Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-10-26
MARY GOOSE.
SAID t. he Mother Goose"
Composer of Nursery Rhymes.

/
Composer Of Nursery Rhymes ::
~ wooden slab at the head OF Il grave
IN Tho Hranary' Burying Ground in Iios-
ton bears tn" above inscription.
tourists linEer long ncar the little
mount. with it's modest sign, display
ing as much interest IL less reverence
In the supposed resting place OF the
poctcss laureate Of the nuracrr as I'm
that Of Samuel Adams. the father Of
the Revolution; OF John Hancock. the
hrst stgncr OF the Declaration OF In
dependence. or of Paul Revere. hero OF
" remarkable ride. all OF which arc
near by.
y stone at the side OF the wooden
slab records the year OF dcath-l757-
but makes no reference to the wonan's
literary work.
The identity OF tho author OF the
Mother Goose tales has never been
settled 20 the entire satisfaction o:
quite everybody In the Hub. however.
Indeed. that the little slab marks the
Identical mound for which I; was IN
tended Is not certain These questions
have long been debated in Boston. with
az much fcrv"r as might be aroused In
a dispute over Il problem of thculo = ic:,i
dogma or OF syntaX. But all. or near
~ all. Of Boston is in agreement that
Mother Goose was not an uuagi nary
character. as most folks have believed.
hut a vcr!iahlc personarc-uuitc as
i'sti us SANTA 'itGS llUStll.
Research in comparativcly recent
years has revealed that ;hc good
danes Christian pane was not Nary.
bat Elizabeth. The error hppcars u
have arisen from the fact trht Isaac
Goose. Mother Gooscs husband. mar
ricd twice. The first wife. Mary. died.
according to Boston historiIuS, with
out leaving single contribution to
nursery or other literature. and II was
the second wife. Elizabeth. Who COM
i,
more than two centuries have been
chanting.
The uncertainty Of tn" exact loca-
t!on of the grove of either OF the
spouscs OF the late Isaac Zoos" ARCS"
from tn. unfortunate circumstance
that many years ago q cemetery SUI
pcrutcudcnt with fata! eye tor SYM
mrt.y Tuthlcs.ly shifted from the
graves to which they belonged score
or more Of slabs, making them serve
As edge stones along III. paths. This
act Of umintcnt!onal vandalism brought
from oliver wendell holmes the in
dignant comment;
"IpitaphS were never famous FOR
truth. bat tho old repro2ch oc here
lies never had such a Wholesale Illus
tration as in these outraged hu:iai
places. where the stone does lie aboN,
ami the bones 10 not lie beneath"
She Really Lived.
Bat. after all. these are mere details.
compared with tho outstanding fact
ii fac, il is-that Mother Goose really
lived and moved and mad her being,
Ana the story of her life aud work
rs told by the old guide in the GT'tnar!
Iiur!!ng Ground ia confirmed by ct
Ieas. two authorities represented in the
ituSton Public Library and attcstcd hy
scores OF bluc-bloodcd Back Bay fami-
lies.
The Goose family emirratcd from
Gil
ten anu were wealthy. according 10
the standards of the times. They are
known to have been in Boston as carly
as 1853. In official documents of the
seventeenth century appear the na:ncS
Goose VcrGoosc and Ncrti@"osc Yer
;;nosc" wa2 probably OF Anglo Norman
origin The YER was Norman end
WAS related to the French adjective
vert ,rvccn). Whether in dc8pcra-
ton az being dubbed green goose or
merely FOX the sake OF brevity. ono of
the Vcr:-ooscs COR Verpcrse) eliminated
the prefix. and hcnccforth the family
was called simply Goose.
TO this day one may read in the rec
Oris in the Boston City Registrars of
iC, the marriage memorandum
Thomas Fleet and Elizabeth Goose.
by tho Rev. Or. Cotton Mathcr. June
6. 1915"
The oiiicintimg clergyman was tho
third and most eminent OF a liur OF
distinguished literary ancestors, 80 Wit
hcss tho rpitnph on his fathers toiap
stone ut Dorchester:
Unncr this stone lies Richard Mathcr.
Who had :; son greater than his father.
And cke n grandson greater than either.
Elizabeth Goose Fleet was ~ daughter
of Isaac Goose and Elizabeth Foster,
who had been married in 1902. Eliza
beth Foster was born in BOSTON in
1fG5.
Thomas Fleet was horn in the Parish
of Whi;church t;nglanh in 1855, and
when vcr% young became n Journey
man printer lie *as working in iris
TO! when the notorious DIR. Sachcvcrcll.
who had been suspended from the min
istry because of alleged scditious SER
mons. pissed through the town and
was tho object of an enthusiastic dcni-
onstration. Fleet. who appears never
TO have taken kindly to matters re-
lie ious. hung halter on pole and
waved II from n window oe the print
chop. crowd attacked tho huildn"
with stones but Fleet 'nar:r cd to
escape. and went TO London.
Evcn there he was not free from
threats of violence, so nc came to
America soon after. He landed i'm Ros-
ton I'm l7l2 and established II print
ing house in Pudding Lane. now pcv-
onshirc street, dcvoting his attention
to the publication Of ballads ana book
let's for children. He became acquainted
No