"Four Marys"

There is also what appears to be a three-part arrangement (Theorbo, Harp and Lute) in three separate sheets. It appears to start out notated in the key of C, but with F sharps, so actually in G, and then modulates for the last verse(s), three sharps, so probably to F.

From the Fiddler's Companion;

Scottish, Air and Waltz. G Major. Standard tuning. AA (Kerr): AB (Perlman). The melody is an adaptation of a famous Scottish song that usually goes by the title of "Mary Hamilton" or "The Queen's Maries," whose chorus goes:

Last night there were four Maries, tonight there'll be but three,
There was Mary Beaton and Mary Seaton, Mary Carmichael and me.

The ballad, a lament before the fourth Mary's execution, is based on a germ of truth. Four female children were selected to accompany the six year old Scottish Princess Mary when she was sent to France and by the time they returned in 1561 the Maries had become her ladies in waiting. However, Evelyn Wells in her book The Ballad Tree, finds that the ballad maker(s) either confused or purposefully wove a tale involving Queen Mary, the real Maries who were part of her entourage, various other famous Scots ladies to whom the taint of scandal was attached (who may or may not have been named Mary) and an actual recorded tragedy. It is fact that one of the Queen's French waiting-woman was hanged for murdering her illegitimate infant, sired by the Queen's apothecary, and this event was the germ of the ballad, perhaps "enhanced" for effect. Source for notated version: Sidney Baglole (b. 1912, Southwest Lot 16, East Prince County, Prince Edward Island; now resident of Freetown) [Perlman]. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 3; No. 428, pg. 48. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 168.

X:1 T:Four Marys, The M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Waltz S:Kerr - Merry Melodies, vol. 3, No. 428 (c. 1880's) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G G2|(B4A2)|G2B2d2|e6|d4G2|B4B2|d2c2B2|(A6|A2)z2d2| g4 g2|f2d2B2|e4e2|d2G2A2|B2d2B2|A2G2A2|(G6|G2)z2:|

The description can also be found at the (new Fiddler's Companion - The Traditional Tune Archive, at http://www.tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Four_Marys_%28The%29

Lyrics Mary Hamilton (The Fower Marys) Yest're'en the Queen had fower Marys The nicht she'll hae but three There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton, And Mary Car-Michael and me. Oh little did my mother think The day she cradled me The lands I was to travel in The death I was tae die Oh tie a napkin roon my eyen No let me seen to die And sent me a'wa tae my dear mother Who's far away o'er the sea But I wish I could lie in our ain kirkyard Beneath yon old oak tree Where we pulled the rowans and strung the gowans My brothers and sisters and me Yest're'en the Queen had fower Marys The nicht she'll hae but three There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton, And Mary Car-Michael and me. But why should I fear a nameless grave When I've hopes for eternity And I'll pray that the faith o' a dying thief Be given through grace tae me Yest're'en the Queen had fower Marys The nicht she'll hae but three There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton, And Mary Car-Michael and me. There was Mary Seton and Mary Beaton, And Mary Car-Michael and me.