From James Beale
Collected by Cecil Sharp, Warehorne, 23rd September 1908
Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Words CJS2/9/1783, Folk Tunes CJS2/10/1924
This was presumably one of the songs which the Beale family would sing when they went out carolling. The carol was also noted by Cecil Sharp from James Beale’s daughter Alice Harden, while his son Albert Beale was recorded singing the song in 1954.