> Folk Music > Songs > Captain Webster
Captain Webster
[
Roud 5713
; Ballad Index RcCapWeb
; trad.]
Sara Cleveland of Brant Lake, New York, sang Captain Webster to Sandy Paton in 1965. This recording was included in 1968 on her Folk-Legacy album Ballads & Songs of the Upper Hudson Valley. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted:
The theme of family opposition to lovers culminating in the death of one or both sweethearts is a common one both in the Old World and the New. This particular ballad, however, is previously unreported. Local legend has it that it relates a true story. Sara learned it from her mother and her Uncle Bobby (Robert Wiggins) when the family lived in Hudson Falls, New York. The town of Fort Ann mentioned in the opening verse of the ballad was only ten miles away, and this, combined with the fact that a large number of families named Webster lived in the locality, was more than sufficient proof for the local singers that it must have been a true event.
Though I have found no related ballad with the same versification, I believe the ballad is only a localisation of an Old World original. The manner of its telling is that of the 19th century British stall ballads, many of which served as models for localised American productions. Whether or not the ballad may eventually be traced to an historical event, it is at least 90 years old, as Sara reports her mother told her that “everybody” sang it when she was a girl around 1875. Sara feels that if it is a true story then it must have happened “a long time ago”:
I don’t really sympathise with the couple because he had to be really stupid to listen to his mother. Nobody in my time would have been dumb enough to listen to their mothers when it came to love and getting married. It must have been when mothers still controlled the purse strings and picked out wives for their children.
Lyrics
Sara Cleveland sings Captain Webster
Good people all, from far and near,
A dreadful story you will hear;
It is concerning a young man
Who shot himself in West Fort Ann.
He was beloved by all who knew
The life he lived from boyhood through.
He gave both parents honour due,
And now you’ll see what love can do.
With a young girl he fell in love;
His mother tried his heart to change.
She said, “My son, let me hear no more
About this girl for she is poor.
“I have another girl in view
Who’ll make a better wife for you.
I’d rather follow you to your grave
Than know that this poor girl you’d have.”
“So, Mother, be it as you say.”
And with these words he turned away.
Straight to his love he then did go,
His mother’s words to let her know.
Said he, “My dear, I can’t marry thee;
My mother’s words have ruined me.
For Mother she has laid her plans,
And I’ll fulfil them, if I can.
“Farewell, farewell, I now must leave,
Farewell, my darling, but do not grieve.
No peace on earth can I find here;
In Heaven I’ll wait for you, my dear.”
Alas, alas, but all too late,
We learn of Captain Webster’s fate.
They found him dead on his cabin floor,
Shot through the heart and wreathed in gone.
A pistol in his hand he held,
The dreadful story for to tell.
Without the girl he did adore,
His life was not worth living more.
Now, mothers all, a warning take,
And careful be the course you take;
Of mighty dollars was the one
That caused the death of this young man.