This song is a traditional murder ballad detailing the disastrous actions of a young man suffering from love made impossible to consummate by the socioeconomic class gulf of his era.  

The stimulus for the song was the 1885 murder of Emma Virginia Hill by Tom Freeman.  

Read about the at the historical events that stimulated this fictional tale at these links

https://tinyurl.com/GinnyHill

https://tinyurl.com/CaptHill