SCDDB originally attributed this dance to “unknown” in 1719. However George Williams in
issue 2170
reports that:
According to “The Playford Assembly” (Graham Christian, 2015) “Well Done Jack” was devised by Nathanial Kynaston and first published in Walsh’s “Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1718” (rather than 1719) which was written by Kynaston.
The version published by the RSCDS differs from that done in the English Country Dance tradition which is illustrated in
this video
. At around 1:00 the commentator describes a figure that “the Scottish dancers call Set and Link”. However, curiously, the RSCDS version does not actually include that figure.