I'm not convinced by the assertions in Flanders. People sometimes make these wild exaggerated claims to the pedigrees of songs to boost the song's prestige. I've come across similar claims before especially with Child Ballads (which this isn't),and without back-up or proof I tend to treat them with a pinch of salt, but then as you know I'm the greatest skeptic going.

What is significant here is that all of the Flanders versions start with the same first 2 lines which certainly do not occur on the many British broadsides, and I doubt on any of the British oral versions that stem from the broadsides. The possibility presents itself here of a New England chapbook version rewritten for the chapbook. New Englanders would know where London was but perhaps not Hertforshire.