Prentice Boy- Joseph Elliot (Dors) 1905 Hammond
[Henry Hammond Manuscript Collection (HAM/2/8/20) with music. Songs of Crime and Prison Life by Lucy E. Broadwood and A. G. Gilchrist; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 27 (Dec., 1923), pp. 41-49; English Folk Dance + Song Society. Broadwood's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
Compare " The Country Farmer's Son " in Songs of the West, " Maria Martin" (a Sussex air used also for " Come all you faithful Christians " there), in Journal, Vol. ii, p. 118, and "The Ploughboy's Dream " (Sussex), Vol. ii, p. 203. I have noted the tune in Sussex and Herts to "The Farmer's Boy." Mr. Hammond took down a Dorset variant to the carol " Come, all you worthy people " (or " Christians ") and wrote "I have reason to believe that Baker [the singer of the carol] learned this from one Clark of Bere Regis who brought it from Sussex." Baker's tune[1] is given without words, as these closely followed the set in Journal, Vol. i, p. 74. The type of air is not unlike " The British Grenadiers" which Chappell in his Pop. Music connects with "The London Prentice." The words of the latter tune have nothing to do with " The Prentice Boy" here given. In Journal, Vol. vii, p. 23, there is a very similar version of words to a quite different tune (see " Hanged I shall be "). -L. E. B.
The Prentice Boy- sung by Joseph Elliot of Todber, Dorset in Sept. 1905, collected by HED Hammond.
1. Oh, once I was a prentice boy, to the miller did agree
I served my mast for seven long year, no longer could I stay,
Till I fell courting a pretty girl, 'twas a little now and then,
For I been ashamed to marry her for I was so young a man.
2. I went unto her sister's house a eight o'clock at night,
And little did she think that I owed her any spite.
I took her to the fields so green and to the meadows gay,
And then we sat and talked a while, for to fix the wedding day.
3. I took a stick from the hedge, I laid her body down,
Then the blood of innocence come raining from her wound;
When she on bended knee did fall, and loud for mercy cry,
Crying, "Jimmy dear! don't murder me, for I'm not fit to die."
4. I took her by her curly locks, I dragged her through groves so green,
Until I came to some riverside, and then I throwed her in;
And wit the blood on innocence my hands and clothes were dyed [stained],
Instead of being a pitiless corpse oh, she might have been my bride!
5. I went home to my master's house at twelve o'clock at night,
He quickly come to let me in, he quickly struck a light,
When the master began for to question me, what stained my hands and clothes,
The answer that I had for him. 'twas the bleeding of my nose.
6. 'Bout nine weeks ago, oh this pretty girl was found
Down the river floating clear, not far from Ensmore Town
When the judges and the jury they do so well agree
For the murdering of my own sweetheart, oh, a-hang-ed I must be.
Mr. Baker's major tune is reminiscent, in the second half, of the air best known as " Lazarus" or" Maria Martin," found almost invariably in minor or modal tonality. The Sussex major air "Maria Martin " has an interesting likeness, and Mr. Sharp's Devonshire tune to " Come all you worthy Christians" shows a strange blend of major and minor. Mr. Hammond also noted a
fine " Lazarus " (" Come all you worthy people ") air of the normal type in Dorset. For very many variants and references see Journal, Vol. ii, pp. 1--152