This song, says Doerflinger, dates back to the eigtheenth century, but the source of his version is Guy Morehouse, of Digby, Nova Scotia. Doerflinger offers the impressive bibliography:
This song, W. A. Berrett writes (English Folk-Songs, p. 55), was sold by English ballad printers as early as 1781. For British variants and references, see Barrett, p. 55; S. Baring-Gould and Cecil Sharp, Songs of the West, p. 42; Cecil Sharp, Folk-Songs from Somerset, Series IV, pp. 42, 82; Sharp, English Folk Songs, I, 68; Sharp, One Hundred English FolkSongs, p. 102; Sharp and Baring-Gould, English Folk-Songs for Schoo,s No. 37; JFSS, IV, 342-345; Davis and Tozer, p. 72 (words rewritten?). For American variants see Cox, p. 389; Flanders and Brown Vermont Folk-Songs and Ballads (Brattleboro, 1931), p. 151; Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, II, 235. Cf. 'Some Other Girl Shall Wear the Ring,' Wehman's Collection of Songs, No. 10, p. 3.