Hi,

Joiner's stanza 9 above is identical to the stanza in Douglass version from NY circa 1820s. It seems that other English versions have brook.
"In Bruton Town" sung by Mrs Baggs of Chedington, Dorset, in August, 1907 has:

She woke up early, so early next morning,
And went to the brook where the briars grew;

I've been looking at stanza 4, the inheritance as a motive for murder:

Another possible motive for the murder is the portion of their father's inheritance as found in stanza 4. Although the amount the daughter receives varies, it's clear that she feels that her love, the factor, should receive the same inheritance. There could have been a dispute over the amount of the inheritance that her love should receive between the daughter and her brothers. It seems that after the father died the factor did not receive a share of the inheritance. The last two lines of stanza two are:

"To this young man that ploughed the ocean
She was resolved to bestow the same."

So the daughter was determined to get the same amount of inheritance for her love, perhaps indicating that he had not received it. This was another reason the brothers were jealous of the factor. In another version "The Ditch of Briars" sung by Mr. and Mrs. James York in 1940- the father apparently left the same amount to her love,

"The 'prentice boy who was bound to him,
To him alone was left the same."

In this case the 'prentice is to be left the same amount as the daughter and brothers, another motive for jealously by the brothers and murder.

Richie