Here's more about the printing from Fowler, whose position is that the ballad was printed shortly after the murder in 1726:

"Theoretically the date of our broadside could be after the death of John Cluer, because his widow Elizabeth kept the business going and used the same imprint. Moreover when she then married her late husband's foreman Thomas Cobb in 1731, the latter managed the the Bow Church-Yard Printing Office until 1936 when William Dicey took over the business. William Dicey of course became famous as a ballad publisher, but there is no basis for placing "The Gosport Tragedy" as late as 1736, when William took over. Dicey lists our ballad in his catalogue of 1754 (unique copy in Bodleian Library), but this was very likely a new edition, of which I suspect a copy survives in the Crawford Collection (Bibliotheca Lindesiana no 655)."

Fowler does not mention, however, that Elizabeth Cluer was William Dicey's sister.

Richie