Okay the first thing to note is that this song is not typical of the sources for most of our folk songs, but 'Banks of the Sweet Primroses' is, in that we only have a small number of printings extant whereas 'Banks' was printed just about everywhere.

We have the standard version printed by Pearson in Manchester and by Such in London and one other without imprint and I'd say none of them are any earlier than 1860. IMO the Scottish versions, much shorter are probably derived from these. The Scottish version printed by the GPB is unfortunately undated but could easily be c1870 and I don't have a copy of the Sanderson (Edin) printing, only a catalogue listing. (The Sanderson family were printing for more than a century and well into the 20th.) I've already posted the GPB version so I'll post the Such/Pearson copy later today.

I don't like putting too much into one posting as it has the potential to disappear.