Hi Jon,
Sorry not to have responded to your seemingly correct assumptions, but you can see we are otherwise bogged down with stuff at the moment.

I have an author's name, William Hornsby, and a dozen entries in my large index so the song was much anthologised latterly. But note it does not feature in my traditional folk song index for the same reasons you are suggesting.

I'll check out all the entries and get back to you. One thing that jumps out is that it features in 'The Common Muse' which is mostly broadside stuff.