It came from Frederick White of Southampton. George Gardiner and J F Guyer noted the song from him in January 1909; it was published in The Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol III (13) 1909, pp 287-9. A phonograph recording which appears to be Mr White singing the song survives (Vaughan Williams Memorial Library; you can hear it on the EFDSS cd A Century of Song) and it seems from Martin Carthy's sleevenotes that that's where Waterson:Carthy learned it.

It's the only example of the song found with a chorus that I can think of. The "walls of Troy" turn up in some oral versions, deriving from "wars of Troy" in broadside editions.