The Murder Of Maria Marten-Shirley Collins/Albion Country Band

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.” He straight went home and fetched his gun, His pickaxe 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 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.