The confusion between Shakers and Quakers contunues to spread, and will doubtless get morre and more common as the dictinction between various sects of Christianity become less and less important to people.
   The attribution of this song to Shakers(or Quakers) seems to follow a fairly common pattern, where things in the past tend to cluster round famous people/things. Dick Turpin ends up with any highwayman stories attributed to him, whereas back in the age of highwayman there were plenty of people in that trade, each with their own story. Similarly, witticisms attach themselves to Oscar Wilde. Any old bit of simple furniture can get labelled "Shaker" in poular thought, and the same thing can happen to songs. I'm perfectly sure that Carolan has acquired a good few harp-tunes in recent years that he wouldnt have known in his life.
   The Shaker/Quaker thing is an unusual example; instead of of all the highwaymen merging into Dick turpin, we have have two separate religions merging, the process being driven by their rhyming with each other. Give it another five hundred years and the bakers and candlestsick makers may merge in as well. people will then be arguing on Mudcat about a strange sect who sang some of the time, sat in silence otherwise, and eked out a simple living selling chairs, loaves of bread and candles that they made by hand.