Early 19th century at least? That's interesting - I'd been rather assuming it was a distilled version of some improving tale from a bit later - maybe something more like the Gordon League Ballads.

The Gordon League Ballads - they were a series recitations about the evils of drink and related stuff, for temperance meetings and so forth. Not as ponderous as they sound, they have a soap opera quality about them, with the same characters turning up again and again.

Here's a sample of one, with, which has an echo of the Wild Rover (I don't mean that I think it's a close relative, but it's the same world):

Now Smuts was bred teetotal. He was full of pluck and fun.
He'd ask for what he wanted in the face of anyone.

So he swings along one morning, and walks into "The Bull"
On a blazing day in summer when the bar was brimming full

And he asks for milk-and-soda, or a mug of lemonade.
Of course they hadn't got it. "Then," says he, "the liquor trade
Is not the trade it should be! Here's a public-house," says he,
And I am one of the public. And yet you can't serve me!"

You should have seen them staring! The landlord weighed a ton.
He stood with his mouth wide open. "Can I get a Currant Bun!"

And so on through the rest of the story, which has the hero setting up a Temperance Bar, and forcing the pubs to move over to selling lemonade and currant buns.