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Lyr Req: Ballad of Jane McWilliams - child murder
Related thread:
Lyr Req: Jane McWilliams (baby murder ballad) (3)
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Lyr Req: Ballad of Jane McWilliams - child murder Related thread: Lyr Req: Jane McWilliams (baby murder ballad) (3) |
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Subject: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Rois Date: 30 Jan 99 - 03:40 PM Surely I am not the only person in this wide world who had a macabre granny singing horrid lullabies - I am desperate to learn all the words/history of the ballad JANE McWILLIAMS.
Jane McWilliams it is my name (she drowns the child) Can't wait to hear from you! Ta, |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Jane McWilliams Date: 20 Feb 99 - 05:58 PM seems I've got away with it. nobody but Jane knows about me (so far - someone might come up with the lyric yet) |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Matthew Bram Date: 21 Feb 99 - 02:01 PM Sounds great. Kind of like the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme in reverse (often recited by a small child while bouncing a ball): Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks When she saw what she had done She gave her father forty one Based on a true(!!) story, the mother and father often get switched in the reciting. |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Philippa Date: 12 Mar 99 - 04:04 PM refresh, still looking for Jane's killer |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Rois (inactive) Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:21 PM Okay here are more verses as I remember - Oh Jane McWilliams it is my name, I have brought myself for to sin and shame For the murdering of my baby dear There was never a mother so severe - (She takes the child to the water's edge) Oh Mommy, Oh Mommy, please let me ashore, And I'll go where you'll never see me more.... But I being angry at the same, I took and plunged him in again.... (Jane was hung and as I recall the verses spoke out from the scaffold for "all you young women take warning from me.....) |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Philippa Date: 09 Jun 99 - 05:50 PM I don't know if Rois is still around Mudcat, but I'm still curious about the song and the story |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: John Moulden Date: 21 Sep 99 - 06:10 PM At the time this was posted it rang no bells but now, serendipitously, I have found a version. It's in James N Healy: The Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads (vol 1) ; Cork 1967. On page 59 is "A new song called the lamentations of Jane M'Cullen For the murder of her child" 8 stanzas, 64 lines in total. It is the song you describe. Interestingly McWilliams and McCullen are not far apart - here in co Antrim McWilliams is sometimes said "McCullion." The only place name is "Clifton" presumably, but not proveably without research, Clifden in west co Galway. Healy gives no sources for the text but, in common with most of his texts, it is most likely from a ballad sheet in the National Library of Ireland. His texts are sometimes tidied silently. If you can't get hold of the book through a library, let me know if I can be of further help. John Moulden |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Rois Date: 25 Sep 99 - 05:47 PM Want to thank all who contributed to the search - especially Philippa, and John I am delighted to have fruit on this item - My gram was born in Glenravel, Co. Antrim and so the slight change in name as John explains it makes sense - it was a song she learned as a child - she was born in 1898 and lived to be 97 years in great health and still singing morbid ditties - I have sent the library on a search and have ordered some out of print books by Healy - again, thank you all so much - sincerely, Rois |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Joe Offer Date: 25 Sep 99 - 09:46 PM Rois or John Moulden, if you can post the lyrics and whatever you find on this song, we'd be grateful. This song request piqued my interest when it first came up in January. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: John Moulden Date: 26 Sep 99 - 07:17 AM Here's a wonder of the age. I think Martin Ryan published information about the Bodleian Library Ballad Project - now running. 30 000 gif images of broadsheet and slip ballads. I've already spent far too much time cyber-rummaging. But ... in this case: go to http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/ballads/ the left hand frame is an index - click on browse/search enter Jane M'Cullen [NB - M'Cullen - Not McCullen] in the search form - eureka! Full title of the ballad is The lamentation of Jane M'Cullen for the murder ... First line is Jane MCullen is my name. |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Joe Offer Date: 26 Sep 99 - 10:21 PM That's quite a resource, John. Click here for the song - but take note that it's a big file and will take a time to load. I'll transcribe it later this evening. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE LAMENTATION OF JANE M'CULLEN From: Joe Offer Date: 27 Sep 99 - 12:19 AM The Lamentation of JANE M'CULLEN, For the Murder of Her Child (traditional) Jane M'Cullen it is my name I brought myself to grief and shame For the murder of my baby dear Was there ever a mother proved so severe A false young man once courted me And promised married we should be He tried each plan to gain my love Until with him I in child did prove His love for me did fast decay And from my presence soon fled away He left me in want and my baby dear With no one to pity or shed a tear For three long years I did rear the child he was a fine young baby both meek and mild Until worn with hunger and deep despair I went to end all my sad affair I being tempted with five wicked thoughts My child into the water I brought Unto a river that was deep and wide Where are you going Mamma, my baby cried but I no words unto him did say But threw him in without delay He cried, Oh! Mamma, let me on shore And I never will vex you, Mamma, any more My infant grapples all at the grasp (?) He caught a hold and he held it fast But I being angry at the same I took and plunged him in the deep again For a few minutes he struggled sore And his cries were heard along the shore Whilst I stood gazing all on the brink Watching the moment that he might sink My guilty conscience was filled with care In a short time after he did disappear Unto my lodging I did repair They asked me where was my baby dear Some false excuses I strove to find But none would satisfy their mind They said I had my baby slain But I denied the whole face plain But murder now, which the Lord won't hide Who brought to light by a fallen tide His body on the shore was cast And this wicked murder I did confess Transmitted then into Clifton Jaol Lodged in cold irons for to bewail I pleaded guilty at the bar And begged for banishment unto afar The judge he said, that cannot be For you must die for such cruelty He passed the sentence all for the same The whole court from tears could not refrain Now at the age of twenty-one I bid adue to the world's throng And when my body shall mould away I hope good Christians for me pray. Haly, Printer, Cork JRO |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Rois Date: 27 Sep 99 - 05:54 PM Thanks Joe - for whatever reason I couldn't get into the site that John had posted - I believe that the word following "my infant grapples all at the...." may be "grass" - I am so delighted to have the words to this piece after so many years - now, I am wondering about when it was written, where Jane lived, etc. any ideas? Thanks again all - Rois. |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Matthew B. Date: 27 Sep 99 - 10:27 PM By the way, I wonder if you realized that this was most often sung as a lullaby! (although it never showed up -- thank God -- in our "favorite lullabies" thread). I have heard many accounts of babies being sung to sleep by this and other songs just like it. Hey, even to this day we have the gruesome Rockabye Baby, but none of our modern stuff comes close to the scare-your-baby-to-sleep genre that was so popular in the 18th & 19th centuries. |
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Subject: RE: Ballad of JANE McWILLIAMS - child murder From: Rois Date: 28 Sep 99 - 08:55 PM Matthew - I learned this song from my grandmother who did indeed sing it to us before bed as a good night song - we would cry and beg her not to sing it - but, being a good Irish woman she would sing it anyway and tell my little sister and I that it would "give you a soft heart" - as an adult when I would cry at a sad movie or song she would tell me - "Ah, your bladder's near your eyes!" So much for the value of cultivating a soft heart - boy do I miss her.... (Dead in the Coach Ahead was another one of her favorites - in that one - the father has a crying baby in a train and when someone complains - 'go take it to his mother' he replies 'I wish that I could..but she's dead in the coach ahead' ....boy, just a song kids would love to hear!) Rois - |
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