Whatever the status of this song as a folksong or not, it's interesting to compare it to songs we do accept as such. I have always thought it more a derivative of John of Hazelgreen than The Gypsy Laddie, or maybe The Jolly Beggar. Having just read this old thread I thihnk it's a melange of all three and the predominant link we make to The Gypsy Laddie family is based solely on the presence of the word gypsy in it. Had it been called The Yodelling Beggar we would have been barking up other trees all these years.