I find both The Cruel Mother and Maid & Palmer / Well Bellow The Valley disturbing on a number of levels, not least of which is that the central woman is presumably a powerless victim of patriarchal circumstances, given the time these songs were first written/performed. If a woman has had sex with that many relatives and all the dead (murdered?) children buried I would work on the assumption that none of this was of her choosing. It seems she was used as the living family sex doll. In that case, what torment must this woman already have been through? Then, on top of this, she is judged to deserve further punishment after death for the sins meted out on her by her family. What says the palmer about the sins of her family?