"Lazy John" is probably the source for the "Soldier John" song/game. It's I think a modernization of the Soldier song. We played that in school, acted it out, but it didn't come around there until about the 1940s, and as I remember it was in a school textbook (may be wrong, maybe the teacher just knew and taught it), and I don't remember any author/composer's name. It starts:

Lazy John, lazy John,
Will you marry me? Will you marry me?
How can I marry you? No hat to wear!

Up she jumped and away she ran,
Down to the market square,
There she bought a hat for
Lazy John to wear.

and it ends: With a wife and ten chidren at home! I like the ugly girl/fine clothes ending, too. It sounds as though the teacher encouraged the kids to make up their own endings...