The poet Allan Cunningham, in his Works of Robert Burns (1834) made a connection between this song and I will put my Ship in Order (Drowsy Sleeper) which he said was current in Nithsdale at the time. He quoted part of a text which he said (bear in mind that he was not always altogether truthful) was from oral tradition. I quoted such of his comments as were reproduced in the Journal of the Folk Song Society (1904) in the thread Help: Age of 'East Virginia'?. You may find some of that discussion useful.

Note that Smith named his book The Scotish Minstrel (one "t"). It's easy inadvertently to "correct" it (I've done that myself) but many references use Smith's actual choice of title, so it's useful to know.