Don't know about the other thread but this one seems to have confused two completely separate songs with the same title. The Minstrel>>shanty song, apart from the name, has nothing in common with the bar-room song. As to Bugger/Booker unless someone can come up with an origin or an earliest version it's all just conjecture. My own opinion is 'Johnny Booker' takes precedent, because of the line in the chorus 'Old Johnny Booker was a gay old bugger' although you could equally argue, if his name was 'Bugger' then you could get away with not swearing, Naah! FWIW as far as I can see the song does not go back beyond WWII. As someone has said Bob Davenport spread it far and wide on the Brit folk scene. It was very popular in pubs away from the folk scene during the 60s which is where I first came across it. Of course the 'God made man' verse is a commonplace and was well known by the middle of the nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic.