Bluegrass Messengers

Hanged I Must Be- David Marlow (Hamp) 1906 Gardiner

[From: George Gardiner Manuscript Collection (GG/1/10/553). Originally titled:  My Parents Reared me Tenderly (Hanged I shall Be).

My Parents Reared me Tenderly is the beginning of different several ballads.
 
MSS Text: http://www.vwml.org/record/GG/1/10/553

R. Matteson 2016]


Hanged I Shall Be- sung by David Marlow of  Basingstoke, Hampshire recorded by George B. Gardiner, 1906.

My parents reared me tenderly,
Good learning gave to me,
They bound me to a miller,
So well did I agree.
            
Till I went courting a bonny lass,  
With a black and rolling eye;                 
I promised I'd marry her             
If she long with me [would] lie.

I courted her for six long months    
A little now and [then],
Till I been ashamed to marry her,
I bein' so young a man.

I went unto my true love's house,
At eight o'clock at night,
And little did my true love think
I had her any spite.

I asked her to take a walk                  
 Down in those meadows gay.
There we sat and chat a while,
And fixed out wedding day.

I took a stake out of the hedge
I smote her on the ground
The blood from this fair innocent
Came trinklin' to the ground
        
I took hold of her curly locks,
I dragged her on the ground,
I dragged her to some riverside,
Her body for to drown.

I went out [to] my master's house
At ten o'clock that night,
My master overhearing me
A-stealing of a light.

He asked me and questioned me
What stained by hands and clothes,
The answer that I made to him,
By the bleeding of my nose.


And all that blessed livelong night,
No comfort could I find
For the burning flames of torment
All around my eyes did shine.

Before the cruel jury,
Then straightway I was brought,
------ judge and Jury,
To answer for my fault.

The jury found me guilty
And hang-ed I must be,
For the murdering of the fairest one,
That ever my eyes did see.