Billy Taylor

(completely co-opted and subverted by Janie Meneely)

Billy Taylor and the deacon's daughter
Getting ready for to wed
He's shanghaied like a drunken sailor
Sent to the oyster rocks instead

She takes off her dress of linen
Pulls on leggins like a man
Hires out to a skipjack captain
To find her Billy if she can

When the dredge comes full of oysters
She bends to like all the rest
Snaps a button off her jacket
Captain spies her lily breast

Tell me now my little darlin'
What it is that brought you here?
I am searching for my lover
Shanghaied off a Fell's Point pier

If he's been a willing worker
Not been paid off by the boom
He'll have made a name among us
And surely you will find him soon

He is quick and he is able
He would earn no one's disdain
There's no brighter star among you
Billy Taylor is his name

Captain wrung his hands in sorrow
And he looked at her with dread
Pretty maid, I'd rather tell you
That your Billy Taylor's dead

Captain tell me, oh pray tell me
Though it break my heart to know
I have come this far to find him
Round the world I'd gladly go

You needn't travel and farther
Than the church in Crisfield town
There tomorrow Billy Taylor
Will be wed to Lucy Brown

She set out for Crisfield proper
When she heard the church bells chime
Ringing out, the deacon told her,
For Billy Taylor and his bride

She drew forth a brace of pistols
That she had at her command
And she shot her Billy Taylor
With his bride at his right hand