Butcher Boy- Sarah Makem (Arm) 1956 Hamilton
[One of Sarah Makem's two 1956 recordings made by Diane Hamilton is included on her Musical Traditions anthology "As I Roved Out" in 1956. Listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?=ocw6rXrV91w&feature=youtu.be
Sarah Makem included "The Butcher Boy" on her 1967 album The Voice of the People: Sarah Makem: The Heart Is True. Tommy Makem learned the version sung by his mother Sarah Makem and recorded it both on a solo album and with The Clancy Brothers.
A brief Wiki bio paragraph follows.
R. Matteson 2017]
Sarah Makem (18 October 1900– 20 April 1983) a native of Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was a traditional Irish singer. She was the wife of fiddler Peter Makem, mother of musicians Tommy Makem and Jack Makem, and grandmother of musicians Shane Makem, Conor Makem and Rory Makem. Sarah Makem and her cousin, Annie Jane Kelly, were members of the Singing Greenes of Keady.
The Butcher Boy- sung by Sarah Makem of Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Her source is currently unknown.
In London city where I did dwell
A butcher boy, I loved right well
He courted me, and me heart away
And then with me, he would not stay.
I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain
I wish I was a maid again
A maid, a maid I ne'er shall be
'Til cherries grow on an apple tree.
I wish my baby it way born
And smiling on its daddy's knee
And I poor girl to be dead and gone
And the long green grass growing over me.
She went upstairs to make her bed
And calling up her mother said
"Get me a chair 'til I sit down
A pen and ink 'til I write down."
At every word she dropped a tear
And every line cried, "Willie dear.
Oh, what a foolish girl was I
To be led astray by a butcher boy."
He went upstairs and the door he broke,
He found her hanging from a rope.
He took his knife and he cut her down
And in her pocket, these lines were found.
Dig my grave wide large and deep
Put a marble stone at my head and feet
And in the middle, a turtle dove,
That the world may see I died for love.