Steve,

Your statement is most certainly not rocket science.

I'm sure there would have been a few ploughmen who wrote songs. And I'm sure some of them would sing their own songs on high days and holidays. I'm equally sure that one or two of these songs have entered the tradition and maybe have been 'borrowed' by professional ballad writers.

But, I have no evidence of it happening.

However, I do know that non-professional songwriters do write and perform their own songs.

I'm an archaeologist - I write songs. As yet, as far as I'm aware, none have entered the tradition but they may yet.

Rattling cages won't get us anywhere.

Harry