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Fair Betsy 
Fair Betsy 
Oh Betsy she's a beauty Fair She lately come from Lincolnshire A hired servant for to be Which suited Betsy to a high degree 
This lady had an only son And Betsy's beauty his favor won Oh Betsy's beauty it shone so clear It drew his heart into a snare 
It was one morning as you shall hear He says to Betsy you are my dear I love you dear as I love my life And I do intend to make you my wife 
His mother in a room close by And hearing what her son did say Resolved she was in her own mind To put an end to their design. 
Early the next morning she arose And says to Betsy put on your clothes Into the country you must go To wait on me a day or two 
So Betsy arose put on her clothes And with her mistress away did go A ship lay waiting just out of town And to Virginia fair Betsy's bound 
The old woman returning home Welcome dear mistress said her son And where is Betsy tell me pray That she so long behind doth stay 
Oh son oh son I plainly see The love you have for Betsy But love no more for it is in vain I have sent her sailing over the main 
If Betsy's sailing over the main 
May the heavens to my love prove kind May the heavens to my love prove kind That she some harbor soon may find 
I'd rather see my son lie dead Than he to Betsy should be wed Then your desiring you quick shall see So he pierced his sword through his body 
When she saw her son lie dead With grief and sorrow she hung her head If my son should be restored again I'd send for Betsy o'er the main 
If Betsy sails upon the main May the heavens to my love prove kind She's tender hearted as a dove She sighs she mourns she dies for love 
From Songs the Whalemen Sang, Huntington Collected from the Journal of the Cortes, 1847 Note: A switch on all the songs (Banks of Dundee etc.) where
 the nasty parents ship the young man out. RG DT #434 Laws M20