Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-06-05
Origin of Mother Goose.

Some years ago, Rev. J. NJ. Manning, D.
D., the pastor of the Old South church, Bos-
ton, Mass, at Christmas Festival, gave
the following interesting biography of an
authoress who has become famous THROUGH
the world. He said:-
There are many things in the history of
the Old South church, Boston, which help
to make its name famous. But there is one
thing in the history of this famous church
which has not had the recognition it de-
serves. In the list of admissions for the
year 1893 occurs the immortal name of
Elizabeth Goose. | almost beg pardon of
her memory for saying elizabeth" since
by the unanimous verdict of the world. in
whose heart her name is enshrined. she is
known as ''Mother'' Goose. So. then.
Mother Goose is no myth. as some have
thought, but once lived in Boston. in verit-
able flesh and blood, as the records of tbe
Old South church clearly show. It is also
pleasure to lind that, in making a Goose
of herself, she married into a well-to-do
family, where in due time she. too. by put-
ting her melodies to the press, not merely
laid one golden egg, but has been laying a
steady succession of them, from that day to
this. For, unlike the goose in the fable.
she could not be killed, but still lives, and
yields stores of wealth to the booksellers as
often as Christmas tide returns. Her nest
will not be empty so long as there are chill
dren and nurseries in the world. 1t is al
most pity, if one may say 80 without
straining the metaphor, that her eulogy
cannot be written with a quill taken from
her own dear wing What child in all
Christendom has not often nestled under
that wing been brooded by it, and forgot
ten every trouble in listening to her immor-
tai lays?
The maiden name of this venerable lady.
mother of us all, was Elizabeth Foster. She
lived in Charlestown, where she was born.
until her marriage. Then she came to Bos
ton, where her thrifty husband, Isaac Goose,
had green pasture ready for her, on what
is row Washington street, and including
the land in and about Temple place. She
was his second mate and began her mater
nal life as stepmother to ten children. These
all seem to have been lively little goslinps.
and to their number she rapidly added SIX
more. Think of it ! Sixteen goslings to a
single goose-assuming that none of them
had been eaten up by the hawks, and that
none had died of crook in the neck. Poor.
happy Mother Goose No wonder that her
feelings were too many for her, and that she
poured them out in the celebrated lines =
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children she didn't know
what to do"
Yet her family cares seem, on the whole,
to have set lightly upon her; for she was
no wild goose, flying South or North with
every turn of the sun, but she stayed by her
nest through cold and heat, happy as the
day is long, and living to be ninety-two
years old. She eveu survived the father
Goose many years, and she led and fed her
numerous flock, and tenderly brooded them
in the little enclosure on Temple place till
they were able to swim and forage for
themselves.
One of these, her daughter, Elizabeth,
became the wife Of Thomas Fleet. And
here is tie fact to which we owe it that her
name and fame are spread through the
world. Thomas Fleet was a printer, living in
Pudding Lane, place whose very name had
so savory a taste in the dear old lady's
mouth, that when Thomas Fleet became
happy father she insisted on going to live
with him as nurse of honor to his son and
heir. To coddle her own grandchild, in
Pudding Lane, was the beau ideal of bless
edness for Mother Goose. Heractivity and
concern in the house was such as to throw
what we read about busy mothers-in-law
wholly in the shade. No doubt she would
have been glad to save Rome, as certain other
geese once did with their cackling but
lacking the opportunity to do this she
sang her ditties from morning till night,
up stairs and down stairs, and in my lady's
chamber" till her son-in-law became sensi-
bly, alarmed at the fertility of her genius.
Sing she must, however, for was she not
a poet, full of the divine lire which refuses
to be quenched? 1t is well for the world
that she was law unto herself. No up-
start son-in-law could control ner, or keep
her from humming and cooling at her own
sweet will.
And now it was not Roman Senate, but
a Boston printer that her persistent music
awakened. A happy thought occurred to
Thomas Fleet. He printed and sold songs
and ballads at his printing house in Pud-
ding Lane. Was it not sign of something
good about to come to him, that this pre-
cious mother-in-law, with her endless rock
ings and lullabies, had put herself in the
way? He stopped asking the irrepressible
songSter to rock less, and urged her to sing
more. And while she sat in her arm chair,
Or shuffled about the room lost in sweet
dreams, he carefully wrote down what he
could of the rhymes which fell from her
lips. His notes rapidly accumulated, and
in little while he had enough of them to
make a volume. These he now printed
and bound them into book, which he of
fered for sale under the following title:-
"SoDgs for the Nursery; or Mother
Goose's Melodies for Children. Printed by
I. Fleet, at his Printing House Pudding
Lane, 1719 Price two cOppers."
This title-page also bore large cut of a
veritable goose, with wide-open mouth,
showing that the proverbial irreverence of
sons-in-law is not thing of recent origin
They were just as saucy in the days of Moth
er Goose as now, and just as ready to turn
a penny at the expense of their mothers in
law. How the immortal authro bore this
prOfane use of her name, or what she
thought of the ungracious but shrewd
Thomas Fleet, history does not say We
have every reason to believe that she took it
just as sweetly as she had taken all the
other trials and annoyances other life. She
her soul in patience, and contin-
ued her gentle ministry to the little ones
still gathering them into her arms, and
soothing and gladdening their hearts, after
the shadows OF old age had fallen about her;
not weary of her delightful task but as busy
as ever with it, when the time came for hel
soul to spread its wings and fly
away to the great company of children in
heaven.
Such is the true story Of Mother Goose
Her little book started forth on it's errand
1t grew and multiplied with each new edition
1t made her dear name household word
wherever it went. What shore OF fastness
has it not visited? Where is the home in
which its loving rhymes are not sung? 1t is
one of the few books which cannot grow stale
or be destroyed. Not Homer nor Shake
spere is so sure of immortal fame as Mother
Goose. Considering the love in which her
melodies are everywhere held, their freedom
from any thing which might corrupt or mis-
lead the infantile mind, their practical wis.
dom, their shrewd mastery of the motives ol
human conduct, one is, in all soberness,
forced to admit that her name is among the
brightest ofthe jewels which adorn the brow
of Old South. What other son or daughter
of the church, renowned as many of them
are in history, has proved greater blessing
to mankind or secured the benidiction of SC
many heartss She is to the New World
what Santa Claus is to the Old. Let us
hope that the day is not lar distant wher