Randolph, in "Ozark Folksongs," says "The "Louisville Burglar" song is evidently a southern variant of the well-known "Boston Burglar" piece, once copyrighted by Edwin B. Marks and credited to M. J. Fitzpatrick, but derived directly from the old English ballad of "Botany Bay...." No. 136, "The Louisville Burglar," vol. 2, pp. 37-39. Two versions from Missouri, the first sees the man bound for Frankfort town. The last two verses:

I loved a girl in Louisville,
A place you all know well,
An' if I ever gain sweet liberty
Together we will dwell.

Together we will spend our days,
An' shun bad company,
Quit drinkin' of cheap whiskey, boys,
While out upon a spree.

In the second version, the boy is bound for Jefferson town, but longs to go back to his girl in Springfield.
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Lyr. Add: THE JAIL AT MORGANTOWN

1
I was born in West Virginia, a place we all know well,
Brought up by honest parents, the truth to you I'll tell,
Brought up by honest parents, and raised most tenderly,
Till I became a roving lad, which proved my destiny.
2
My friends would oftimes say to me, and oftimes would relate,
A home of thieves or drunkards would sometime be my fate,
But I paid no regards to them, and in bad company roamed,
And now to-day I may be found in the jail at Morgantown.
3
My character was taken, and I was sent to jail;
My friends tried to bail me out, but it proved no avail;
The judge he heard the evidence, and the clerk he wrote it down,
The jury found me guilty, and I was sent to Morgantown.
4
You ought to have heard my father, a-pleading at the bar;
Likewise my angel mother, tearing out her hair,
A-tearing out her silver locks, and the tears from her eyes dropped down:
"O son! O son! what have you done that you are going to Morgantown?"
5
They took me away on an eastern train on a cold and stormy day,
And every station we passed through, you could hear the people say;
"There goes a noted burglar, in chains he's bound down;
For some bad crime or other he's going to Morgantown."
6
'T is you have the liberty, pray keep it while you can,
And don't go out, my boy, to-night, and break the laws of man;
For if you do, you'll surely find in chains they'll bind you down,
And you'll be spending the best of your days in the jail at Morgantown.

"The Boston Burglar," no. 84, version B, pp. 297-298, J. H. Cox, editor, 1925, "Folk-Songs of the South," Dover reprint. Collected in Morgantown, West Virginia.