influential Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie had her family version of the ballad recorded several times, including on her album Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961). Her fellow Appalachian Nimrod Workman sang his own traditional version on different occasions, including on a YouTube video uploaded by the official Alan Lomax archive channel. Other noted Appalachian musicians, such as Aunt Molly Jackson (1935), Eliza Pace (1937), Virgil Sturgill (1958) and Buna Hicks (1961) had traditional versions recorded. The folklorist Helen Hartness Flanders recorded many versions in her native New England, and Canadian collectors including Helen Creighton and Kenneth Peacock recorded several versions in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Text The first four verses of the oldest version of the ballad, 'Young Bicham', Child's Version A, from 1783: (The second verse describes Bicham's captor boring a hole through his shoulder to harness him for use as a draft animal)In London city was Bicham born, He longd strange countries for to see, But he was taen by a savage Moor, Who handld him right cruely. For thro his shoulder he put a bore, An thro the bore has pitten a tree, An he's gard him draw the carts o wine, Where horse and oxen had wont to be. He's casten [him] in a dungeon deep, Where he coud neither hear nor see; He's shut him up in a prison strong, An he's handld him right cruely. O this Moor he had but ae daughter, I wot her name was Shusy Pye; She's doen her to the prison-house, And she's calld Young Bicham one word by. In 1839, the illustrator George Cruikshank published an illustrated book called "The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman", which tells the story of the ballad. This version was close to the popular broadside ballads of the nineteenth century and most of the versions which survived in the oral tradition until the twentieth century. The first four verses of this version (below) can be compared to the older "Young Bicham" version (above).Lord Bateman was a noble lord, A noble lord of high degree; He shipped himself all aboard of a ship, Some foreign country for to see. He sailed east, he sailed west, Until he came to famed Turkey, Where he was taken and put to prison, Until his life was quite weary. All in this prison there grew a tree, O there it grew so stout and strong! Where