Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Four Maries / The Four Marys / Mary Mild / Mary Hamilton (Child No. 173) - Sung by the Ritchie sisters, Jean and Edna Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky. Recorded by George Pickow in 1966.
Notes by Jean Ritchie on the Mudcat.org forum:
This was the version we sang at home in KY. I got other verses from Jeannie Robertson when we met in 1952, and she said the first two verses "like a poetry," and I told her to try singing them, as they were actually the first two verses of her "Four Maries." She couldn't believe it at first, tried it, then finally it fit. She was so happy!
Yes, the 1953 recording of Jeannie Robertson was done by myself and my husband George Pickow, towards the end of my Fulbright year in the British Isles and Northern Ireland (or as we say at home, England, Scotland and Ireland). Hamish Henderson was along as friend, guide, and collector with us on behalf of his University. Alan Lomax borrowed from this collection to round out his own. And he was kind in repaying the favor when I needed one of the long ballads he got the year before (from Elizabeth Cronin) which she hadn't had time to sing for us. Hamish, Alan, Seamus Ennis, Peter Kennedy, and we two (George and I) were close friends that year, 1952-53, and were at many festivals and traditional celebrations together. A most marvelous time, and over all too soon.
Song transcription:
Last night there were four Marys
The night there'll be the three
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me
Last night I dressed Queen Mary
And put gold upon her hair
But all I'm to get for my reward
Is the gallows to be my share
Oh, little did my mother ken
The day she cradled me
Of the land I was to travel in
Or the death I was to dee
Oh, happy, happy is the maid
That's born of beauty free
For it was my dimple and rosy cheeks
That was the ruin of me
They'll bind a kerchief aroond my een
They'll no let me see to dee
They'll never tell my father and mother
But what I'm awa o'er the sea.
Last night there were four Marys
The night there'll be the three
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me
Four Maries / The Four Marys / Mary Mild / Mary Hamilton (Child No. 173) - Sung by the Ritchie sisters, Jean and Edna Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky. Recorded by George Pickow in 1966.
Notes by Jean Ritchie on the Mudcat.org forum:
This was the version we sang at home in KY. I got other verses from Jeannie Robertson when we met in 1952, and she said the first two verses "like a poetry," and I told her to try singing them, as they were actually the first two verses of her "Four Maries." She couldn't believe it at first, tried it, then finally it fit. She was so happy!
Yes, the 1953 recording of Jeannie Robertson was done by myself and my husband George Pickow, towards the end of my Fulbright year in the British Isles and Northern Ireland (or as we say at home, England, Scotland and Ireland). Hamish Henderson was along as friend, guide, and collector with us on behalf of his University. Alan Lomax borrowed from this collection to round out his own. And he was kind in repaying the favor when I needed one of the long ballads he got the year before (from Elizabeth Cronin) which she hadn't had time to sing for us. Hamish, Alan, Seamus Ennis, Peter Kennedy, and we two (George and I) were close friends that year, 1952-53, and were at many festivals and traditional celebrations together. A most marvelous time, and over all too soon.
Song transcription:
Last night there were four Marys
The night there'll be the three
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me
Last night I dressed Queen Mary
And put gold upon her hair
But all I'm to get for my reward
Is the gallows to be my share
Oh, little did my mother ken
The day she cradled me
Of the land I was to travel in
Or the death I was to dee
Oh, happy, happy is the maid
That's born of beauty free
For it was my dimple and rosy cheeks
That was the ruin of me
They'll bind a kerchief aroond my een
They'll no let me see to dee
They'll never tell my father and mother
But what I'm awa o'er the sea.
Last night there were four Marys
The night there'll be the three
There was Mary Seaton and Mary Beaton
And Mary Carmichael and me
