John Spalding, Memorialls of the Trubles in Scotland and England, A.D. 1624 - A.D. 1645. Most of the meat is as Bruce quotes. But there is a second section in Spalding that equivocates the whole thing. As he says " it was very difficult to interpret, and I did't get very far with it" and that would go for me (and everybody else) too. Spalding, remember, is not a historian or researcher - he's some sort of registrar, recording (as well as he can) events of his own time as reported to him. The history of Craigston may be valid - there is only this one source and the account varies - but the connection to the song is unproven.

Mrrzy: I'll be happy to sent an OCR of the Spalding as well as the considerable back and forth & citations we (Bruce & I & several others not at Mudcat) did in 1995. It would need to be either a Word doc (specify which) or an rtf. The Spalding comes in several type faces so it pretty much needs to be formatted. All the other cites could be ascii. Actually, the Maidmont quote Bruce gives is the meat of it nearly verbatum from Spalding. Well, the one section, anyway.

She's usually 13 and he 12. I think that's the most common and oldst but it varies lots.

Another detail: Very few versions, Scottish or English include the verse re them going out early to the hayfield "to have some sport and play," etc. It's a good verse to have in so as to show her pregnancy & thus marriage were legitimate. The Dransfields sang that one but I don't recall anyone else recording it.