Some of the tunes were very new at the time the book was being written - Boyne, a new Jock March presumably commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, and England's Lamentation for the late Q. Mary was certainly written after her death at the end of 1694. The manuscript includes a version of Purcell's Britons, Strike Home!, from Bonduca which was first performed in October 1695, and which Atkinson presumably copied out after this point. Several of the tunes are similar to versions published by Playford in 1698, but may have been circulating aurally before publication. Other tunes are of Lowland Scottish origin, and are found in similar versions north of the border. Where must our Goodman lie, perhaps originally a pipe tune, is found at about the same time in the Balcarres lute manuscript from about 1695 and the George Bowie fiddle manuscript of 1705, both in a more elaborate 6-strain setting by John MacLaughlan, of Edinburgh. An earlier appearance of this tune, though in a somewhat different 2-strain version, was published in 1686 by Playford as The Black and Grey. It may well have been current in oral tradition well before this, however.
