FACTOR: I've always assumed meant like a business manager dealing with imports and exports and actually going abroad on behalf of the capital owner. Another well-known ballad of the period is 'The Turkey Factor' and I'm sure there are others.

Factor of 3 (excuse the pun). Many things in ballads come in multiples of three, or for a bigger number 'thirty and three'. Just a ballad convention. Nothing more needs be read into this unless you want to.

I'll have a look on your site, see what references you have and if I have any others I'll send them. British versions tend to be somewhat shorter than American ones.

Although Jim/Richie you answered my question re the BL ref it wasn't that clear, but I'm assuming the BL ref was just a bog standard CFS in which case excitement over.

It could well be that the original TBM is languishing in some private collection or even in a Bristol collection. Unfortunately we don't have any broadside researchers in the Bristol area sufficiently interested in this case.