Hi Brian,
Thanks for reminding me about LP's original of Demon Lover. I'll have another good look at it. I only started making my list of broadside ballad writers fairly recently and it didn't make it onto my list of 17 ballads by him but it's there now. It'll be interesting to see what Ebsworth made of it in The Roxburghe Ballads. Ebsworth knew a damn sight more than Child about broadside ballads and their origins.

If you come across references to any of these songs that predate these printings I'd be obliged for the references to check out.

Regarding rehashes, the same has been said for 20 The Duke's Daughter's Cruelty (Cruel Mother) but I'm happy that it's the original and as far as I know there are no refs to predate the broadside.

I agree that an author's name on a broadside isn't concrete proof that he wrote it. The same goes for sheet music in fact. Some of them are undoubtedly remakes of earlier pieces and some partly from tradition. However I think there must be a strong chance that at least most of them were written by these authors.

I don't think there are any scholars who would dispute the fact that oral tradition generally improves what was printed on the broadsides. Facts may get muddied, names might get changed, but the singability and aesthetics are usually vastly improved.

My studied opinion on widely differing versions in oral tradition is that this is indeed reflected on broadsides. I go further and would state generally that where widely differing versions are found this is not down to oral tradition, but down to rewriting by broadside hacks. Another cause of course is the passing backwards and forwards over a long period of time between print and oral tradition. A really interesting example is Geordie/Georgie and the interaction with the 2 main originators, 2 quite different broadside ballads on 2 different Georges.

Paul, I'm sorry I don't understand your question.