"The Knoxville Girl" is an Appalachian murder ballad.

Origins

It is derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad "The Wexford Girl", itself derived from the earlier English ballad "The Bloody Miller or Hanged I Shall Be" (Roud 263, Laws P35) about a murder, in 1683, at Hogstow Mill, 12 mi south of Shrewsbury. This ballad was collected by Samuel Pepys, who wrote about the murder of Anne Nichols by the Mill's apprentice Francis Cooper. Other versions are known as the "Waxweed Girl", "The Wexford Murder". These are in turn derived from an Elizabethan era poem or broadside ballad, "The Cruel Miller". Possibly modelled on the 17th-century broadside William Grismond's Downfall, or A Lamentable Murther by him Committed at Lainterdine in the county of Hereford on March 12, 1650: Together with his lamentation., sometimes known as The Bloody Miller.

Lyrics

I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know well And every Sunday evening, out in her home, I'd dwell We went to take an evening walk about a mile from town I picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down She fell down on her bended knees, for mercy she did cry "Oh Willy dear, don't kill me here, I'm unprepared to die" She never spoke another word, I only beat her more Until the ground around me within her blood did flow I took her by her golden curls and I drug her round and around Throwing her into the river that flows through Knoxville town Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl with the dark and rolling eyes Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl, you can never be my bride I started back to Knoxville, got there about midnight My mother, she was worried and woke up in a fright Saying "dear son, what have you done to bloody your clothes so?" I told my anxious mother I was bleeding at my nose I called for me a candle to light myself to bed I called for me a handkerchief to bind my aching head Rolled and tumbled the whole night through, as troubles was for me Like flames of hell around my bed and in my eyes could see They carried me down to Knoxville and put me in a cell My friends all tried to get me out but none could go my bail I'm here to waste my life away down in this dirty old jail Because I murdered that Knoxville girl, the girl I loved so well

Recordings

Samples

Parodies

Uses in other media

The song features prominently in If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, the first book in the Ballad mystery series by Sharyn McCrumb.