"It looks to me as if nobody knows where 'The Wild Rover' came from"
I suggest you read Brian's article on the song - he puts up an excellent argument for his claims on the source
My argument was that the theme is timeless and it was one of many
"Don't present your theory as if it were fact"
I should mention that to Steve Gardham - and to Dave Harker, come to think of it
THere ay be no definiive answers to any of these questions, but there are plenty of 'most likelys'
None of what we know about Walter is 'Mediated' and it is scurrilous to suggest it is

Walter is probably the most interviewed of any of our source singers, and certainly the most articulate
Walter bagan to list his family's songs in notebooks in the 1940s, before either collectors or folkies got near him - his discrimination is plain from the songs he chose to write down (and later, personally record') and what he didn't
When Walter was asked by a family member to record his songs, from that original fit tape, this is what he chose from over well over 100 songs

British Man Of War
Rambling Blade
The Irish Girl
Caroline And Her Young Sailor Bold
Generals All
Pretty Ploughboy
Van Dieman's Land
Jack Tar On Shore
I Wish, I Wish
Dark Eyed Sailor
The Deserter
Lads of High Renown
Broomfield Hill
Bush of Australia
Bonny Bunch of Roses
Lord Lovell
Peggy Bawn
Mowing The Barley
Seventeen Come Sunday
Jolly Waggoners
Cock a Doodle Doo
Bold Fisherman
Poor Smugglers Boy
Wraggle Taggle Gypsies
The Green Bushes
Help One Another
Rambling Blade    (accordeon)
Caroline and Her Young Sailor Bold
Bush of Australia
The Huntsman
The Transports (Van Dieman’s Land)
Jack Tar
Lads of High Renown

We have his notebooks, which indicate the same inclination towards real folk songs

What the hell do you insist on slandering people - friends and researchers of Walter - as you do ?
Jim Carroll