Pretty Polly- Jarrell (WV) 1858 Cox II, B
[From: Traditional Ballads & Folk Songs Mainly from West Virginia- John Harrington Cox- 1939 Edited by George Herzog and Herbert Halpert 1939 and George Boswell, 1964. Their notes follow.
Quite a story goes with this version. Jarrell's father takes this ballad back to the mid-1850s. It's easy to imagine how this ballad could be attributed to a similar murder of another Polly, Polly Anderson. This ballad's text has been attached to the '"One Morning in May" song form which includes "The Nightingale" and "The Grenadier and the Lady."
R. Matteson 2016]
17B - PRETTY POLLY
(Polly's Love or The Cruel Ship Carpenter)
Contributed by Mr. J. M. Jarrell, Kichsville, Wayne County, September 29, 1926, who writes "This song was composed about Polly Aldridge, who was a native of West Virginia. She was killed during the childhood days of my father, or possibly a few years before his birth. He is now seventy-six years old and sang this song during his early boyhood days. She was murdered by William Chapnen, who at first tried to swar the orime off on the girl's brother, George Aldridge, but his efforts were futile and he was tried in what ls now Martin County, Kentuoky, and put to death. He confessed, after he was convicted, of taking the girl from West Virginia to a Ltttle Creek called Buck Creek, near Fairfield, Kentucky, and killing her, then splitting her abdomen open, filling hor full of rooks, and puttlng her in Sug Rlver. She was trailed by strings she tore off of her dress and threw along the path she was forced to go."
1. One morning, one morning, one morning in May,
As the wind blow northeast from the sea,
The hillside was covered with pretty girls all round,
Up steps a young man taking one by the hand,
Saying, "Polly, O Polly, O Polly," says he,
"I have come for to grieve and for you to marry me."
2. "Willie, O Willie, O Willie," says she,
"I'm too little, too young to be married to thee."
He took her by the hand saying, "There is one more plan."
He led her over valleys and mountains so high
He led her a little farther and she began to spy
A newly dug grave and the spade standing by.
3. She threw her arms around him and she began to cry,
Saying, "Willie, O Willie, O Willie," says she,
"How could you kill this poor girl who loves you so well as I?"
He pulled out her breast as white as any snow;
The tears from her eyes like the fountain did flow;
He pulled out his knive[1] and the blood began to flow.
4. To the bottom of the grave her poor body did go,
There's as handsome a woman as over the sun shone on
The ocean, the ocean, the ocean is wide,
He swore by his maker he'd sail tho other
He had not been traveling but three weeks
Willie was arrested and to the gallows did go.