Flow Gently, Sweet Afton: A Song History

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"Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" takes its words from Robert Burns's song "Afton Water," named for a small river that rises in the south of New Cumnock parish in Ayrshire and runs north through Glen Afton into the Nith[1]. Burns first sent the verses to Mrs Dunlop with a letter dated 5 February 1789[2], offering them as his compliment to the river[3]. In 1791 the song, as "Sweet Afton," was one of thirteen poems in the Afton Manuscript he gave to Mrs Stewart of Stair[2], whose estates included Afton[4]; the manuscript is now in the collections of the National Trust for Scotland[2]. The Ballad Index, citing Maurice Lindsay's Burns Encyclopedia, reports that the early editor Currie took the song as a compliment to Mrs Stewart as well as the river, and that Gilbert Burns named its Mary as Mary Campbell; Lindsay judged that the 1789 letter favours the river[3]. Burns intended the song for James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum[2]; the sources consulted here date its printing there to 1792[5] or 1793[3].

Hand-colored lithograph of Robert Burns seated beside Highland Mary under trees by a stream

Nathaniel Currier, Robert Burns and His Highland Mary, hand-colored lithograph, 1846. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A popular American print of Burns; whether the Mary of “Afton Water” is this Mary is disputed.

Several tunes have carried the words. The Traditional Tune Archive says Burns's own air was later displaced by one composed in 1850 by Alexander Hume of Edinburgh[5], while the Ballad Index names as the common melody the setting by Jonathan Edwards Spilman[3] (1812–1896), a Kentucky lawyer who later became a minister[6]. "Flow Gently Sweet Afton: A Ballad," with music by J. E. Spilman, was published by George Willig of Philadelphia in 1838[7][8]. Kentucky's historical marker says he wrote the music as a law student at Transylvania in 1837[6], while an Illinois marker in Carmi, where he later became a Presbyterian pastor, gives 1836[9].

Spilman's melody also found a place in church. Hymnary.org indexes it, as AFTON WATER, in 93 hymnals dated from 1845 to 2006 and links it to the carol "Away in a Manger"; the 2006 Evangelical Lutheran Worship still sets the carol to it[10].

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Sources

  1. New Cumnock History: "Afton Water".
  2. National Trust for Scotland Collections: "Sweet Afton -- A Song".
  3. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Flow Gently Sweet Afton".
  4. New Cumnock History: "Catherine Gordon Stewart".
  5. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Afton Water".
  6. Kentucky Historical Society: "Jonathan E. Spilman" (Marker 1202).
  7. The Morgan Library & Museum: "Flow gently sweet Afton: a ballad".
  8. Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection (Johns Hopkins): "J. E. Spilman".
  9. Illinois State Historical Society: "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (historical marker).
  10. Hymnary.org: "AFTON WATER (Spilman)".