In Seaport Town- Dora Ward (IN) 1938 Lomax
[From: Brewster: Southern Folklore Quarterly (1941) Volume 5, pp. 176-177. Also recorded by Lomax in 1838.
R. Matteson 2016]
In Seaport Town - sung by Mrs. Dora Ward,
1 In Seaport Town there lived a rich merchant
Who had two sons and a daughter fair,
And she was courted by a bond servant,
Which caused her parents' hearts to fear.
2. One night while they were in the room a-courting,
Her youngest brother chanced to hear;
He ran, he ran unto the other,
Saying, "A-hunting now us three must go."
3. They hunted over high hills and hollows
And through some lonesome valley, too
They hunted on to a ditch of briers,
Where her true love they killed and threw.
4. When they returned to their kind sister,
She kindly asked for the servant man ;
"He's lost, he's lost in the woods a-hunting
Where you nor no one else can go."
5. She hunted over high hills and hollows
And through some lonesome valleys, too
She hunted on to a ditch of briers,
Where her true love they had killed and threw.
6. . . .
. . .
She stayed with him three days or longer
Till hunger forced her to go home.
7. When she returned to her two brothers,
They kindly asked her where she'd been;
"You bloody murderers, I never can hide it;
A-hanging now you both shall be."
8 These two young men being afraid of danger
They went a-sailing over the sea
The stormy winds blew over the waters
And these young men were cast away.