We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Mrs Dyer, The Baby Farmer

from Without a Chaperone by Reesha Dyer

/

about

When I found this ballad, how could I not learn it? It is based on the true story of Amelia Dyer, who ran a Victorian "baby farm". It was pretty grim. She got very arrested and very hanged. I do not actually know whether we are related. I hope not.

lyrics

The old baby farmer has been executed, 
It's quite time that she was put out of the way, 
She was a bad woman, it is not disputed, 
Not a word in her favour can anyone say. 

That old baby farmer the wretch Mrs Dyer, 
At the Old Bailey her wages is paid, 
In times long ago we'd have made a big fire, 
And roasted so nicely that wicked old jade. 

It seems rather hard to run down a woman, 
But this one was hardly a woman at all, 
To make a fine living in ways so inhuman, 
Carousing in comfort on poor girls' downfall. 

Poor girls who fell down from the straight path of virtue, 
What could they do with a child in their arms? 
The fault they committed they could not undo, 
So the baby was sent to the cruel baby farm. 

That old baby farmer the wretch Mrs Dyer, 
At the Old Bailey her wages is paid, 
In times long ago we'd have made a big fire, 
And roasted so nicely that wicked old jade. 

To all these sad crimes there must be an ending, 
Secrets like these forever can't last, 
Say as you like, there is no defending, 
The horrible tales we have heard in the past. 

It seems really awful how her heart could harden,
For when the Bow Street Law Officers came,
They found twenty little bodies a-buried in the garden, And one or two more down the old kitchen drain.

What did she think as she stood on the gallows? 
Poor little victims in front of her eyes, 
Her heart, if she had one, must have been callous, 
The rope round her neck - how quickly time flies. 

That old baby farmer the wretch Mrs Dyer, 
At the Old Bailey her wages is paid, 
In times long ago we'd have made a big fire, 
And roasted so nicely that wicked old jade. 

Down through the trapdoor quick disappearing, 
The old baby farmer has come to her harm, 
The sound of her own death bell's toll she was hearing, 
Maybe she went to the cruel baby farm! 

credits

from Without a Chaperone, released March 7, 2015

license

tags

about

Reesha Dyer image

Reesha Dyer London, UK

Hello! I'm Reesha, I sing songs and accompany them on the guitar with dubious proficiency. Some of them are funny, some of them are depressing. It's a magical mood lottery!

contact / help

Contact Reesha Dyer

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Reesha Dyer, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now