Interesting.

I should have mentioned my source, namely "The Minstrelsy of England," edited by Alfred Moffat with notes by Frank Kidson. My copy is undated, but has an inscription dated 1913.

The note for the song states:
"An early sea song which for over a hundred years enjoyed great popularity. It relates to a victory of the English (under Admiral Russell), combined with the Dutch, over a large French fleet, off Cap La Hogue, on May 19th 1692. The victory was celebrated by Queen Mary by the giving up of her palace at Greenwich for the use of disabled seamen, and by the foundation of the present Greenwich hospital. The song and tune, under the title, "The Sea Fight in '92, 'set by Mr Ackroyde,'" appear in "Pills [to purge melancholy]" iv, 1719, and later on half-sheets and in many song books. Copies of the air vary considerably, especially in the first four bars of the second strain; the earliest and best is here used. In regards to the words, very early versions begin "Early in the morn, the Ides of May." Samuel Ackroyde was a Yorkshireman, whose compositions figure largely in the later publications of Henry Playford and D'Urfey."


How are the mighty fallen! In his heyday, I believe, Ackroyde enjoyed respect only exceeded by that given to Purcell. When I posted my rendering of this song on YouTube I could find on the internet no other recording of any of Ackroyde's compositions.