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This song was first printed in a local newspaper, The Royal Devonport Telegraph and Plymouth Chronicle, dated September 2, 1826, without any indication of authorship and titled "The Song of the Western Men." In 1827, it was
published in The Gentleman's Magazine (XCVII., ii., 409) as a contribution from Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society. The ownership of the ballad was first publicly claimed by Rev. R S Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow, in Records of the Western Shore, 1832. It was set to music by Miss Louisa T. Clare in 1861. |
