Three versions in Sharp's collection: from Harry Richards, Curry Rivel, Somerset, Jan 1907; Elizabeth Smitherd, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, April 11908; Alfred "Butcher" Hoar, Hillingdon, Middlesex, Sept 1913. Alfred Williams found it in the Upper Thames area around the same time.

It appeared on broadsides of the mid 19th century; examples can be seen at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Jack Williams [the boatman / boatswain]

The song had reached America by at least 1835, when it appeared in The Forget Me Not Songster, between The Rambling Soldier and Canada I O.

Laws L17, Roud 1906.