Jim,
You need to check back again. At no point did I mention ALL folk songs. I deliberately said over and over again that my researches applied to that corpus of material collected and published c1890-1920 by the likes of Sharp. If I was to consider every item of English folk song, fragments, one-offs, peripherals it would take more than a lifetime, and then there would be the old debate about what constitutes a 'folk song'. I've deliberately avoided this all along and repeatedly so.

Some were certainly made in the 18thc. Many of the flowery ones that came out of the theatres and pleasure gardens were mostly 18thc.

I have done that, Jim. I have given you the names of authors from 17th to 19th century and I can even think of a few early 20th. I'm happy to give you plenty of examples of those from broadsides. No problem.