I relocated the few xeroxed copies of songs I made from Dave Harker's Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell, Surtees Society, 1985. Among them is the following:

THE HEXHAMSHIRE LASS

Through the sevie Sike & O'er the Mossy Mire [rushy dyke
Oh for the bonny bonny Lass that lives in Hexhamshire
her Father likes her Weel, her Mother likes her better
I like the Lass mysel but flaid I Wona get her [afraid I won't

When I came to this Town
they ca'd me Robin Rowell
now they've changed my Name
and they ca me the Rakeing Jewell

Oh that I was where a wad be [a, not I]
then wad I be where I am not
But where I am I mun be
and where I wad I cannot
..............................

The first verse should obviously be split into two verses of shorter lines. Harker's term for it is a fragment. That second verse here is practically the same as one in "A New Song called Harry Newel" on my website, and is very similar to the opening of the American[?] "Katy Cruel", and the last above is practically the same as found in the chorus of "Katy Cruel". The manuscript copy bears no date, and the paper has no watermark. Some of Bell's manuscript texts are of later date than his book of 1812. Harker noted the version of the song in 'Northumbrian Minstrelsy', but is unclear as to whether it's the same as in Bell's 'Rhymes of the Northern Bards'. Harker adds: "Versions have been found in several parts of the English-speaking world, under varying titles."

That's the end of the facts, and, since I've already done too much speculation on this subject, I quit here.