Murder in the Red Barn

from The Poacher's Fate by Laura Smyth & Ted Kemp

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Double gatefold card case, featuring album artwork by Laura Smyth and liner notes.

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about

Based on the tragic murder of Maria Marten which took place in Polstead, Suffolk, this song is one of the most popular murder ballads in the English tradition. The story acquired a supernatural twist which made it a sensation at the time, inspiring songs, plays, and a delightful range of Staffordshire pottery. Some of these souvenir items can be seen at Moyse’s museum in Bury St. Edmunds, along with the court proceedings bound in William Corder's skin. This unusual version was notated by Cecil Sharp from John East at the workhouse in Great Dunmow, Essex, in 1912.

lyrics

Come all you thoughtless young men
A warning take by me
And think of my unhappy fate
To be hanged upon a tree

My name is William Corder
The truth I do declare
I courted Maria Marten
Both beautiful and fair

I promised that I'd marry her
All on one certain day
Instead of that I was resolved
To take her life away

I went unto her father's house
The eighteenth day of May
Saying: "come my dearest Maria
Let us fix our wedding day"

"If you'll meet me at the Red Barn,
As sure as I have life
I'll take you down to Ipswich town
And there make you my wife"

I straight went home and fetched my gun
My pickaxe and my spade
I went unto the Red Barn
And there I dug a grave

With heart so light she thought no harm
To meet me she did go
I murdered her all in the barn
And I laid her body low

Now all things being silent
She could not take no rest
But appeared at her mother's house
That had suckled her at her breast

Her mother dreamed a dreadful dream
She dreamed it three nights o'er
She dreamed her dearest Maria
Lay beneath the Red Barn floor

She sent her father to the barn
And in the ground he thrust
And there he saw his daughter dear
All a-mingling with the dust

Adieu Adieu remember me
My glass is almost run
For early in the morning
I am sentenced to the be hung

So all young men that do pass by
With pit look on me
For the murder of Maria Marten
I was hanged upon a tree

credits

from The Poacher's Fate, released November 25, 2017
Trad. arr. Laura Smyth & Ted Kemp

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