A North Countrie Garland. There is nothing there to indicate that ballad and its history came from C. K. Sharpe. Sharpe was a respected historian of witchcraft in Scotland.]
The Young Laird of Craigstoun
The estate of Craigstoun was acquired by John Urquhart, better known by the name of Tutor of Cromarty. It would appear that the ballad refers to his grandson, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Innes of that ilk, and by her had one son. This John Urquhart died November 30, 1634. Spalding (vol. i. p. 36), after mentioning the great mortality in the Craigstoun family, says: "Thus in three years' space the good-sire, son, and boy died." He adds that "the Laird of Innes (whose sister was married to this Urquhart of Leathers, the father), and not without her consent, as was thought, gets the guiding of this young boy, and without advice of friends, shortly and quietly marries him, upon his own eldest daughter, Elizabeth Innes." He mentions that young Craigstoun's death was generally attributed to melancholy, in consequence of Sir Robert Innes refusing to pay old Craigstoun's debts: the three creditors bestowing "many maledictions, which touched the young man's conscience, albeit he could not mend it." The father died in December, 1631, and the son in 1634. The marriage consequently must have been of short duration.
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I don't see that the doubters have come up with evidence for anything else.
Sharpe's ballad tunes are a bit of a mystery, to me at any rate. He seems to have published none. A very few are known. Lady John Scott purchased his MSS (all?) after his death, and according to one source added to them. What remains is cataloged under her name at NLS. I know little more about them. Jack Campin has been through them or one at any rate, and has put a tune or two on the internet, but hasn't said much publicly about them that I know of. [Click on his website from my homepage. For tunes composed by Sharpe's father and sister see the books of Gow's 'Strathspey Reels' (Charles and Miss Sharpe of Hoddom).]