Ged Fox is right that Baring-Gould's note doesn't mention Spreyton but the traditional belief in Devon seems to be that the Tom Cobley the song refers to is buried in Spreyton and that he died there in 1794, long before Widecombe Fair existed and long before there was any fair within a day's ride of either Spreyton or Yeoford. Baring-Gould doesn't mention the age of the song but I've seen many websites which state that it is thought to date from around 1900, again long before there was any fair within riding distance - although none of them state why it is thought to date from then. So my question was and remains, how could this traditional belief have arisen that the song was written 50 years before there was any fair in that area, about supposedly real people living around Stickleback and Spreyton, going to a non-existent fair?