The Boston Burglar
[According to Mike Yates: "The Boston Burglar would seem to be an Americanized version of the British song Botany Bay. "The Boston Burglar. Sung by Dan MacCarthy" was copyrighted in 1881 by H. J. Wehman (New York) and published by him as both a broadside (no. 480) and in The Vocalists's Favorite Songster of 1885. Gavin Greig noted three versions of the song in Scotland, and commented that, 'the song has got quite naturalised in this country'.
The McDowells source likely pre-dates 1881 since they learned it in the 1890s.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE BOSTON BURGLAR
1. I was born in Boston,
A place you all know well;
Brought up by honest parents,
The truth to you I'll tell,
Brought up by honest parents,
And reared most tenderly,
Till I became a sporting men,
At the age of twenty-three."
2. "My character was taken
And I was sent to jail
My friends they found it all in vain
To get me out on bail
The jury found me guilty
The clerk he wrote it down,
The judge he passed the sentence,
"You're off for Charlestown."
3. To see my aged father
A-pleading at the bar,
To see my aged mother
A-pulling out her hair;
A-pulling out those old gray locks
The tears came trickling down.
"Son, O son, what have you done
That you're off to Charlestown?"
They put me on that eastbound train
One cold December day,
And every station I passed by
I heard the people say
"There goes the Boston burglar,
In chains he must be bound
For some great, crime or other
He's gone to Charlestown."
There's a girl in Boston,
A girl that I love well,
And if I gain my liberty
I moan with her to dwell,
And if I gain my liberty
Bad company I'll shun,
Likewise to walk the streets at night,
A-drinking of bad rum.
All you that have your liberty
Pray keep it if you can,
Don't ever walk the streets at night,
To break the news of man;
For if you do you'll surely rue
To find yourself like me,
A-serving out of twenty-one years
In the penitentiary.
The song is remembered by Mrs. McDowell. Her husband also remembers it. They are in agreement on both words and tune, though it took the two combined memories to reproduce the tune. Neither of them can be quite sure of where or by whom they heard it from, but are sure they each heard it in childhood.