There's a scholarly 10pp. article titled "The Scottish Origins of "Farewell to Nova Scotia" by Linda Christine Craig, in Dalhousie Review, Vol 58 No. 3 Autumn 1978. She explains the connection to "The Soldier's Adieu", attributed to Robert Tannahill. This poem was first printed in a Glasgow newsapaper September 1808, and thence in various editions of Tannahill's poems, via an appearance in an 1825 chapbook (now in the University Library at St Andrews). A good read and thoroughly researched.

Jon Bartlett