The original song that inspired the instrumental versions is said to have been composed around 1707 in praise of the Old Pretender. Flood (1906) traced references to it as early as 1709 and noted that Alan Ramsay included it in his Tea Table Miscellany (1724). Ramsay wrote that he had heard the song from an Irish participant in the 1715 rebellion. Some sources, however, suggest that its lyrics date back to the war of 1688–1690.