It was almost universally known in England until around the mid-1950s, when it began to fade as being too old-fashioned. The title refers to the district of Paddington in London. The song gained a place in the canonical Oxford Book of Comic Verse, and the original manuscript of "Polly" is now held in the Bodleian Library.
It was adapted for the USA by Clifton during the American Civil War, retitled "Polly Perkins of Abington Green". Presumably the new title referred to Abington Green, Georgia, in the United States. It was also published fairly early in its existence as "Pretty Polly Perkins of Pemberton Green".
Most of Clifton's songs adapted their tunes from old folk songs and it is possible that a folk tune is also the origin of the tune for Polly—some see a resemblance to "Nightingales Sing", also known as "The Bold Grenadier". The famous Tyneside Music Hall song Cushie Butterfield (sung even today at Newcastle United matches) is sung to the same tune as "Polly" and is a parody of "Polly". Cushie Butterfield is attributed to the great Geordie comic singer George Ridley, who died in 1864; "Cushie" was first published in book form in the 1873 edition of "Allan's Tyneside Songs". Clifton's death date means that both the song and its tune are now firmly in the public domain.
The tune, with new lyrics, found its way into the Australian bush culture, among outback farmers and sheep shearers, in the song "One of the Has-beens".