> I have a copy of the 1855 parody …

Is that "Barbara Allan THE CRUEL" on the Glasgow Broadside Ballads site? Dated 1855 and apparently "drawing crowded audiences at all the different theatres and concerts in the kingdom". Barbara laughs and then lives on to find "another spark". But she is eventually buried beside the young man (born in Reading town) who died for love of her: "They buried him in the church porch, / When she died laid her beside 'un, / For she wished to be his bride in death, / Though in life she could'nt abide 'un, / Though in life she could'nt abide 'un."

It also has a verse that maybe hints at the legacy motif (?): "When she was gone he gave a grunt, / In expression of his sorrow; / In his will left Barbara all his blunt, / And then he died to-morrow, / And then he died to-morrow."

It's printed alongside Ramsay's text, which comes with an introductory paragraph arguing that the "old Scottish set" of the ballad is the original and Percy's is a fabrication derived from it.