> Joseph Taylor > Songs > Murder of Maria Martin
> Shirley Collins > Songs > Murder of Maria Martin
> Ashley Hutchings and The Albion Band > Songs > Murder of Maria Martin

Murder of Maria Marten / The Red Barn Murder

[ Roud 215 / 18814 ; Ballad Index BdTMoMM ; trad.]

Joseph Taylor sang a short fragment of Murder of Maria Marten on Unto Brigg Fair, from a cylinder recorded in 1908 by Percy Grainger. The LP sleeve notes commented:

Of the gallows-final-confessions type of street literature, surprisingly few of the many thousands of different stories have appealed sufficiently to have warranted continuity in the form of folk song. Of these few, by far the most popular has been Catnach's tale of the infamous Red Barn murderer, William Corder. Almost without exception, when one encounters a singer who has the song or a previously collected set in ms. form then the tune is that old favourite, Dives and Lazarus / Star of the County Down though in two styles: either the full four line tune or a variant of just the last two lines. Other versions are HCSL, FSJ No. 7, and the sheet by Catnach which was copied by Plant of Nottingham amongst others. Hindley would have us believe that old Jemmy Catnach printed enough copies of this sheet to allow one in four of the population to possess one! John Pitts printed another song concerning the same events but on this occasion was very much overshadowed by his arch rival.

Shirley Collins recorded a much longer version with the Albion Country Band on their album No Roses. This was reissued a lot of times, e.g. on her anthologies A Favourite Garland and Within Sound, on the Ashley Hutchings retrospective Burning Bright: The Ashley Hutchings Story, and on several other compilations. She commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

This was Ashley's choice. The tune is of the Dives and Lazarus family, one of the great melodies of the British tradition (listen to Vaughan Williams's Dives and Lazarus or Star of the County Down by Van Morrison for two examples). The Red Barn Murder has fascinated people ever since it happened last century, and Ashley's treatment of it is equally intriguing. His device of breaking the ballad up in this rather extraordinary way, and the inspired sound effect of the cart crunching on the gravel at the hanging give it a chilling edge.

Lyrics

Joseph Taylor sings Murder of Maria Marten Shirley Collins sings Murder of Maria Marten

“If you'll meet me at the Red Barn
As sure as I have life
I will take you to Ipswich Town
And there make you my wife.”

“If you'll meet me at the Red Barn
As sure as I have life
I will take you to Ipswich Town
And there make you my wife.”

This lad went home and fetched his gun,
His pick-axe and his spade.
He went unto the Red Barn
And there he dug her grave.

He straight went home and fetched his gun,
His pick-axe and his spade.
He went unto the Red Barn
And there he dug her grave.

Come all you thoughtless young men,
A warning take by me
To think on my unhappy fate
To be hanged upon a tree.

My name is William Corder,
To you I do declare
I courted Maria Marten,
Most beautiful and fair.

I promised I would marry her
Upon a certain day;
Instead of that I was resolved
To take her life away.

I went unto her father's house
The eighteenth day of May
And said, “My dear Maria,
We will fix a wedding day.”

With her heart so light she thought no harm
To meet her love did go.
He murdered her all in the barn
And he laid her body low.

With her heart so light she thought no harm
To meet me she did go.
I murdered her all in the barn
And laid her body low.

After the horrid deed was done
She laid there in her gore
Her bleeding, mangled body lay
Beneath the Red Barn floor.

Now all things being silent
Her spirit could not rest.
She appeared unto her mother
Who'd suckled her at her breast.

For many a long month or more
Her mind being sore oppressed,
Neither at night nor yet by day
Could she take any rest.

Her mother's mind being so disturbed
She dreamed it three nights o'er,
Her daughter she lay murdered
Beneath the Red Barn floor.

She sent the father to the Barn
Where he the ground did thrust
And there he found his daughter
Lay mingling with the dust

My trial was hard, I could not stand,
Most woeful was the sight
When her dear bones was brought to prove
Which pierced my heart quite.

Her aged father standing by,
Likewise his loving wife,
And in her grief her hair she tore
She scarcely could keep life.

Adieu adieu, my loving friends,
My glass is almost run.
On Monday next will be my last
When I am to be hung.

So all young men who do pass by
With pity look on me
For murdering of that young girl
I was hung upon a tree.

Acknowledgements

Joseph Taylor's version transcribed by Garry Gillard. Shirley Collin's version was copied from the Ashley Hutchings songbook A Little Music.