This jaunty song has been in oral transmission for about 300 years, the earliest known reference being “The Jolly Broom-Man or the Unhappy Boy Turn’d” printed in “Pills to Purge Melancholy” in 1720.  It has been often collected in England and occasionally in Ireland and Scotland but not across the Atlantic.

Local tunes for this song may be found by going to the Browse page and searching for 379 in the Roud number search.

Notes by Gwilym Davies 28 March 2015