Henry Green (The Murdered Wife) [Laws F14]

DESCRIPTION: Henry Green threatens suicide if Mary Wyatt will not marry him (she is unsure about the idea because he is rich and she is poor). Soon after the marriage, he poisons her. She forgives him before she dies, but he is sentenced to death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: homicide marriage poverty execution poison
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845 - Marriage of Marry Ann Wyatt and Henry Green (Feb 10, 1845), followed by the murder of Mary Ann Wyatt Green (Feb 18) and execution of Henry Green (Sep 10)
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws F14, "Henry Green (The Murdered Wife)"
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 321, "Henry Green" (1 text)
Randolph 157, "Henry Green" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 125-127, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown-VermontFolkSongsAndBallads, pp. 65-68, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 792-793, "Henry Green" (1 text)
Cazden/Haufrecht/Studer-FolkSongsOfTheCatskills 66, "The Arsenic Tragedy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp.442-443, "(The Murdered Wife, or, The Case of Henry G. Green, of Berlin, Rensselaer County, New York") (1 text)
Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, pp. 178-184, "Miss Riot" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #64, "Young Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune, with the local title "Miss Yowta")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 142, "Young Henry Green" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 624-627, "The Murder of Miss Wyatt" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast 100, "Henry Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads, pp. 11-13, (no title) (1 partial text, 1 tune, plus an excerpt from this or a related ballad)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 106-108, "Henry Green of Troy" (1 text plus a broadside print)
DT 666, ARSENICT*
Roud #693
RECORDINGS:
Pat Murphy, "Henry Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Will O'Brien, "Henry Green" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Billy Vite and Molly Green" (plot)
cf. "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green" (subject, plot)
NOTES [255 words]: The Digital Tradition editors speculate that this was adapted from the music hall song "Billy Vite and Molly Green." This is conceivable, but a significant stretch -- this song is serious, "Billy" comic; "Billy" involves a supernatural element, and in "Billy" it is the boy who is poor and the girl rich. Cohen believes it went the other way; "Billy" is a parody of this serious song. - RBW
Leach-FolkBalladsSongsOfLowerLabradorCoast notes that "the murder took place in Rensselaer County, New York" - BS
This is confirmed by Newman/Devlin-NeverWithoutASong, which has extensive notes about the events, including copies of the tombstones of Green and Wyatt. The tombstone says Wyatt was poisoned with arsenic -- an interesting choice if true, because by 1845 the Marsh Test for arsenic was established (it was developed in 1836). But if Wyatt's body was tested for arsenic, I haven't seen the reports.
Burt-AmericanMurderBallads has notes about the case in its entry for "The Murdered Wife or the Case of Henry G. Green." Mary Ann Wyatt was a performer in a troupe which staged temperance dramas. Her appearance so excited Henry Green that he joined the troupe to court her. They were married in February 1845.
The marriage was so sudden that Green felt compelled to publicize it with a sleighing party for his friends, at which a former love told him that she had once wished to marry him. Wyatt felt sick the next day, and Green went to get some medicine. He shoved more and more down her throat, and she died by poison. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: LF14

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