Although the song was not submitted for copyright until December 9, 1895, by publisher George Mercer Jr., it was probably composed in 1847. The song was dedicated to Mary Keller, to whom Foster had previously dedicated “There’s a Good Time Coming.” This song was intended as a tribute shortly after Keller’s death and probably was not intended for publication. The manuscript remained in the Keller family until 1895, when Mrs. J. J. Vandergrift obtained it from Rachel Keller Woods (Mary’s sister) and arranged for publication of the song. 

According to Evelyn Foster Mornweck’s The Chronicles of Stephen Foster’s Family:

Mary Keller, the youngest of the three Keller sisters, died suddenly on the following December 26, 1846, at the age of twenty years and five months. She was within a few days of being exactly the same age as Stephen. When she died, her parents, Samuel and Prudence Keller, were living on Penn Street, but had formerly lived on a farm in Lawrenceville not far from the White Cottage. William J. Rose (Bill Rose of the Knights of the S. T.), who afterwards married Mary Mahon, wrote a touching obituary in Mary’s memory; he alludes to a romance in her life, but sheds no light on the object of her love.

“But a few days ago, she was in the full flush of health, bright with the promise of life, and her very last errand upon the street was connected with the choice of the attire in which she was expected soon to stand, not at death’s, but at the bridal altar!”

Her death was a shock to the entire Foster family, and possibly left a deep scar on the heart of the susceptible and affectionate Stephen. Mary’s own copy of “Mary of Argylle,” signed with her name, was carefully preserved by Morrison, and it may be that this is the “old time ballad” to which Stephen refers in the verses he composed in her memory, and presented to her sister, Rachel.