This song seems like the ancestor of the one above; in fact, the one above may be a parody of this one. They have the same first line, a similar second line, and they both concern a mismatched couple with respect to money.

The Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads has about 20 copies of this song. I read several of them and, where the words varied, I selected the ones I liked best. I also modernized the punctuation.

THE CONSTANT LOVERS
c. 1820's

A sailor courted a farmer's daughter
That lived convenient to the Isle of Man,
But mark, good people, what followed after:
A long time courting and nothing done--
A long time courting and still discoursing
All things concerning the ocean wide.
He said, "My darling, at our next meeting,
If you will consent, I'll make you my bride."

"Why, as for sailors, I don't admire,
Because they sail in so many parts.
The more we love them, the more they slight us,
Then leave us behind them with broken hearts."
"Do not say so, my dearest jewel.
I ne'er intend to serve you so.
I have once more to cross the ocean.
You know, my darling, that I must go."

This news was carried unto his mother,
Before he set his foot on board,
That he was courting a farmer's daughter,
Whose friends and parents could not afford
One penny portion bound to the ocean.
Like one distracted his mother run.
"If you don't forsake her, but your bride make her,
I will disown you to be my son."

"My mother," he said, "you're in a passion.
I'm very sorry for what you've said.
Don't you remember, when young and tender,
My father married you, a servant maid?
Do not despise her. I mean to rise her,
As my own father by you has done.
So I will take her, and my bride I'll make her,
Though you disown me to be your son.

O when his true love she heard the story,
Away to the ocean she straight did run,
Saying in a passion, "You need not mind her,
For I might have money and you have none."
[or, "For we shall have money when they have none."]
"Money or not, you are my lot.
You have my heart and affections still,
So I will take you, and my bride I'll make you,
Let my scolding mother say what she will."