This is my note to a version we recorded from an Irish Travellers in London in 1973

Tradition has it that in 1724, Sir John Faa of Dunbar, accompanied by seven gypsies and disguised as one himself, persuaded Lady Jean Cassilis, to whom he had previously been betrothed, to run away with him. Faa and the gypsies were caught and hanged. The wife, for her part in the affair, was confined in a tower built especially for the purpose, for the rest of her life.   Tradition says that the eight heads carved into the tower below one of the turrets represent those hanged, the plane tree "which yet flourishes upon a mound in front of the castle gate", is the site of the execution and the ford by which the fugitives crossed The River Doon is still called The Gypsies Steps. This ballad originated in Scotland and was claimed, without any historical foundation, to be related to the supposed abduction
It has enjoyed great popularity in England, Scotland and America and, while it has turned up in Ireland, as collector Tom Munnelly points out, "the task of fixing its Irish provenance has been made difficult by the ubiquity of a recent re-write by Leo Maguire known as "The Whistling Gypsy".
There have been Irish versions collected; Child gives one taken down from Miss Margaret Reburn in County Meath around 1860 and Joyce give a tune entitled "The Gypsies Came To Lord M-s Gate".   The BBC recorded four sets in Ireland in the 1950s, two from Travellers and two from settled singers in Ulster. Since then there have been more versions found here, including two from Co. Roscommon Traveller John "Jacko" Reilly, one entitled "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" and another, which he thought of as a separate song and which he knew as "The Dark Eyed Gypsy".
"Pop's" Johnny Connors learned it from members of his family and other Travellers.

Reference
The English And Scottish Popular Ballads   F.J.Child (ed),   
Old Irish Folk Music And Songs               W.P.Joyce;   
The Bonny Green Tree;                      John Reilly; Tom         Munnelly (ed) (Topic LP)

A Re-write, circa early 1970ish Graham Miles (I think), goes -

Rather late last night Mr Jones came home
On the eight-forty-five from Victoria-O
He was rich and fat with a big bowler hat
And he hated the hippies and the beatnicks O

He put his key in his mock-tudor door
And he called out "dear, I'm home O
The train was late and we had to wait,
It must have been the hippies and the beatnicks O"

But no answer came when he stepped inside
But his daughter came to meet him O
Saying, "mummy isn't here, she's gone, I fear
Along with the hippies and the beatnicks O"

"Go get me the keys of my three litre Jag,
For the Mini is not so speedy O
And I will drive till I find her alive
Or dead with the hippies and the beatnicks O"

Oh he drove east and he drove west,
Up the motorways and the bye-ways O
Till he came soon to a hippie commune
And there he espied Mrs Jones O

"What makes you leave your house and your car,
The washing machine and the tele O,
Your children three, not to mention me,
And go with the hippies and the beatnicks O"

Oh what care I for my house and my car,
The washing machine and the tele O
My children three, for now I'm free
To roam with the hippies and the beatnicks O

And as for you, well the day I rue
That ever we got married O,
I'll grow my hair and I'll travel anywhere
Along with the hippies and the beatnicks O"