Not to me, and it wouldn't matter too much if he did - he never made an issue of it and many of his sources spoke out loudly in favour of the idea that folk was the creation of the folk
The early folklorists were products of their time - as slavery was a major part of Bristish society for many centuries, we may as well dismiss anything prior to its being abolished - waddya think ?

You, Steve... and others are offering facile and deeply flawed arguments and no real alternatives
Much of this discussion can be solved by applying a little common sense
If the folk were capable of making folk songs, they probably did
If you believe they weren't, you need to say why
One wonders how so many living at the same time as was an oral tradition and a triving broadside trade, could have got it wrong for so long only to be proved wrong by a few researchers long after all that had died, shuffling papers
Nah - sorry - don't buy it
When somebody puts up a reasonable answer to these, and all the other contradictions, maybe I'll look into it - until then, I'll stich with the giants
Child, Bronson, Sharp and a century or so of research - all wrong - are you people serious, or is this a wind-up !!!
Jim Carroll