Wittenham Miller- Pollyanna Harmon (TN-NC) c.1880 Henry A
[From Mellinger Henry's "Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands," J.J. Augustin, 1938. His notes follow.
Council Hicks' grandson "Uncle Sam" Samuel (b. 1869) and his wife, Pollyanna were discovered by Mellinger Henry, now living in Cade's Cove, TN. This Hicks/Harmon family came out of the Virginia colony in the late 1600s (as far as they've been traced) to North Carolina just before the Revolutionary War. it was collected by Mellinger Henry, a friend of my grandfather's (and co-author of Beech Mt Ballads). Henry incorrectly titled it Lexington Miller.
A reward of ten guineas is offered ("Ten guineas I offered any man, This damsel they would find") which indicates the version is likely very old. Since this reward is only offered in versions of Berkshire Tragedy (dated c. 1700) it seems to clearly pre-date the Cruel Miller broadsides. I've supplied the title from Ebsworth which has been appropriately corrupted to the "Town of Wickedness."
R. Matteson 2016]
64 THE WEXFORD GIRL (THE CRUEL MILLER) See Cox, No. 90 {A "The Tragedy;" B "Johnny McDowell"); Hudson, Journal, XXXIX, 125 {A and B "The Oxford Girl;" C "The Expert Girl;" D "The Shreveport Girl"); Belden, Journal, XXV, 11; Henry, Journal, XLII, pp. 247, 290; Mackenzie, Ballads and Sea Songs from Nova Scotia, No. 115; R. W. Gordon, New York Times Magazine, June 19, 1927. Hudson's version is included also in his Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore, Ann Arbor, 1928, No. 24. See also Flanders and Brown, p. 88.
A. ["Wittenham Miller"] "The Lexington Girl." Recorded by Mrs. Henry from the singing of Mrs. Samuel Harmon, Cade's Cove, Blount County, Tennessee, August 13, 1930, who says that she has "known the song all her life."
1. My tender parents brought me here
Providing for my wealth;
And in a town of wickedness[1]
He fixed me out a mill.
2. Here came a wanting[2] lass;
She had a wanting[2] eye;
I promised her I'd marry her,
And with her I did lie.
3. A very few weeks and afterwards
Here came that lass again:
"I pray you, young John, you'd marry me;
You've got me with a child."
4. Perplexed was I on every side;
No comfort I could find
But to take my darling's life from her
My wicked heart inclined.
5. 1 went to my love's sister's house;
It was getting late at night.
But little did the poor creature think
I owed her any spite.
6. "Come, take a walk with me, my dear;
We'll pint[3] the wedding day;"
I tuk her by her lily-white hand;
I led her through the field.
7. 1 drew a stake then out of the fence;
I hit her in the face;
She fell on her bending knee;
For mercy loud did cry:
"I pray, young John, don't murder me,
For I'm not fit to die."
8. I kept putting[4] on more and more,
She did resign her breath,
And wasn't I a crazy soul
To put my love to death?
9. I tuk her by the hair of the head;
I drug her through the field;
I drug her to the river bank
And plunged her in the deep.
10. Right straight home then I run;
My master strangely on me gazed:
"What's the matter, young Johnny?" he says,
"You look as pale as death.
11. "You look like you've been running
And almost spent for breath.
How came you by, young John," he says,
"These trembling hands enfold?
12. "How came you, young John," he says,
"These bloody hands and clothes?"
I answered him immediate lie[5]:
"A-bleeding at the nose."
13. He stood; he strangely on me gazed,
But no more he said.
I jerked a candle out of his hands
And made my way to bed.
14. I lay there all that long night;
I had but little rest;
I thought I felt the flames of hell
Strike within my guilty breast.
15. The very next morning by day-light
Ten guineas I offered any man,
Ten guineas I offered any man,
This damsel they would find.
16. The very next morning by sunrise,
This damsel she were found,
Floating by her brother's door
In Harry Fairy Town[6].
17. Then her sister against me swore;
Good reasons without a doubt:
By coming there after dark,
And calling her out.
18. "My Lord, my God,
Look down on me
And pray receive my soul."
1. probably from Wittham or Whittingham
2. wanton
3. appoint
4. hitting her more and more
5. immediately (pronounced immediate-lie)
6. resembles Ferry Hinksey Town as sung by George Hicks of Arlington, Gloucestershire.