Gavin Greig attributes authorship to "Poet Clark. [I] hunted up his residence in the upper part of the parish of Keig. I found however that he had left the place and had died in a son's house in Glasgow in January 1907. He was then between 70 and 80 years old. Recently I made a record of the song from an old man who had been a farm servant along with Clark, had learnt the song from himself, and often heard him sing it and also speaks about the 'making' of it. His full name was William Clark...[he came from]the the parish of Alford".

Greig's earliest version of the song dates from 1854. He also gives 32 verses.