This is a minstrel show tear jerker, of the composed variety. It was first published by Firth, Pond & Co. (New York, 1852) as “Row Row Row Your Boat, or The Old Hut.” At that time, the words were sung to a different tune, composed by someone named “R. Sinclair.” No lyricist name is given.

The sheet music mentions that the song was being performed by a youth identified as “Master J. Adams” of Kunkel’s Nightingale Opera Troup. George Kunkel was operating his minstrel troupe out of Baltimore. Kunkel's lyricist was Alfred Burnett. I believe it likely that Burnett wrote the original words, or possibly the elusive R. Sinclair, which could be an alias. The song at that time did not include the well known “merrily merrily” bit. No references to any aspect of the song can be found from before 1852, nor any record that Firth/Pond’s copyright was ever challenged, aside from Christy & Woods' coopting of the same words for their own tune in 1854.

The widespread popularity of at least the chorus may be inferred by a brief portion of it having been quoted by Lewis Carroll (of the University of Oxford) in *Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There*, 1871.

Incidentally, the copy of "The Franklin Square Song Collection" found online is from 1885 and does not include this song in any form. Nor does it have anything contributed by Dr. Eliphalet O. Lyte, who was a rather stodgy looking educator of the time.