Hi all,
One for Mick Pearce perhaps. I've searched in all the usual places for this one and it doesn't tally with any of the many other songs that go by similar titles.

In the Sharp manuscripts is the following fragment from Mrs Glover of Somerset. I'm trying to match it up with any other versions. It has no mention of a Nancy in it but Sharp saw fit to title it Pretty Nancy, possibly because it has some similar lines to Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth. Steve has given it a new number 12659 but I feel sure it's a version of something that already has a number. Anyway here it is.

Sad news, sad news to Plymouth came, our goodly ship was lost,
Which cause`d many seamen bold to dread the danger of the loss,
But Polly dear she laid a lament for the loss of her own sweet-heart,
The raging seas and stormy winds keep me and my Polly apart.

O Polly dear, o Polly dear, this letter I'm going to write,
And when you do receive it 'twill cause you many a tear,
I'm sometimes on deck, I'm sometimes below and the rest of my time so well,
Tis the thought of Polly runs in my mind that do torment me so.

It is obviously quite corrupt but the thread is reasonable.

The second verse would scan better as:
O Polly dear, o Polly dear, this letter I write to you,
And when you do receive it 'twill cause you for to rue
Sometimes I am up on deck, sometimes I am below.
Polly's always on my mind, it do torment me so.