I did some research on this song when Jeff Davis and I were putting together 'Sharp's Appalachian Harvest' - Sharp collected a slightly garbled text with a spectacular tune from Mrs Townsley and Mrs Wilson in Kentucky in 1917. All I can find of my background information is the following note, but I'm afraid I can't remember where I got it from:

Probably a composition by James Watt of Paisley, Scotland, sung to the tune ‘The Braes of Balquidder’. Appeared in ‘The Forget-me-Not Songster’, sold in America c 1835