The Quaker's Wooing
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-04-21

Day 36 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series  (folksongindex.com)

The Quakers were ever a stubborn people of sweet ways and deep faiths. The men wore  black hats with broad brims, the women wore black bonnets with white facings. Their love-making  may have had some of the rich though simple tinting in this old English tune and verses. Something  about it is as genuine as the wood grain of an unvarnished, black walnut, four-post bed.

This  comes from Miss Harriet Louise Abbott of Bethel, Ohio, as communicated to Mary O. Eddy."

Although several versions listed here mention Quakers in their titles (e.g. Mary O. Eddy, text from Ballads and Song from Ohio, also that printed by Sandburg), their texts make no mention of the Quaker, and so I list them here.

This obviously began life as a ballad, but was collected in New York as a playparty and a singing game.