billy,
Sorry but Liverpool 'babby'=baby came before the 'bobby' version. It might be a little boy in your version, but in hundreds of other versions it's a 'baby' or even several babies, and FWIW I love it too in all its manifestations.

In the 1960s Tony Davis (Spinners?) published a few verses of a version in Spin magazine vol 3 No 2. It is very close to the version Michael wrote about earlier in the thread. I gather from the article Tony's version came from Cheshire (Michael's from London) Both 'Old Mother Lee'. I have been PMing Michael and his very interesting version has a tune quite close to that of 'For he's a jolly good fellow'.

Query. Does anyone know if Tony published his tune? Does anyone know of other versions that follow this pattern...

There was an old woman called old Mother Lee
Old Mother Lee, Old Mother Lee
There was an old woman called old Mother Lee
Down by the walnut tree....
or use a variant of this tune? We're obviously not talking about the 'Weile Weile Wolye' variants/pattern here.