When my three daughters were little their Granny gave them a large book of nursery rhymes which they loved.
I spent a lot of their childhood reading this book to them.
Because it was such a large book, it included a fair amount of less well known nursery rhymes, as well as the classics, among them was “Bobby Shafto”.
I will quote it as it was in the book:

Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea
Silver buckles at his knee
He’ll come home and marry me
Bonny Bobby Shafto

Bobby Shafto’s fat and fair
Combing back his yellow hair
He’s my love for evermeer
Bonny Bobby Shafto

To be honest during the hundreds of times I read it to the girls it just passed through my head like water, without any thought as to its meaning.
Something brought it to my mind lately and the more I thought about the words the more they amaze me.
Could this possibly have been the first gay nursery rhyme?

We all know that the British Navy at this time subsisted on “Rum Sodomy and the Lash”
Into this brutish and women free environment let us insert the same Bobby:
A young plump blond midshipman, his trousers fitted with silver buckles, with a penchant for combing back his luxuriant locks.

One presumes it is his sweetheart who sings;
“He’ll come home and marry me”

Why do I think that so unlikely?

I went searching the internet for an picture of the same Bobby and this pottery figurine was the only contemporary image I could find.

I rest my case.