Waxford Lass- Dellas Macdonald (NB) 1961 Ives
[Also titled, Wexford Lass. From: The Folklore Historian, Volume 14; "How the Apples Got In?' by Ives; also see Ives, Wilmot MacDonald at the Miramichi Folksong Festival - Page 51; 1989 for the family version- same with minor textual details. Following is an online bio for Wilmot.
Marie Hare has made a recording of the MacDonald's Wexford/Waxford Lass.
R. Matteson 2016]
Wilmot MacDonald was raised in Glenwood, NB, one of ten children. He grew up in a musical household, with two fine singers for parents. He favored the songs of his father from the lumbercamp tradition, and he learned many songs while working in the woods from the age of fourteen until shortly after he married. He worked as a well-driller, fireman engineer, and ran a boiler at Chatham Air Force Base until he retired around 1970. He was for many years the star of the Miramichi Folksong Festival, opening the festival many times with “The Lumberman’s Alphabet.” He was a favorite singer and storyteller, and good friend, of both Sandy Ives and Louise Manny, who founded the Miramichi Folksong Festival.
Waxford Lass- Sung by Dellas Macdonald of Glenwood, NB in 1961. I assume Dellas is Wilmot's son.
1. As I was born in Sheffield, brought up to the high degree;
My parents reared me tenderly, they had no child but me.
Til I fell in love with a Waxford lass, with a dark and rolling eye;
I promised for to marry her, the truth I'll not deny.
2. As I went to her father's house 'bout eight o'clock that night,
But little did this fair one think I owed to her a spite;
I asked her for to take a walk to view those meadows gay,
And perhaps that we might have a chance to appoint our wedding day.
3. We walked along together 'til we came to rising ground;
I pulled a stake out of the fence, with this I knocked her down.
She fell down to her bended knee, for mercy she did cry,
"Do not murder me Jimmy for I ain't prepared to die."
4. But I grabbed her by those yellow locks,
I drug her on the ground; I threw her into the river that flows through Waxford town:
"Lie there, lie there, my pretty fair maid to me you'll never be tied;
You shall not enjoy my life or ever be my bride."
5. Returning to my father's house 'bout twelve o'clock that night,
My father rose to let me in while striking up a light,
Crying, "Son, dear son.what have you done? What stains your hands and clothes?"
The answer that I made him was, "A bleeding from the nose."
6. At first I asked for a candle to light my way to bed,
Likewise I asked for a handkerchief to tie around my head.
Oh the twisting and the whirling, no comfort could I find;
The gates of Hell wide open before my eyes did shine.
7. About ten days later this Waxford lass was found
A-floating down the river that flows through Waxford town;
Her sister swore my life away without a word or doubt;
They took me up on suspicion for having this fair one out.
8. So come all you true and lovers a warning take by me,
And do not murder your own true love, no matter whom she be.
For if you do you're sure to rue until the day you die,
For it's high upon the scaffold where you'll end your days and die.