AND THE HANGING OF JAMES MCDERMOTT

AT THE NEW GAOL IN TORONTO, NOVEMBER 21st, 1843.

Grace Marks she was a serving maid,

Her age was sixteen years,

McDermott was the stable hand,

They worked at Thomas Kinnear’s.

Now Thomas Kinnear was a gentleman,

And a life of ease led he,

And he did love his housekeeper,

Called Nancy Montgomery.

O Nancy dear, do not despair,

To town I now must go,

To bring some money home for you,

From the Bank in Toronto.

O Nancy’s no well-born lady,

O Nancy she is no queen,

And yet she goes in satin and silk,

The finest was ever seen.

O Nancy’s no well-born lady,

Yet she treats me like a slave,

She works me so hard from dawn to dark,

She’ll work me into my grave.

Now Grace, she loved good Thomas Kinnear,

McDermott he loved Grace,

And ‘twas these loves as I do tell

That brought them to disgrace.

O Grace, please be my own true love,

O no it cannot be,

Unless you kill for my dear sake,

Nancy Montgomery.

He struck a blow all with his axe,

On the head of Nancy fair,

He dragged her to the cellar door

And threw her down the stairs.

O spare my life McDermott,

O spare my life, said she,

O spare my life, Grace Marks she said,

And I’ll give you my dresses three.

O ‘tis not for my own sake,

Nor yet my babe unborn,

But for my true love, Thomas Kinnear,

I’d live to see the morn.

McDermott held her by the hair,

And Grace Marks by the head,

And these two monstrous criminals,

They strangled her till dead.

What have I done, my soul is lost,

And for my life I fear!

Then to save ourselves, when he returns.