Having looked again at "Shepherd" Taylor's 1921 version referred to above, I think after all that it is the one used by the Albion Country Band; the tune is identical and the text not greatly different. Harry Cox's set of the song is similar textually, but sung to a quite different melody. Well, why not quote it all, then:


EKEFIELD TOWN

(Version from Harry Cox of Catfield in Norfolk; recorded by Mervyn Plunkett in 1960).

As I was fast bound 'prentice boy, I was bound unto a mill,
And I served my master truly for seven years and more,
Till I took up a-courting with the girl with the rolling eye,
And I promised that girl I'd marry her if she would be my bride.

So I went up to her parents' house about the hour of eight,
But little did her parents think that it should be her fate.
I asked her if she'd take a walk through the fields and meadows gay,
And there we told the tales of love and fixed the wedding day.

As we were walking and talking of the different things around,
I drew a large stick from the hedge and knocked that fair maid down.
Down on her bending knees she fell and so loud for mercy cried,
"Oh, come spare the life of a innocent girl, for I am not fit to die."

Then I took her by the curly locks and I dragged her on the ground
Until I came to the riverside that flowed through Ekefield town.
It ran both long and narrow; it ran both deep and wide,
And there I plunged this pretty fair maid that should have been my bride.

So when I went home to my parents' house about ten o'clock that night.
My mother she jumped out of bed all for to light the light.
She asked me and she questioned me, "Oh. what stains your hands and clothes?"
And the answer I gave back to her, "I've been bleeding at the nose."

So no rest, no rest, all that long night; no rest, no rest, could I find.
The fire and the brimstone around my head did shine,
And it was about two days after this fair young maid was found,
A-floating by the riverside that flowed through Ekefield town.

Now the judges and the jurymen on me they did agree,
For murdering of this pretty fair maid so hanged I shall be.
Oh hanged, oh hanged, oh hanged I shall be,
For murdering of this pretty fair maid, so hanged I shall be.


Harry Cox was a regular at singing sessions at the Windmill Inn and the Catherine Wheel at Sutton in Norfolk up until 1970; he died in 1971. My parents took the village shop at Sutton in 1974, by which time both pubs had been closed and converted to private dwellings.


This is a song that certainly caught the popular imagination in England and, later, America; it has also been found in Scotland and Ireland. Often called The Oxford Girl, this mutated into Wexford, Waxweed and all manner of odd things. Laws assigned it his number P35, and it is no. 263 in Steve Roud's Folksong index. I started making a list of useful references on the net, and...

In the DT:

THE KNOXVILLE GIRL American version as recorded by the Louvain Brothers: no tune.
OXFORD TRAGEDY Collected by Cecil Sharp from Mary Wilson and Mrs. Townley, Kentucky, 1917; with tune.
THE CRUEL MILLER A collation of several broadside texts and an Irish variant of the tune from the Petrie collection. ( The Seeds of Love, ed. Stephen Sedley, 1967).

In the Forum:

THE WEXFORD GIRL American version as recorded by Benny Barnes: no tune.
Knoxville Girl as recorded by the Louvain Brothers; with guitar chords. No tune.
Knoxville Girl American version from Vance Randolph's collection of Ozark folksongs. No tune.

There is an entry at The Traditional Ballad Index:

The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)

Versions at The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection (most of these have audio files and staff notation):

My Tender Parents Brought Me Up As sung by Mr. T. R. Hammond in Osceola, Missouri on September 17, 1958.
The Waxweed Girl As sung by Mr. David Pricket in Clifty, Arkansas on January 19, 1958.
Waxwell Girl As sung by Mrs. Roxie Phillips in Berryville, Arkansas on November 4, 1958.
The Knoxville Girl As sung by Mrs. George Ripley in Milford, Missouri on November 21, 1959.
Waxferd Girl As sung by Reba Dearmore, Mountain Home, Arkansas on January 7, 1969.
Knoxville Girl As sung by Paralee Weddington, Busch, Arkansas on March 7, 1968.

Bruce Olson has the text of the earliest known (broadside) version at his website Roots of Folk:

The bloody Miller

There are plenty of broadside versions at The Bodleian Library Broadside Collection:

The Wittham-miller, ... or The Berkshire tragedy Printed between 1812 and 1830 by D. Wrighton, 86 Snow Hill, Birmingham.
The Berkshire tragedy, or, The Wittam miller Printed between 1797 and 1846 by J. Turner of Coventry.
The Berkshire tragedy, or, The Wittam miller Printer and date unknown.
The Berkshire tragedy, or, the Wittam miller Printed between 1802 and 1819 by J. Pitts, 14 Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials, London. Two copies; there are also a further 5 (later?) copies from Pitts.
The Berkshire trgedy [sic], or, The Wittam miller Printed c. 1700?
The Berkshire trgedy [sic], or, The Wittam miller Printed 1780?
The Berkshire tragedy, or, The Wittam miller Printed 1796: the most easily legible of 6 copies.
The Berkshire tragedy; or The Wittam miller Printed between 1800 and 1811 by Howard and Evans, 42, Long Lane, London.

Bloody miller Printed between 1789 and 1820 by G. Thompson, no. 156, Dale-street, Liverpool.
Bloody miller Printed between 1820 and 1824 for W. Armstrong, Banastre-street, Liverpool.

Cruel miller or Love and murder! Printed between 1842 and 1855 by W. Jackson and Son, (late Russell,) 62, Digbeth, from 21, Moor street, Birmingham.
Cruel miller or, Love and murder! Printed c.1850 W. Pratt, Printer, 82, Digbeth, Birmingham. Faded towards the end.

Cruel miller Printed between 1860 and 1883 by H. Disley, 57, High-street, St. Giles, London.
Cruel miller Printed between 1863 and 1885 H.P. Such, 177, Union Street, Boro'., London.
The cruel miller Printed between 1858 and 1885 by W.S. Fortey, Printer & Publisher, 2 & 3 Monmouth Ct., London.


Malcolm