I saw the version of the tale of Rev. David Williamson and Lady Cherrytrees' daughter on p. 4 in the 2nd. ed., 1693, of 'Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence', and do not know for certain that it is in the original 1692 edition (there was at least one later edition also). I regret now that I didn't copy the anecdote. At the time I didn't realize it was the earliest account. I was after the comments on 'allowable' and not 'allowable' Scots popular songs of the time that appear later in the book (this I did copy).

According to Hans Hecht, 'Songs from David Herd's Manuscripts', the sole original source for the tale was the Memoirs of a Captain Cheichton published by Sir Walter Scott in vol. 12 of 'The Works of Johnathan Swift'. Hecht- "He [Creichton] is the sole authority for the anecdote". I haven't seen this, and don't know when the 1st edition of Scott's work was published, probably about 1820. The 2nd edition was in 1824. Neither Herd nor Burns could not have gotten his version from Scott's publication, and I doubt that either had seen any manuscript of Chreichton's 'Memoirs'.

Herd's footnote to the title 'Dainty Davie' in 'Scots Songs', II, 1776 is:

The following song was made upon Mess David Williamson, on his getting with child the Lady Cherrytrees' daughter, while the soldiers were searching the house to apprehend him for a rebel.

The note in Herd's manuscipts (reprinted by Hecht) is the same except the spelling of one word.

Davidson Cook's article 'Annotation of Scottish Song by Burns', reprinted with Dick's 'Songs of Robert Burns' and 'Notes on Scottish Songs' by Folklore Associates, 1962, quotes Burns directly from a Edinburgh University Library MS [MS Laing II] as follows:

This song, tradition says, and this composition itself confirms it, was composed on the Rev. David Williamson's begetting the daughter of Lady Cherrytrees with child, while a party of dragoons were searching her house to apprehend him for being an adherent to the Solemn League and Covenant. The pious woman had put a lady's night-cap on him, and had laid him a-bed with her own daughter, and passed him to the soldiery as a lady, her daughter's bedfellow. A mutilated stanza or two are to be found in Herd's Collection, but the song consists of five or six stanzas, and has merit in its way. The first stanza is:-

Being pursed by the dragoons, .....

.....

We can see that this is somewhat embelished from Herd's account, and I've seen somewhere an account stating that Lord Cherrytrees was away from home at the time. I've also seen an account (maybe the same one) that Lady Cherrytrees had hidden Rev. Williamson under her daughter's bed, then left the room to confront the dragoons.

There are probably as many variant accounts now as there are versions of the song, but the only two 18th century versions known are those on my website.