I get the idea that you ask because you nay have been to Colonial Williamsburg, where this is a perennial favourite. William Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time, 572) doesn't say much about it; he got his copy, with music, from a broadside. It's eighteenth century, but maybe not as early as The Beggar's Opera (1727)--which nevertheless does use the tune (song no. 44), i.e. "Lillibullero". An older version (it seems) praises Newcastle ale. Which came first is the chicken-and-egg question. But--in Claude M. Simpson's great book "The British Broadside Ballad and its Music" we find that the "Newcastle Ale" song is a late broadside, reprinted (n.b.) in 1785 or so; while "Nottingham Ale" is at Harvard, a song sheet in the Julian Marshall collection; a MS. book bound in a British Library copy of a songbook, 1783, has the poem credited there to "Mr. Saml. Gunthrope". I seem to remember being told at Col. Wmsburg that the song had been found in the papers of some colonial (or revolutionary) bigwig, so it immediately received special status. Others may correct me on this. Bruce, what do you say??