A Murder Scoundrel- W.A. Ammons (WV) pre1951
[From: West Virginia Folklore - Volumes 2-3, 1951 page 17. This is a version of Oxford Girl with some archaic text at the end taken from an unknown Berkshire reduction. I've added missing text to stanzas 10 and 11. Stanza 17 seems to be a local recreation while stanzas 15 and 16 are unique.
R. Matteson 2016]
A Murder Scoundrel (Oxford Girl) - sung by W. A. Ammons, of Fairview, W. Virginia; communicated by Estelle T. Ammons, 1951 (each stanza was two lines, I've written as four lines).
1. My parents raised me tenderly,
Providing for me still
Until we moved to Oxford Town;
They bound me to a mill.
2. I fell in love with an Oxford girl,
With a black and rolling eye,
I promised her I would marry her,
If she would with me lie.
3. I came unto her Mother's house
At ten o'clock at night;
But little did her mother know
I owed her any spite;
4. I asked for this fair damsel,
To walk a little with me.
To talk about our marriage day,
And point our wedding day,
5. We had not walked but a little way
Out on this lowly plain;
I picked a stake up out of the hedge
and knocked this damsel down.
6. Down on her low and bending knee
for mercy she did cry,
Sayings "Johnnie, dear, don't murder me
For I'm not fit to die."
7. I caught her in her yellow hair
and dragged her all alone[1].
Until I came to [where] the water was deep,
and there I plunged her in.
8. I came back to her mother's house
At twelve o'clock at night
But little did my mother knew
What I had been about.
9. My mother said, "Why, Johnnie, dear,
what stains your hands and clothes?
The answer I made to her,
"Been bleeding at the nose."
10. I asked for a candle
to light myself to bed[2],
[Likewise fro a handkerchief,
To wrap about my head.]
11. But little peace and pleasure
Nor comfort did I find[3],
[I thought I saw the flames of hell,
And in my eyes did shine.]
12. Early the next morning
When this fair damsel was missed;
And I was apprehended,
Into the prison cast.
13. Her sister swore against me,
Without a fear of doubt,
For the reason she had for that
Because I asked her out.
14. About six weeks after this
When this fair damsel was found
She was floating by her brother's door,
Who lived near Oxford Town.
15. The judge said to the jurymen,
"This murder is very plain,
We've got a prisoner at the bar
I'm sure he is to blame."
16. The jury found me guilty,
The judge to me did say,
"Upon this scaffold you must go,
To meet your fatal doom."
17 My mother stands in her open door,
With a tear in her dim blue eye,
As she looks on her only son,
Swing on the gallows high.
1. along
2. two lines missing, I've added standard text
3. two lines missing, I've added standard text