Three more recent printed sources of this song all have the same tune and directly cite William Walker's 1835 "Southern Harmony" (see link above). I am sure this list is neither all inclusive nor exhaustive. The song is in "The Season of The Year" by Irwin Silber (Oak Publications, 1971); "Mel Bay Presents Early American Christmas Music" by Glenn Wilcox (Mel Bay Publications, 1995); and "Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America" by George Pullen Jackson (J J Augustin 1937, with Dover reprint in 1964)

The Mel Bay book calls the song "Milton" following the practice of naming tunes rather than lyrics. The notes there say that Walker' tune book sold over 600,000 copies in a few years and was the most popular early tunebook ever printed. The notes continue:"We attribute the setting to Walker as there seems to be no earlier source. the words are frequently found, like the tune, in variant forms. The complex rhyme scheme seems to demand a specific author, but as yet no one has been determined."

Jackson said that the "tune, evidently dorian, is of a type that was widely used and varied by folk singers." He calls the tune group the'Babe of Bethlehem' family and lists several other hymns in his book as belonging to the family as well as some secular songs including "The Peevish Child" & "When I First Left Old Ireland" from Petrie's Irish collections and "Lowlands of Holland" and "Virginian Lover from Cecil Sharp's collection. Jackson also added that "John Powell has set 'The Babe of Bethlehem' in a beautiful dorian-mixolydian form for mixed chorus. It is published by J Fischer and Brother, New York."

rich r