Thanks for the reference to the Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Music website, julia L.    Ben Franklin's reference to "Chevy Chase" is particularly helpful, since it tends to confirm an earlier reference to that ballad above from Mick Pearce. The reference to the popularity of Scottish music is also interesting. Here is another paragraph from that website referring to Thomas Jefferson's music library. I wonder if he had any of the six books I mentioned above in his library. That information might be available somewhere.

"Though the oral transmission of these songs was a powerful force in the 1700s, there also was interest in preserving them in written form. Individuals collected them and published anthologies of traditional music. Thomas Jefferson shelved some of these works in his music library. Music for drinking songs, country dances, and English, Scottish, and Irish airs rested near works by Vivaldi, Handel, and Haydn. Jefferson also liked playing fiddle tunes heard at local gatherings, according to historian Gilbert Chase in America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present."

Here is the website:

http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter03-04/tavern.cfm