Just a couple of minor comments:

>> Alex Robb's version had a different opening line:
One night as I walked thro' Caperally

Presumably a corruption of "White Copper Alley".

Apropos the specific title "Unfortunate Rake"; whether or not any particular version uses that phrase rather than "Unfortunate Lad" or anything else, it seems to me an appropriate generic title for many songs of this family, even perhaps extending as far as Gambler's Blues, though not for the classic St James Infirmary, nor the versions where the unfortunate person is female.

Has anyone a better generic title, or are we best to stick to Roud number(s)?

My friend Clive Woolf, who has a liking for these songs, calls them "pox songs".