the Traditional Ballad Index has an extensive entry:

Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear) [Laws O36]

DESCRIPTION: Jimmy goes out hunting and shoots his true love (Molly, mistaking her for a swan). He is afraid of the law, but is told that the law will forgive him. At his trial Molly's ghost appears and explains the situation; the young man is freed
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1806 (Jamieson, volume i, p. 194 -- a partial text in the notes to "Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour)
KEYWORDS: hunting death trial reprieve help ghost
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf)
REFERENCES (36 citations):
Laws O36, "Molly Bawn (Shooting of His Dear)"
Randolph 54, "Molly Vaughn" (3 texts plus 2 fragments and 1 excerpt, 1 tune)
Eddy 77, "Mollie Vaughn (Polly Band)" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 14, "Molly Baun" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Linscott, pp. 274-276, "Polly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 26, "Shooting of His Dear" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 111, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 76, "Molly Bawn" (1 text plus a fragment)
BrownSchinhanIV 76, "Molly Bawn" (3 excerpts, 3 tunes)
Morris, #214, "Molly Baun" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, p. 117, "Molly Vaughn" (1 text, properly titled "The Death of Molly Bender," with very peculiar orthography; it looks like it came from a semi-literate manuscript but is said to be from a field recording)
Chappell-FSRA 57, "Polly Bond" (1 fragment)
SharpAp 50, "Shooting of His Dear" (6 texts, 6 tunes)
Hudson 32, pp. 145-146, "Shooting of His Dear" (2 texts)
Moore-Southwest 73, "Molly Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Boswell/Wolfe 24, pp. 44-46, "Molly Bond" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 700-701, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Leach-Heritage, pp. 176-177, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
Korson-PennLegends, pp. 46-47, "Molly Banding" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 26, "Molly Bawn" (1 text)
PBB 92, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 96-97, "Molly Van" (1 text, 1 tune)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 196, "Molly Baun Lavery" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 206, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text)
Graham/Holmes 49, "Molly Ban Lavery" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H114, p. 143, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn 29, "Young Molly Ban" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 1, pp. 1-2,99,154-155, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin-Cronin 92, "Molly Bawn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Kennedy 330, "Polly Vaughan" (2 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 102, "Mollie Vaughn" (3 texts, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 33, pp. 78-79, "Mollie Bond" (1 text)
WolfAmericanSongSheets, #1896, p. 128, "Polly von Luther and Jamie Randall" (1 reference)
Darling-NAS, pp. 133-134, "Molly Bawn"; "Molly Bander" (2 texts)
DT 308, POLLYVON POLLVON1 POLLVON2
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 304, "Young Molly Bawn" (1 short text)
Roud #166
RECORDINGS:
Louis Boutilier, "As Jimmie Went A-Hunting" (on MRHCreighton)
Anne Briggs, "Polly Vaughan" (on Briggs1, Briggs3)
Packie Manus Byrne, "Molly Bawn" (on Voice06)
Sara Cleveland, "Molly Bawn" (on SCleveland01)
Elizabeth Cronin, "Molly Bawn" (on IRECronin01)
Seamus Ennis, "Molly Bawn" (on Lomax42, LomaxCD1742)
A. L. Lloyd, "Polly Vaughan" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
John Maguire, "Molly Bawn Lowry" (on IRJMaguire01)
Maggie Murphy, "Molly Bawn" (on IRHardySons)
Pete Seeger, "Shoo Fly" (on PeteSeeger33, PeteSeegerCD03)
Phoebe Smith, "Molly Vaughan" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 19(11), "Young Molly Bawn," J.F. Nugent & Co. (Dublin), 1850-1899; also 2806 b.11(131), "Young Molly Bawn"
LOCSinging, as111140, "Polly Von Luther and Jamie Randall," J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Molly Ban
Peggy Baun
Lord Kenneth and Fair Ellinour
NOTES: Darling compares this to the story of Cephalus and Procris. The standard version is supplied by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (VII.685 and following; it starts on page 174 of the Penguin edition translated by Mary M. Innes). First he tested her love in disguise, and she passed the test. But then she heard a rumor of his unfaithfulness, and set out to watch him. He heard her in hiding, without seeing her, and threw his javelin on the assumption that she was a wild beast. It killed her.
Incidentally, Michael Grant and John Hazel, Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary, article on Cephalus, thinks Ovid's version of the story may conflate legends of two different heroes named Cephalus. In any case, I don't see a particularly strong parallel to the ballad; yes, the hunter kills his lover, but the motivations are very different. - RBW
Broadside LOCSinging as111140: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: LO36

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The Digital Tradition has 2 versions I can find:

POLLY VAUGHN

Dm Gm
I shall tell of a hunter whose life was undone
Dm A
By the cruel hand of evil at the setting of the sun
Dm Gm
His arrow was loosed and it flew thru the dark
Dm Dm7 A7 Dm G Dm G Dm
And his true love was slain as the shaft found its mark

F
For she'd her apron wrapped around her
A
and he took her for a swan
Dm G7 A7 Dm G Dm
and it's o and alas, it was she, Polly Vaughn

He ran up beside her and found it was she
He turned away his head for he could not bear to see
He lifted her up and found she was dead
A fountain of tears for his true love he shed

He bore her away to his home by the sea
Crying Father, o Father, I've murdered poor Polly
I've killed my fair love in the flower of her life
I'd always intended that she'd be my wife

He roamed near the place where his true love was slain
He wept bitter tears, but his tears were all in vain
As he looked on the lake, a swan glided by
And the sun slowly sank in the grey of the sky

@hunt @love @death @law
DT #308
Laws O36
This version is based on "Polly Von" arranged by Peter, Paul and Mary, 1963
as recorded by Frankie Armstrong on Here's a Health
John and Tony Dark Ships
Tony Rose Green Willow
filename[ POLLYVON
SOF

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MOLLY BAWN (POLLY VAUGHN 2)

Come all ye brave heroes who handle a gun
Beware of night ramblin' by the setting of the sun.

And be aware of an accident that happened of late
To young Molly Bawn and sad was her fate.

She was going to her uncle's when a shower came on
She went 'neath a green bush the shower to shun.

With her apron 'round her he took her for a swan
It's a sob and a sigh it was Oh! Oh! Molly Bawn.

He quickly ran to her and saw that she was dead
And it's many's a salt tear on her bosom he shed

He went home to his father with his gun in his hand
Crying father, dear father, I have shot Molly Bawn.
I have shot that young colleen I have taken the life
Of the one I intended to take for my wife.

Oh Johnny, young Johnny, do not run away
Don't you leave your own country till your trial day.

Don't you leave your own country till your trial comes on
For you'll never be convicted for the loss of a swan.

The night before Molly's funeral her ghost it did appear
Saying mother, dear mother, young Johnny he's clear.

I was going to my uncle when a shower came on
But tell him he's forgiven by his own Molly Bawn.

The girls in this country they are all very glad
Since the pride of Glen Allen, Molly Bawn is now dead.

The girls in this country stand them all in a row
Molly Bawn would shine above them like a mountain of snow.

From the singing of Norman Kennedy
DT #308
Laws O36
@love @murder @ghost @bird
filename[ POLLVON2
TUNE FILE: POLLVON2
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF