The Unfortunate Miss Bailey Lyrics
His wicked conscience smitted him.
He lost his stomach daily.
He took to drinking ratafia and tho't upon Miss Bailey.
His candle just a twelve o'clock began to burn quite palely.
A ghost stepped up to his bedside and said, "Behold, Miss Bailey!"
The coroner's quest goes hard with me because I've acted freely and Parson Biggs won't bury me tho' I'm a dead Miss Bailey."
'Twill bribe the sexton for your grave." The ghost then answered gaily, "Bless you, wicked Captain Smith, remember poor Miss Bailey!"
The Burial grounds in the late Middle Ages was around the church buildings and the most well off had their plots closest to the building. Those diseased that were not in the good graces of the church could not not be buried near the church as such burials would taint the sacredness of the burial grounds. The bribe for Miss Bailey’s grave was to 1. redeem her sullied reputation and 2. To put her back in the graces of the community and 3. Take her soul out of purgatory. The British assigned sentries to locations to keep an eye on the locales for latent revolutionary ideas, thus Captain Smith probably headed such a squad, he being the leader.. With nothing to do, Halifax was most loyal to the Crown, Capt Smith ran amuk dallying with the locals to fill his time. His guilt over deflowering Miss Bailey caused his drinking and most likely was the subsequent cause of the appearance of the ghostly apparition. Bribing the parson overcame the barrier to finding a location for her grave within the sanctified grounds of the church building, and the assuagement of his conscience.