Here's the text from Louise Pound's American Ballads and Songs (1922, 1950, 1972). Pound says the text is

From a manuscript book of ballads in the possession of L.C. Wimberly, 1916. Probably of British importation. In another Nebraska text, the place names are changed to "Bowery Street" and "Sing Sing."

Jack Williams

I am a boatman by trade,
Jack Williams is my name,
And by a false deluding girl
Was brought to grief and shame.

On Chatton street I did reside,
Where the people did me know;
I fell in love with a pretty pretty girl,
She proved my overthrow.

I took to robbing night and day,
All to maintain her fine and gay.
What I got I valued not
But I gave to her straightway.

At last to Newgate I was brought,
Bound down in irons strong.
With rattling chains around my legs,
She longed to see me hang.

I wrote a letter to my love
Some comfort for to find.
Instead of proving a friend to me
She proved to me unkind.

And in a scornful manner said
"I hate your company,
And as you have made your bed, young man,
Down on it you may lie."

There is a heaven above us all
And it proved kind to me;
I broke my chains and scaled the walls,
And gained sweet liberty.

Now I am at liberty,
A solemn vow I'll take;
I'll shun all evil company
For that false woman's sake.

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