Hi,

I'm going to throw out some possible scenarios for (Ba) the Deming broadside, which was "Sold Wholesale and Retail by Leonard Deming, No. 1, Market Square, corner of Merchant's Row, Boston." about 1835.

The Deming broadside (Ba) is significantly shorter at 27 stanzas to the 34 stanzas of the nearly 100 year earlier Roxburghe broadside (Aa). Not only that, 3 more stanzas of Aa are missing in Bb and in place of theses 3 stanzas is the new text:

15.1 A grave with a spade lying near she did see,
15.2 Which caused her to sigh and weep bitterly;

16.3 Oh! take not my life, lest my soul you betray,
16.4 And you to perdition be hurried away.

22) The captain soon summon'd the jovial ship's crew,
And said, my brave fellows, I fear some of you
Have murder'd some damsel ere you came away
Whose injur'd ghost now haunts you on the sea.

23) Whoever you be, if the truth you deny,
When found out, you'll be hung on the yard be high:
But he who confesses, his life we'll not take,
But leave him on the first island we make.

Who is the source of this new text? And why is this text, especially stanza 23, found in many versions in North America? It seems possible that the older broadside Aa was used for the opening stanzas. We know this because the murdered girl's name is Molly as in the Aa broadside-- then inexplicably changes to Mary. Could it be that an editor took a traditional version of Gosport (with the murdered girl named Mary) and changed the end of older broadside (Aa) but kept the beginning (leaving off stanzas 4 and 8)? How else could stanza 23 of Ba turn up in remote, inaccessible areas such as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland? If this logic follows could it also be possible that the traditional ballad used to change Ba could actually be the older ballad, predating 1726?

Richie