Lexington Murder- Mrs G.L.Bostic (NC) 1939 Brown 4A1
[Partial text (first 7 stanzas) from Brown Collection of NC Folklore, volume 4 A1, 1956. Their notes follow.
Mrs. G.L Bostic is the mother of Betty Bostic and the main source of Betty's ballads. This should be titled, Nellie Cropsey, since her daughter's version was. The Brown editors due to the volume of material became confused at times- this appears to be one of them- I'm leaving their title since without more evidence I can not change it.
Cf. Betty Bostic- Nellie Cropsey 1938 Abrams
R. Matteson 2016]
65. The Lexington Murder
Variously known as 'The Oxford Girl,' 'The Wexford Girl,' 'The Lexington Girl,' 'The Knoxville Girl,' 'The Bloody Miller,' and in England as 'The Wittam Miller' and 'The Berkshire Tragedy,' this ballad tells a story similar to that of 'The Gosport Tragedy' and also to that of the American 'Florella,' 'Poor Naomi' ('Omie Wise'), 'Pearl Bryan,' 'Nell Cropsey,' and others. See the headnote to 'The Gosport Tragedy,' and also FSS 311 and BSM 133-4, both of which give extensive references showing the diffusion of the ballad; add also Davis, FSV 271-2 for texts from Virginia, Morris, FSF 336-9, for texts from Florida, and Randolph, OFS II 92-104 for texts from Missouri and Arkansas. The texts selected for presentation here are reckoned to belong to the tradition of 'The Wittam Miller' because of the names under which they are known in North Carolina or because they are, most of them at least, marked by the killer's excuse for his appearance that it is due to "bleeding at the nose." Most of them also remember that the murderer is a miller or a miller's apprentice. The ballad about Nellie Cropsey, a North Carolina girl murdered early in the present century (see no. 307, below), is in most of its texts modeled very closely on 'The Lexington Murder.'
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65. The Lexington Murder
The story of all the versions that follow is very much like that of SharpK i 407, No. 71 A: 'The Miller's Apprentice,' or 'The Oxford Tragedy' ; also BSO 233-5, version C, 'The Murdered Girl.'
A(I) 'Lexington Murder.' Sung by Mrs. G. L. Bostic. Recorded near Mooresboro, Cleveland county, August 7, 1939. There is some melodic relationship with the anonymous version (65A), and the Dunnegan version of 'Nellie Cropsey' (307C), measures 2-4.
Scale: Hexachordal. Tonal Center: d. Structure: abac (2,2,2,2) = aab (4,4).
1. My tender parents brought me up
Providing for me well
And in the city of Lexington,
They placed me in the mill.
2 I went down to her mother's house,
Just half past eight o'clock.
But little did the think
That I had a spite at her.
3 I said, 'Come, take a little walk,
For just a little way,
So we can have a little talk
About our wedding day.'
4 So, walking side by side,
'Till we came to a silent place,
I drew a slat from off the fence
And struck her in the face.
5 Down on her bended knees she fell,
And cried, 'For mercy sake.
For heaven's sake, don't murder me.
For I'm not prepared to die.'
6 But little did I heed her cry;
I only struck her more
Until the blood was overflowed
All on her handsome face.
7 I hid my hands in her black hair
And tried to hide my sin,
And drug her back to the river-side.
And there I throwed her in[1].
1. It makes no sense that the ballad ends here- see her daughter's version (Nell Cropsey- sung by Betty Bostic) for the rest of the text.