"The tune for the weaver and the Factory maid seems to be taken from Elizabeth Mogg Doddington Somerset from her fragment The Irish Boy and attributed to William Oliver of Widnes who appears to have sung only one other song if he existed at all."

As you now know, Nick, we did discuss this one - and others - a year or two back. Like you I'd be interested to know more about 'William Oliver', but Roy Palmer's article 'The Weaver in Love' (FMJ, 1977) did turn up Lloyd's source for the tune, which was in the Kidson MS attached to a song called 'T'Owd Weaver' (which tells a similar kind of story). Even on the basis of what he communicated to Palmer as Oliver's original text, though, it's clear that Lloyd had made some significant changes before relaunching the song. The fact that the factory maid was wealthy and thus unattainable seems to have got muddied somewhere!