[1] The earliest known published version of the ballad appeared in Edinburgh Magazine in 1803.
[2] The earl marries; the bride, if named, is Kate; some variants mention the agreement about her dowry, or refer to her tochter (Scots tocher or variants, a dowry or marriage portion).
[3] In various combinations, though always in the order: In one variant, where she had fled, her sister angrily declares that she would not have shamed her lord like that.
In most, however, the earl takes a mistress (often named Peggy or Meggie), and she bears him a son ninth months later.
[4] The name is based on the placename Errol, a town in Perth and Kinross in Scotland.