You could end up down a warren of rabbit holes trying to work out a timeline and family tree for the words and tunes to this song.
If Wiki is to be believed,in the early 20th century it was more popular (or at least more collected) in the Appalachians than in England and Scotland.
Composed in 1943 Britten's version seems to be earlier than any of the revivals/'commercial' versions (American recordings from 1956 onwards, Fairport 1969).
Has anyone got the Britten version to compare with published versions of the tune?