"Bobbin' John" refers to John Erskine, (23rd/6th Earl of Mar) who was an important Jacobite military leader during the 1715 Jacobite rising. It was printed in Gow's 2nd Repository (1802), Petrie's Fourth Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jiggs and Country Dances (c. 1805) and Williamson's English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes (1976) where he pairs it with "Cam Ye O'er frae France".