Richie,
If you look at Roud you'll see there are plenty of English 'Edwards' (I detest that title). The Cheshire Mummers version is particularly close geographically to the several versions found in the Pennines west of Sheffield and still very much sung there. Cheshire and Yorkshire are just a short hop across the hill, here. As an American looking at the map you'd probably think they were in each other's back yards.