Songs in the British Isles are by Sam Cowell, 1820-1864, and others who played the part of the fool character, 'Billy Barlow.' Versions by Sam Cowell perhaps can be identified- at least those with early dates- by a line about Mother Goose (several copies in the Bodleian Library). The Billy Barlow character went to Paris, experienced the miseries of marriage, and met of talked of important people during the Victoria-Albert time period. One version has 46 verses (including encores).

In America, several entertainers played the part and composed songs based on the original character. A Mr. Wills sang it in 1834-1836, arr. P. F. Fallon. The most well-known of these is the Civil War song by Edward Clifford, 1863, "Billy Barlow," ('But a bully old soldier is Billy Barlow'). There also is a song about a bank robber, "Billy Barlow," and in some versions of "Billy the Kid," another Billy Barlow, a cowboy shot down, appears.

In Australia, "Billy Barlow also was played by more than one entertainer- see thread 18602, "Help: Jimmie Crack Corn." Help Jimmie
According to Joybell, one was Robert (Billy) Barlow, born in England in 1819. Joybell says the song "Billy Barlow in Australia," or "Billy Barlow's Emigration to Australia," was written by Benjamin Pitt Griffin, although sheet music at the National Library of Australia, 1850s, mentions Sam Cowell and a Mr. Toole, but no clear indication of authorship. Banjo Paterson, in his "Old Bush Songs," leaves it without author, and others have regarded it as anonymous.

What any of this has to do with the Billy Barlow Hunting Song is probably little or nothing. Sam Cowell could have lifted the name from the hunting rhyme, but there is no indication of this in the songs.

Paterson: Bush Songs

Billy Barlow; "Billy Barlow's Emigration to Australia": Barlow Australia

http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-an6618002