On American Pastimes we hear the old murder ballad "Pretty Polly" followed by a new song "I Ain't Going to Sing Pretty Polly Anymore." The sentiment behind the new song is that women have been abused and brutalized by men through the ages and across all cultures, and it's time to put that behind us. But singing "Pretty Polly" and other old murder ballads doesn't elevate the killers or celebrate their evil. Most of the songs aren't actually about the men -- they're
about the women. Not singing these songs erases the women and the stories of their
lives -- and deaths. The real women behind these songs may be lost in history,
but they not only live on in the songs, so does every other woman who was killed by a man she trusted. The dead don't deserve to be ignored. So here's the story of Polly:
Polly, Pretty Polly, come go along
with me,
Before we get married, some pleasure to see.”
He led her over hills and valleys so deep,
Polly mistrusted, and she began to weep.
Willie, dear Willie, I’m feared of your ways,
I’m feared that you’ll lead my poor body astray.”
She went a little further and what did she spy?
A newly-dug grave with a spade lying by.
To you, my dear William? What makes you severe?
For to murder one that loves you so dear?”
Polly, Pretty Polly, you’ve guessed
about right,
I dug on your grave the best part of last night.”
He stabbed her in the breast and her heart’s blood did flow,
And into the grave Pretty Polly did go.
He threw a little dirt over her and started for home
Leaving no one behind but the wild birds to mourn.
You can't understate the stark and brutal pathos embedded in the verses above. 21st century television writers who churn out police procedural franchises that last for 5 or 10 years are hard-pressed to match the emotional weight carried by the storyline of "Pretty Polly" - which has been around for almost 300 years.
"Pretty Polly" has its origins in Great Britain where one of the oldest copies of the ballad (printed in 1750) takes 36 verses to tell the grim story of murder and supernatural revenge. That song is called the “The Gosport Tragedy” or the “The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter.”
By the time the ballad migrated to North America (where British folklorist Cecil Sharp collected versions at the beginning of the 20th century) the song was whittled down to as few as six verses, all without losing any of its emotional impact. And in North American it became known as “Pretty Polly.”
The original English ballad tells the story of a young woman (sometimes named Molly) who is lured into the forest where she is killed. The murderer is a ship’s carpenter who had promised to marry her but changed his mind when she becomes pregnant. After the killer leaves her in a shallow forest grave he returns to sea where he is haunted by her ghost which either drives him mad or kills him, sometimes in a most horrible way. As one writer notes: “Depending on the version, things can take a cringeworthy turn involving incest, insanity, premeditation, pejorative language, obsessive behavior, and of course, the supernatural. It’s no wonder that this story continues to be one of the most popular and widely covered in the folk music world and beyond. To put it plainly, it’s a messed up story.”
The American versions usually tidy it up a bit without diminishing the brutality. They tend to omit the reason behind the murder and leave off the resulting supernatural revenge; they end with the killer being haunted only by the knowledge that he has a debt to the devil that will be paid upon his own death.
Sailors have always been a source of good stories and often their tales would end up in ballad form so the likelihood of “Pretty Polly” evolving out of a real life story is pretty good. To that end David Fowler of the University of Washington set about researching Royal Navy records to see how many of the "Gosport’s" details he could confirm. His research was published in 1979 in Florida University’s Southern Folklore Quarterly.
In the older, longer versions of the ballad as soon as Molly is dead and buried we begin to learn more about her killer (William), the ship he is on (the Bedford), and where it sailed from (Portsmouth). Turns out that there actually was a ship, the HMS Bedford that sailed out of Portsmouth between 1698 and 1767. William and Molly are generic names that appear in numerous ballads even when the ballad can be traced to a real bit of history complete with documentary evidence of the names of the actual protagonists, and a search of the Bedford’s pay books, captain’s logs, and muster rolls came up empty for a ship’s carpenter named William. But in a couple of versions of the Gosport ballad the ghost of Molly appears to a shipmate on board who is named “Charles Stuart.” The historical record showed that in January, 1726 a “Charles Stewart” came aboard and spent at least two years as a crew member. The ship’s carpenter during Stewart’s first 8 months on the Bedford was a fellow named Jack Billson who served on board from 1723 until his death at sea in September 1726.
The records show that in January of 1726 the ship received orders to prepare for active duty at sea. They were to sail to the Baltic as a show of force against the Russian navy. In the months leading up to the Bedford’s departure it was anchored in Portsmouth where it underwent repairs and maintenance. Billson would have been in charge of the crew of carpenters who worked during the day on board and who could leave the ship in the evenings. Fowler thinks that Ship’s Carpenter Billson would have had plenty of time and opportunities to socialize in Portsmouth and that if he had seduced a local girl who ended up with his child then his lover would desperately apply pressure for Billson to marry her before the Bedford set sail. Because the ship left the harbor in late February Fowler surmises that the murder took place between late January and the date of departure. After the ship left Portsmouth it anchored in Spithead for final preparations. It sat there for six weeks with the crew on board the entire time. Fowler speculates that it was during this stay that the rumors of Billson’s murderous act spread among the superstitious sailors. Billson’s death a few months later made the story even more interesting. Sailor's usually succumb to scurvy but some experts think that the ship hadn’t been at sea long enough for the inevitable on-board scurvy epidemic to arise. If scurvy didn't kill him then whatever did provided his shipmates with solid evidence of supernatural retribution and laid the groundwork for the ballad that crossed the Atlantic and is still being performed almost 300 years later.
David Fowler's 20th century research brings detail to the story. But those details weren't needed to keep the sordid tale alive for 300 years or to make it more compelling. The song did that and because of the song a young woman's life and death could not be ignored or forgotten.
