Wexford Lass- Marie Hare (NB) c.1964 Paton REC
[From the Folk Legacy recording "Marie Hare of Strathadam, New Brunswick; Ballads and Songs of the Miramichi" recorded c. 1964 by Sandy Paton. His notes follow.
Marie Hare-- Wexford Lass;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrXnLH6K0P4
R. Matteson 2016]
During the 1960s, we attended several of the Miramichi festivals of traditional music in New Brunswick. It was there we first heard this fine traditional singer, and arranged to make this field recording. The unaccompanied broadside ballad tradition is a strong one in the Maritimes. Marie Hare knew many of them and sang them extremely well.
Waxford Lass- sung by Marie Hare of Strathadam, New Brunswick, Canada on Ballads and Songs of the Miramichi Folk Legacy, recorded circa 1964. Hare is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Neville Whitney of Strathadam.
1. I was born in Boston, but not of a high degree;
My parents reared me tenderly, they had no child but me.
I fell in love with a Wexford lass, with a dark and roley eye;
I promised for to marry her, the truth I'll not deny.
2. I went to her father's house 'bout eight o'clock that night,
But little did that fair one think I held to her a spite;
I asked her for to take a walk to view those meadows gay,
Perchance that we'd find a little spot to 'point our wedding day.
3. We walked like doves together till we came to a rising ground;
I picked a stake from out the fence, with it I knocked her down.
As she fell down to her bended knee, in mercy she did cry,
"Oh, do not murder me Jimmy dear I'm not prepared to die."
4. He grabbed her by those yellow locks, he threw her on the ground;
He threw her into the river that flows through Wexford town:
"Lie there, lie there, my pretty fair maid with me you'll never be tied;
You never shall share my wandering life, you never shall be my bride."
5. I went to my father's home, 'bout twelve o'clock that night,
But little did my father think, to see such a fright'ning sight,
Crying, "Son, dear son, what have you done? There's blood stains on your clothes?"
The answer that I made him was, "bleeding from the nose."
6. At first I asked for a candle to light my way to bed,
And then I asked for a handkerchief to tie around my head.
The twisting and the turning, no comfort could I find;
For the gates of Hell was open, before my eyes did shine.
7. And all 'bout nine days later this Wexford lass was found
A-floating down the river that flows through Wexford town;
Her sister swore my life away but not a word of doubt;
He had me for suspicion for having this fair one out.
8. So come all you lads and lassies, a warning take by me,
It's never murder your own true love, Whoever whom she be.
But if you do you're sure to rue until the day you die,
You'll hang a public scandal, upon some gallows high.