With regard to the original song ....it was collected in the East Riding of Yorkshire and sent to Frank Kidson who included it in his "Traditional Tunes" published in 1891.

Kidson says, "This delectable effusion is found upon broadsides, and is also in a very scarce book (small quarto in size), entitled, The Vocal Library dated 1818. The song seems to have been an old one, with verses produced at the time of the last American war grafted on."