PS

(even the singer who gave us the above song, made within his lifetime, couldn't give us the name of one of the makers).

A controversial point here I know but to what extent might your sources have been feeding you what you wanted to hear? It was well known that cannier sources knew what was expected of them when faced with song-collectors & folklorists whose primary agenda was determined by pre-conceptions of the sort of a beast an Authentic Folk Song was - essential anonymous, collectively determined by the community viewed across the gulf of class condscension etc. etc. I often ponder how many well known songs were passed off as trad / anon. simply because the collectiors wouldn't have been interested in them otherwise. One is reminded of the anecdote in which singers in America warned each other to put their banjos away and sing unaccompanied otherwise Cecil Sharp wouldn't be interested!