Bluegrass Messengers

 Four Marys- Robinson (AR) 1958 Max Hunter

[My title. The Max Hunter collection Cat. #0135 (MFH #422), with minor spelling and pucntuation changes :)

R. Matteson 2015]

Four Marys - As sung by Jane Robinson, Farmington, Arkansas on June 21, 1958. Jane said she learned this from her grandfather.

VERSE 1
Last night there were four Marys
This night there'll be but three
There'll Mary Beaton an' Mary Seaton
An' Mary Carmichel an' me

VERSE 2
Oft have I dressed my Queen
An' put gold in her hair
But little I thought that I would get
Th gallows to be my share

VERSE 3
Last night I dressed Queen Mary
An' put on her broad silk gown
But all of the thanks I got this night
Is to be hanged in Edinboro town

VERSE 4
They'll tie a kerchef 'round my eyes
They'll no let me see to dee
An' they'll never tell my father an' mother
But that I'm away o'er the sea

VERSE 5
O, little did my mother think
Th day she cradle me
Th lands I was to travel in
Or the death I was to dee.

VERSE 6
I charge ye, all ye sailors
As ye sail o'er the foam
Let neither my father nor my mother know
But that I'm comin' home

VERSE 7
Last night there were four Marys
This night there'll be but three
There'll Mary Beaton an' Mary Seaton
An' Mary Carmichel an' me