According to Roy Palmer, 'The Sound of History' pp.122-3, Jack or John Hall was finally hanged, at Tyburn, on 17 December 1707, having been previously condemned but then reprieved in 1701. He then discusses the song, the words being collated by Sharp from fragments, the tune, 'Chimney Sweep', being first mentioned in 1719, but the distinctive metre linking it to various other songs, including Kidd. John Hall is also mentioned in 'Chasing the Sun', pp.134-5, a history of dictionaries by Jonathon Green, who refers back to the Dictionary of National Biography. He has Hall executed at Tyburn on 12 December 1707, after writing his memoirs, including a glossary of thieves' cant, which apparently he stole from another author - a thief to the very end. Bronson in 'The Ballad as Song' devotes a whole chapter to Samuel Hall's Family Tree.