"Can you put any meat on the bones of this one, Jim? Child 20 is an English broadside of the 17th century. "
Sigh
It was a song that appeared on an English broadside in th 17th century, do you mean
The motifs of murdered people returning to extract vengeance or announce retribution are as old as time itself - in folklore and oral narrative tradition.
Same goes for abandoned children   
I won't bother to ask if you have evidence of there being no oral versions befre the broadside

I told the story as I remember having experienced - we had not tape recorder but one of the people who conducted us did
Sandra chose the song from her own experience and the translator related the plot
Surely, if all foreign input is due to literary influences it might be on line somewhere!

THere is a definitivness about your statements which suggest that it would take a ton of Semtex to shift you from your position
I did enjoy the back-heeling of Child (again) though
I wonder why he wasted all that time - he should have stuck to songwriting - his effort on Civil War politics suggested that he was quite good at that!!
Jim