IMHO the Tom, Tom stuff is from a wholly different song.

The version of which I know is: -


OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY (2)

Hark now the drums beat up again
For all true soldier gentlemen
So let us list and march I say
O'er the hills and far away

Cho: O'er the hills, and o'er the main
To Flanders, Portugal and Spain
Queen Anne commands and we obey
O'er the hills and far away

There's twenty shillings on the drum
For him that with us freely comes
For volunteers shall win the day
O'er the hills and far away

Come gentlemen that have a mind
To serve a queen that's good and kind
Come list and enter in to pay
O'er the hills and far away

And we shall live happy lives
Free from squalling brats and wives
Who nag and vex us every day
O'er the hills and far away

'Prentice Tom may well refuse
To clean his angry master's shoes
For now he's free to run and play
O'er the hills and far away

No more from sound of drum retreat
When Marlborough and Galway beat
The French and Spaniards every day
O'er the hills and far away.





The references to Marlborough and Galway might appear to place the depicted events in around 1707, as part of the War of the Spanish succession, well before Queen Anne's death, and the treaty of Utrecht was in 1713, also before Queen Anne's death.   England was, during the war, allied to Holland and the French were allied with the Spaniards. See http://www.victorianweb.org/history/MarlboroughWars.html

However Marlborough did not die until well after Anne's death, although he was not well from about 1715 onwards.


Sharpe is set in the Napoleonic wars from 1809 onwards, so I suspect that the use of the song in the series merely represents the survival of the song from earlier times.


For a French folk song about Marlborough, see here: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlbrough_s%27en_va-t-en_guerre