A similar version "The Dublin Murder Ballad" with an extra measure was recorded by Patrick Galvin in his "Irish Street Songs," 1956 (Riverside RLP 12-613 LP). He says, "The song is fairly common in Ireland, but even more so in Scotland." This refers to the Robertson and 1954 Maggie Stewart recordings.

Ed McCurdy's version is taken from that recording and was recorded in 1956 on Electra. McCurdy's version appears in the Jack Horntip Collection (online) without accreditation.

The ballad is based loosely on "Polly's Love" broadside where Polly's ghost rips him tears him and cut's him in three. Here the role is reversed. The first and second stanzas are loosely derived from:

In fair Warwick city in fair Warwickshire
A handsome young damsel oh! lived there
A handsome young man courted her to be his dear
And he was by trade a ship's carpenter.

and these stanzas:

One morning so early before it was day,
He came to his Polly; these words he did say:
Oh, Polly, oh, Polly, you must go with me
Before we are married our friends for to see.

He led her through groves and valleys so steep
Which caused this young damsel to sigh and to weep.
Oh, William, oh, William, you have led me astray
On purpose my innocent life to betray.

The villain is named Thomas Brown by Robertson and his lover is Mary Brown. The first two lines of additional Irish stanza is from "green grows the laurel."

Richie