The Ballad Index says

"This song was published twice in 1896, once (according to the copyright records; no copies of the music survive) as by J. M. Black and once with words credited to Katherine E. Purvis and music by Black. (We should note, however, that Eldar Hasund, who has seen the copy which survives, does not consider it the same in either text or tune).
The song is very likely older in any case, as it was collected in Nassau by the McCutcheons in 1917 (again in a form unlike modern pop versions, though recognizably the same song and with much the same tune), and may have originated in the Bahamas"

Several versions in this thread (above)