Hi,

I just found the earliest printed traditional version in the US and thought I share it with you- it's inside some of my headnotes which aren't too long:

North American Tradition
The North American tradition is varied and based on two fundamental ballad types: The Lexington type and the Wexford type. The only example of a third ballad type, the "Traditional Berkshire Reduction" was collected in Tennessee in 1930. Although it proves the Berkshire broadside was sung as a reduction in England, it's effect on tradition in North America is not found. Associated with or derived from the Lexington tradition are the following titles: Lexington Miller; Lexington Murder; Bloody Miller; and Nell Cropsie. Associated with or derived from the Wexford tradition are the following titles: Wexford Girl/Gal; The Oxford Girl; Knoxville Girl; Wexford Lass; The Miller's Apprentice, or The Oxford Tragedy; Expert Girl; Export Girl; Noel Girl and Waco Girl.

After the publication of The Lexington Miller about 1829 in Boston came the first known published traditional version that I've titled "Waxford Gal." It was published in New York in Forest and Stream, Volume 56, p. 422 and was dated June 1, 1901. The author, Fayette Dublin, Jr. was born in Janesville, Wisconsin on October 25, 1868 but also lived in Missouri. His version was included in a story titled, "Repentance of Peshtigo Sam," which was sung by a character "Long Tom." Since the setting is Wisconsin, I'm attributing the ballad to that location:

Waxford Gal (first extant traditional US version published)

"O 'twas in the town of Eagle, O,
Where I did live and dwell;
'Twas in the town of Waxford
I owned a flour mill.

I fell in love with a Waxford gal
With a dark an' rollin' eye-ee;
I asked her for to be my wife.
Her wishes to comply-ee.

"I went into her father's house
About eight o'clock at night;
I asked her for to come an walk,
Our weddin' to app'int.

We walked an' talked along the road
Till we came to level ground.
When from a hedge I drew a stake
An' knocked this fair maid down.

"She fell upon her bended knees.
An' for mercy she did cry-ee,
Savin', 'Willie, dear, don't kill me here,
For I'm not prepared to die-ee.'

But none did I heed her pleadin',
An' I beat her all the more,
Till on the ground an' all around
Was strewn a bloody gore.

"I took her by her golden locks
An' dragged her o'er the ground,
An' threw her in the river
That ran through Waxford town,

Sayin', 'Lie there, lie there, you pretty fair maid,
Who was to be my bride;
Lie there, lie there, you Waxford gal,
To me you'll never be tied.'

When this young man returned home
About ten o'clock at night.
His mother, bein' weary,
Woke up all in a fright.

Sayin', 'Son, O son, what have you done
To bloody your hands an' clothes?'
The answer that he gave to her
Was a bleedin' at the nose.

He called for a candle
To light his way to bed.
Likewise a silken handkerchief
To tie his achin' head.

But tyin's an' all tanglin's,
No rest could this man find,
For the gates of hell before his eyes,
Before his eyes did shine."

This printed version, as far as I know, has not been discovered until now. It's an example of the Wexford tradition which is found mainly in Maritime Canada, Canada and New England. It's also been found in Michigan and Ohio and is present in the US south from whence it has spread to the mid-west where it is well-known.

The earliest known published report in the US of the ballad's existence is found in the 1911 "A Syllabus of Kentucky Folk-songs," by Hubert Gibson Shearin and Josiah Henry Combs. They write:

The Waxford Girl (Wexford Girl), 4a3b-1c3b, G: A youth murders his sweetheart and throws her into a stream. He tells his mother, who sees the blood on his clothes, that his nose has been bleeding. He is haunted by the ghost of the dead girl (Cf. Lizzie Wan, Child, No. 51, and Miller-boy, page 28.)

It's interesting that Sherin and Combs imply that The Waxford Girl is a revenant ballad (he is haunted by the ghost of the dead girl). It certainly is not normally considered to be one, however, I think it should be. In most American versions the "flames of Hell" are around him and "in his eyes can see." If this vision of Hell isn't enough to be "revenant" then this additional text found in some versions is: in his vision she is "behind," meaning-- she (her ghost) is also present. And in one version's text, her ghost is described as being there[]. The versions with the Waxford/Wexford Girl title mentioned in 1911 have now been collected throughout in the US and Canada. "The Miller Boy," however, is a rare title.

Richie