Butcher's Boy- Annie Shirer (Aber) c1908 Greig E
[My date, from: The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection - Volume 2, p. 46; No. 200 by Gavin Greig, James Bruce Duncan, Patrick N. Shuldham-Shaw Emily B Lyle; Peter A Hall; Aberdeen U.P., 1983
R. Matteson 2016]
E. The Butcher Boy- sung by Annie Shirer (b. 1873) of Kininmonth who got her ballads from her father and uncle Kenneth Shirer. Collected by Gavin Grieg, c. 1908.
1. My parents educated me,
Good learning gave to me
They sent me to a butcher's shop,
A butcher's boy for to be.
2. I fell in love with Mary Queen,
She'd a dark and rolling eye;
I promised for to marry her
In the month of sweet July.
3. The fair maid being with child to me,
Upon me she did cry,
"O Willie dear, you'll marry me,
Or else for you I'll die."
4. I went to her parent's house,
Between the hours of eight and nine,
And asked if she would take a walk
A-down yon river side.
5. They walked up and they walked down
Between the hours of nine and ten,
Till he pulled a knife from out his pocket,
And stabbed her to the ground.
6. She fell upon her bended knee,
And for mercy she did cry
O Willie dear, don't murder me
Nor leave me here to die.
7 He's ta'en her by the lily-white hand,
And dragged her all along,
Till he came to yon river side,
And plunged her body in.
8 He went home his mother's house
'Tween the hours of twelve and one:
But little did this poor mother think
What her only son had done.
9. He asked for a candle,
To let him see to bed,
And likewise for a handkerchief,
To tie around his head.
10. No rest nor peace, could this young man get,
No rest nor peace could he find,
For he saw the fiery flames of hell,
Approaching in his mind.
11. This young man's crimes, it being found out,
The gallows was his doom,
For the murdering of sweet Mary Queen
The flower that was in bloom.