London City- Dock Stinnett (TN) c.1933 Henry B
[From Mellinger Henry, Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1938). His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
57 THE BUTCHER BOY
While versions, C, D, E, and F of this song were not from the Southern Highlands, they were recalled by the reading of versions A and B, and are included for the sake of comparison. See W. Roy Mackenzie's "The Quest of the Ballad," p. 9; Cox, No. 145; Pound, No. 24; Lomax, p. 397; Sandburg, p. 3 24 (title is "London City"); Spaeth, "Weep Some More, My Lady," p. 128 (title is "In Jersey City"); Journal, XXIX, 169; XXXI, 73; XXXV, 360; XXXIX, 122; Phillips Barry, Ancient British Ballads, etc. (A privately printed list), No. 41; Arthur Palmer Hudson's "Specimens of Mississippi Folk-Lore," p. 31; Bradley Kincaid's My Favorite Mountain Ballads and Old-Time Songs, Chicago, 1928, p. 43 ; Flanders and Brown, p. 15.
B. [London City] No local title. Obtained from Miss Mary E. King, Gatlinburg, Sevier County, Tennessee, who had it from Dock Stinnett, Sevierville, Tennessee.
1. In London City where I did dwell,
A merchant's son I loved so well.
He courted me my life away,
And then with me he would not stay.
2. There lived a girl in that same town;
He'd go right there and he'd sit down;
He'd take her upon his knee;
He'd tell her what he wouldn't tell me.
3. Can you tell me the reason why,
Unless she had more gold than I?
Her gold will melt and her silver fly;
In a few more years she'll be poor as I.
4.1 went upstairs to make my bed,
And listening to what my mama said.
"O mama, O mama, oh, can't you see
How cruel sweet Willie has been to me?
5. "Oh, bring me a chair and I'll set down,
A paper and pen, I'll write it down."
On the gold and silver line she dropped a tear,
A-calling back, "Sweet Willie, dear."
6. Was late last night when her papa came home,
He found her missing from the room.
He went up stairs and the door he broke,
He found her hanging by a rope.
7. He took a knife and cut her down
And in her bosom, a note he found:
"Go, dig my grave both deep and long
And at my head and feet place a marble stone;
8. "And by my side place a William[willow] tree
That the world may weep and mourn for me;
And on my heart place a lovely dove
That the world may know that I died for love."