Thank you, Tom. That clears up the Bliss/Napper text, then. I'd guess that Tom Bliss used the 'blue' verse from the Purslow book in his collation. That in turn, incidentally, was also a collation; the singer who provided the tune in The Wanton Seed had only a fragmentary text which Frank augmented with material from other versions in the Hammond and Gardiner collections, some at least of which were 'white' cockade forms.

A direct connection between the 'blue' forms and the Gordon Riots seems pretty unlikely; the broadsides which feature blue cockades aren't very different from other forms, and the hapless 'hero' is an army recruit in all of them. Still, it does reinforce the point that cockades as badges of allegiance were the order of the day, and provides an example of one such that no doubt would have carried significance for a fair few people at that time.

Probably a lot of people who have only heard (or sung) the 'White Cockade' version familiar in the folk revival aren't aware of the background, and others think that it's a Jacobite reference. It probably was in the case of the rather older Scottish dance tune of the same name, but I don't know that there's any connection between that and the usual tune for this song, so there's no need to enlarge on it in this particular discussion.

The standard 'folk club' version usually has repeats: 'Oh my very, oh my very, oh my very, oh my very heart is broken ...' (etc). This isn't a modern innovation; some, though not all, traditionary versions feature it. It is a relic of what must have been a very popular 'glee' setting of the song for two or more voices. The Copper Family still sing it that way, but of course the majority of the singers encountered by the collectors of the early C20 were elderly and didn't have anybody to sing with any more in the old style, so their versions were 'solo'. Nevertheless, many retained the repeats, singing it all themselves; or as much as they could comfortably fit in.