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My parents reared me tenderly and good learning gave to me,
They bound me 'prentice to a miller to which I did agree,
Till I fell in love with a pretty girl with a dark and a rolling eye,
I told her I would marry her if she would with me lie.
I courted her for six long months, a little now and then,
How shamed I was to marry her I was so young a man,
Till at length this fair girl proved with child and unto me did cry,
Oh Jimmy dear, come marry me, or else for you I'll die."
I rod' unto her sister's house about eight o'clock that night,
But little did that poor girl think I owed her any spite.
I askèd her to take a walk down in the meadows gay,
And there we'd sit and talk a while and fix our wedding day.
In taking a stake of hewn ash I fell her to the ground,
And soon the blood of innocence came trinkling from her wounds.
Now with the blood of innocence my hands and clothes are dyed,
Instead of being a breathless corpse I wish she were my bride.
I rod' unto my master's house about twelve o'clock that night,
My master he arose and for me he struck a light.
He askèd me and he questioned me what stained my hands and clothes,
And this to him I answered ready, "It's the bleeding of my nose."
I callèd for a candle to light myself to bed,
And knowing at that same time my true love she lay dead.
And now with the blood of innocence my hands and clothes are dyed,
Instead of being a breathless corpse I wish she were my bride.
This cruelty is known by all, for this pretty girl was found
A-floating by her brother's door in fair Worcester town.
When I was take prisoner both judge and jury agreed
For murdering of my own true love that hangèd I must be.
Collected in 1959 from Mrs. Charlotte Decker of Parson's Pond, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, pp.638-639, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
My father 'prenticed me a miller boy,
Good learning gave to me,
Till I fell a-courting of a fair pretty girl
At the age of twenty-three.
I courted her for several months,
A little now and then,
Till I felt ashamed for to marry her
For I being so young a man.
I said, "My dear, let's take a walk
Down by some meadow gay,
It's there we'll sit together
And plan our wedding day."
Collected in 1960 from Jim Keeping of Burnt Islands, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, p.640, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
Kenneth Peacock noted that for Irish variants of this murder ballad see The Wexford Girl. The Worcester Tragedy and The Miller Boy fragment appear to be based on an English broadside of about 1700 entitled The Berkshire Tragedy; or, The Wittam Miller. Variant A is much closer to the original than either of the Irish variants, which omit the young man's occupation and the reason for the murder ("by you I am with chid"). Another possible source or influence is another English broadside describing a similar murder which took place in Reading in 1774.
