Bezell-

The song appears in "The Folksongs of Noth America" by Allan Lomax. He credits Frank Warner, also. The introduction to the song has a lot of the type of history you may be looking for. The most interesting thing to me was his statement that "There is a close connection between this ballad and John Gay's 'Beggar's Opera' (1728). It's worth a trip to the local library. If you've enver seen the book, you may find it fascinating enough to purchase.