It's important to differentiate between the various similar themes found mainly in Europe, Scandinavia and the Americas. This study is confined largely to the English speaking countries. It's impossible to say when and where the English speaking versions originated and comparing the "collective" murder ballads or stories is like comparing apples with oranges- yes, they're both similar fruits which is saying: yes, they're murder ballads with a similar theme.
That each murder of the seducer by the maid is given local settings is only natural since similar murders have occurred throughout the world. Some are adaptations of this similar "abduction of the maid" theme which already existed while others are new versions of the same story.
Here is an outline of the ballad story as given by Kemppinen in 1954:
a: A noble and foreign-looking man (false knight) approaches a young maid (king's daughter), charms her with his music or promises and carries her off in order to kill her. b: Having discovered his intentions, revealed either by the knight himself or in some other way, the girl, being the cleverer and more shrewd of the two, finds a way to save herself and c: kills the knight, d: The final scene tells of what the maid does when the murder is accomplished and how her world reacts to the deed. Subordinate characters are the father and mother or brother and sister of the king's daughter or the knight, or sometimes all of these.