I think the second explanation regarding infection from CFS is the more likely, but you can't rule out a simple change of occupation in one oral seminal version influencing the others. They all tend to be fragmentary later versions. Both oral tradition and broadside hacks changed characters' occupations at the slightest whim: Sailors become soldiers, colliers etc.

Tunbridge Wells is in Kent about 120 miles away from Bristol. I still say the evidence for Bridgwater is overwhelming.