The authorship of this tune is not clear, with different editors attributing the tune to different composers (or not naming one at all). See the instances list above for the different attributions.

From William J. Reynolds, Companion to Baptist Hymnal (1976):

"Nettleton first appeared as a two-part tune in John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (1813, p. 112), where it was named Hallelujah. In the Index it is identified as a new tune, and no composer's name is given. The tune has been attributed to some to Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844), a well-known evangelist of the early nineteenth century, who compiled Village Hymns (1825). However, this compilation contained no music, and there is no evidence that Nettleton wrote any tunes during his life . . . It is not known where the tune name first appeared or who was responsible for it." (pp. 53-54)

The Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (1981) also notes George Pullen Jackson's observation that the tune is "one of a group related to the folk melody 'Go tell Aunt Tabby (Aunt Rhody, Aunt Nancy, etc.) her old grey goose is dead.'" (p. 519)