Butcher Boy- Ada F. Kelley (MA) 1939 Linscott
[From Folk Songs of Old New England, Linscott, 1939. Her notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
THE BUTCHER BOY
Ada F. Kelley of West Harwich, Massachusetts, learned this song from her uncle, a descendant of David O'Killy, who came from Ireland about the middle of the seventeenth century. It has been a great favorite in the Kelley family for many generations.
The song is widely current in many forms in the United States and Britain. It is said to have originated in Essex County, England. In earlier form, it goes back to the seventeenth century, when the headaches of milkmen and similar humble characters enjoyed more than a passing vogue. The original hero was probably a sailor instead a butcher boy. The song that we know as "There Is a Tavern in the Town' is derived from it, for although the melody only faintly resembles the English tune, the theme of the ballad has remained the same.
1. In Jersey City where I did dwell,
A butcher boy I loved so well;
He court-ed me my heart away
he will not stay.
2. There is an inn in this same town,
Where my love and sits him down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
And tells to her what he don't told me.
3. It's grief for me, I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I.
But her gold will melt and her silver fly,
In time of need she'll be as poor as I.
4. I go upstairs to make my bed,
But nothing to my mother said.
My mother comes upstairs to me,
Saying, "What's the matter, my daughter dear?"
5. "O mother, mother, do you not know
What grief and pain and sorrow, woe;
Go get a chair to sit me down,
And a pen and ink to write it down."
6. On every line she dropped a tear,
While calling home her Willie dear,
And when her father he came home,
He said, "Where is my daughter gone?"
7. He went upstairs, the door he broke,
He found her hanging upon a rope.
He took his knife and he cut her down,
And in her breast these lines were found:
"Oh, what a silly maid am I,
To hang myself for a butcher boy!
8. Go dig my grave both long and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And on my breast a turtle dove,
To show the world I died for love."