From here.

Rarer than a good song should be, this one. Sharp heard it, or three verses of it, in a Herefordshire workhouse (the workhouse was a great place to find singers in his day). Jack Moeran noted a fuller version at Winterton Norfolk, and that's the one Mike bases his performance on. Moeran's singer was James Sutton, nicknamed 'Old Larpin', from whom the great Sam Larner learnt a boatload of songs. The tune belongs to that imposing family of heavy crotchet, double-stamp ending, hornpipe-like melodies such as the Irish march tune, The Peacock, already popular in the opening years of the nineteenth century. It's the favourite kind of melody for a great many songs about sailors, beggars and robbers. Any connection?

:-)