nutty said: "The words also appear in the Bob Dylan song ... Black Jack Davey"
Isn't that song just another of many variations of "Gypsy Davey" (I have that one by Woody Guthrie on an old recording.)
I think Dylan's version was another example of taking older songs and plucking out lyrics and "plot" lines to create a new version that might be copyrightable in arrangement if not literal lyrics.
And to go far afield on this -- such re-doing of songs to me isn't the folk process, it's just a way to lay claim to something to which you may have no real right.
SC