Oh my name is William Corder to you I do declare
I courted Maria Martin most beautiful and fair.
I promised I would marry her upon a certain day

Instead of that I was resolved to take her li-i-ife a-away.

[Chorus]

If you'll meet me in the Red Barn as sure as I have life
I will take you off to Ipswich Town and there make you my wife


[Verse 2]
I went home and I fetched my gun, my pickaxe and my spade
And I went into the Red Barn / and there I du-u-ug he-er grave.

The pickaxe for to break the ground, the spade to shift the clay
And the gun for Maria Martin, for to take her life away.


[Chorus]

[Verse 3]

With heart so light she thought no harm, and to meet me she did go
I murdered her all in the barn, and I laid her bo-o-ody low.
Once the horrid deed was done she lay there in her gore

Her bleeding body I buried, under the Red Barn floor.

[Chorus]


[Verse 4]
Now for many a weary month a-well her spirit couldn't rest

She appear-ed to her mother, and her mind was much impressed.
Her mother being so disturbed she dreamt for three nights o'er
That her daughter she lay murdered under the Re-e-ed Barn floor.


[Chorus]


[Verse 5]
She sent her father to the Barn, and he the ground did thrust
There he found his daughter, lying in the dust.

So come all young men who pass by, with pity look on me
For killing Maria Martin it's hanged I will be.
it's hanged I will be.