet music and in one songster in 1800, and was parodied in several early ballad operas but does not seem to have much currency after that except for its appearance on this broadside (R. Keller, Early American Songsters; Moss 43-47).

“Tom Bowling” appears as “Tom Bowline’s Epitaph” on The Boston Frigate’s Engagement.