I would like to correct something an earlier correspondent said about this song - ie. That it is from the Hammond & Gardiner Collection.
Yes - it does appear in Frank Purslow's book - Marrowbones, which contains songs collected by The Hammond Bros AND DR. George Gardiner, but Gardiner did not collect any versions of the song.
Both collections are individual collections and only have very little to do with each other, although both men knew each other well, and they collected together very briefly. They worked in different areas.
The version in the book above was collected by Hammond from John Pomery of Bridport, Dorset.

Tim Radford