"Does anyone know Jeannie's source?"
Jeannie learned it from her mother, Maria Stewart
This is the note given in Porter and Gower's, Jeannie Robertson, Emergent Singer, Faormative Voice
Jim Carroll

(Love Has Brought Me to Despair, Laws P25)

What a voice, what a voice, what a voice I hear,
It is like the voice of my Willie dear;
But if I had wings like that swallow flyin,
For I would clasp in the arms of my Billy Boy.

When my apron it hung low,
My true love followed through frost and snow;
But now my apron it's tae my shins,
And he passes me by and he'll ne'er speir in.

It was up onto the white house brae,
That he called a strange girlie to his knee,
And he tellt her a tale which he once told me.

O I wish, I wish, O I wish in vain,
I wish I was a maid again;
But a maid again I will never be
Till a aipple it grows on a orange tree.

O I wish, I wish that my babe was born,
And smilin' on some nurse's knee;
And for mysel' to be dead and gone,
And the long green grass growin' over me.

For there's a blackbird sits on yon tree;
Some says it's blind and it cannae see;
Some says it's blind and it cannae see,
And so is my true love to me.

73.1 Wish, I Wish (Love Has Brought Me to Despair, Laws P25)
Other titles for this song, which Jeannie learned from Maria, are common; it belongs to the "Died of/for Love—The Bold/Brisk Young Sailor/Farmer" story complex. A note by Lucy Broadwood (in Journal of the Folk-Song Society 19 [1915]: 186-87) indicates a probable ancestor of the text in Laing's Broadside Ballads (ca. 1700) with the tide "Arthur's Seat shall be my bed, or Love in despair." The essence of the theme has been compared to stanzas of "Waly, Waly" in Orpheus Caledonius (1725) and the later version in the The Scots Musical Museum (James Johnson 1788: 166; see also Ritson 1794, 1:235-36). The further textual connection with "Jamie Douglas" (Child 204) is well known. Bronson 1959-72, 3:258 firmly believes that the makers of the ballad used a popular lament to fill out its verses, singing it to the same tune. Christie 1876: 248 includes a version of the song in his first volume. It appears in the Duncan MS as "The Student Boy," and the first of five tunes in the Greig MS is entided "Arthur's Seat." The most recent Scottish variants are in: Buchan 1962: 61, with the title, "Will Ye Gang, Love?"; Buchan and Hall 1973: 93, a version by Lizzie Mary Hutchison; and MacColl and Seeger 1977: 194-98, sung by Charlotte Higgins. The air used by both Lizzie Mary Hutchison and Charlotte Higgins is closely related to Jeannie's, and she herself uses it for "The Famous Flower of Serving Men" (Child 106). It appears again in MacColl and Seeger 1977 as that for "The Convict Song," sung by John MacDonald (291). The earliest English printed variants are in Kidson 1891: 44-46, Baring Gould and Sheppard 1892: 184—85, and the Hammond MS (1905). Dean-Smith 1954: 63 gives a list of published versions. See also Gilchrist 1938: 192-93 and 1946: 16-17, Lloyd 1953: 103, and Palmer 1973: 278. See also Reeves 1958: 43—45, 90-92; and Reeves 1960: 96-98. There is an analog (in Journal of the Folk-Song Society 27 (1930): 110-12) called "The Shannon Water, or Mabel Kelly," and another immediately following, "Happy the Worm Lies Under the Stone." The Stanford-Petrie collection has it as no. 811, "I wish, I wish, but I wish in vain," and there are two fragments in Bunting 1796. Henry recovered it from Mrs. H. Dinsmore of Coleraine as "The Apron of Flowers" (Huntington and Herrmann 1990: 393). Several versions of the text have been recovered in North America, where it has been linked to "Careless Love" (cf. Lomax 1960: 585). Laws 1957: 61 names it "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (P25) and notes versions from Indiana and Illinois. Additional texts are in Combs 1925: 205, Cox 1925: 353-57, Korson 1949: 48—49, Owens 1950: 134—35, and Randolph (1950: 268-69); see also the "Lullaby" in Grover n.d.: 24. "Floating" stanzas, lines, and images link the verses to similar stories of unhappy love, such as "The Butcher Boy" (68 above; Laws P24) or "The Sailor Boy" (Laws K12). The imagery of the apron (pregnancy), white house ("alehouse) strange girl, apple on the orange tree, burial beneath long green grass, and the girl are retained in most English and Scottish versions of the text.

Recorded versions-. SA 1952/33; 1953/195; SX 1958/2; 1956/2; Topic 10T52;
Collector CLE 1201 (Jean Ritchie's recording of Jeannie singing stanzas 2, 3, 4, 6); Folktracks FSA 067; Lizzie Higgins, Lismor LIFL 7004; Isla Cameron, Columbia KL 206; Amy Birch, Topic 12TS349; Campbell Family, Topic 12T120; Martin Carthy. Topic 12TS344; Audrey Coppard, Folkways FP 917; Frank Hinchcliffe, Topic 12TS308; Roscoe Holcomb, Folkways FA 2374; Norman Kennedy, Topic 12T178, Folk-Legacy FSS-34; Geoff Ling, Topic 12T236; Walter Pardon, Topic 12TS392; Frank Profitt, Folk-Legacy FSA 1; Jasper Smith, Topic 12TS304; Joseph Taylor, Leaarr LEA 4050; Tom Willett, Topic 12T84.
Additional references-. Child 1882-98, 4:90-105; Gower and Porter 1977: 67-70; Henry 1923-29, 2:194; Joyce 1909: 134; Kennedy 1975: 349, 372; Loesberg 1980 2:60-61; Lyle 1975: 108; Moulden 1979: 13.