Are we talking about the same ballad ?
THe father was a miller at the time when tradespeople were replacing the Gentry as leaders of the community
The lover was a herald in the employment of the local lord - a servant (he is referred to as such in the ballad) - he most certainly was not a soldier
If he had been a soldier, the fold tradition proliferated with songs about daughters who run off with soldiers and are pursued by irate parents
You appear not even to have read the text of the ballad
Nice to know that you consider one of the most important and respected ballads in the British canon "daft"
No wonder the broadsides are more to your taste
We appear not even to be excussing the same genre of song
Jim Carroll