Song is possibly a version of The Ranter Parson and The Cunning Farmer's Wife - aka The Hive of Bees
Preacher waits till farmer is away from home and tries to seduce wife. She pretends to go along with it, persuades him to undress and get into bed, then brings in a hive of bees from the garden and throws it into the room locking the door.
He eventually escapes through a window leaving behind his money and clothes.
A friend of mine, Dick Snell, found it in a broadside collection in Cambridge University Library (UK) back in the early 70s and put a tune to it.. Think it's this that Nick Dow recorded.
Version in Roy Palmer's Songs Ralph Vaughan Williams book.
Jim Carroll