Wife o' Gateside, The

DESCRIPTION: "Ye've a' heard tell o' the wife o' Gateside (or Denside) ... poisoned her maid (or guid-dother [daughter-in-law]) to keep up her pride, And the Deil he is sure o' the wife o' ...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Greig/Duncan2)
KEYWORDS: homicide poison mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #129, p. 3, ("Ye've a' heard tell o' the wife o' Gateside") (1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan2 207, "The Wife o' Gateside" (2 fragments)
Roud #5837
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Laird o' Cockpen" (tune, according to Greig)
NOTES [153 words]: The current description is based on the Greig/Duncan2 fragments.
Greig/Duncan2 cites A.H. Miller, Haunted Dundee (Dundee, 1923) for an account of the trial. Margaret Warden, died September 8, 1826. Mrs. Smith, whose son George may have been the father of Warden's unborn baby, was tried for murder and a "Not Proven" verdict returned. - BS
Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p. 106, comments briefly on two "arsenic ballads" in the Greig/Duncan collection, "John Lovie" and "The Wife o' Gateside." She points out that Scots juries were allowed three verdicts, Guilty, Not Guilty, and Not Proven -- the latter of these allowing the accused to go free but saying that there was a significant probability of guilt. In both cases, apparently, the use of arsenic was demonstrated but it could not be shown who poisoned the dead person. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD2207

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