Fiction    To 14/9/1586

Mother Goose

Categories: Animals, Fictional

The interment register at St Olaves Hart Street records Mother Goose being buried on 14 September 1586. This is extremely strange so we did some digging.  The story of a goose laying golden eggs can be traced back to ancient Greece, but not the term 'Mother Goose'. From The Development of Mother Goose in Britain in the Nineteenth Century we learn that Mother Goose first appeared on stage in 1806 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in ‘Harlequin and Mother Goose, or the Golden Egg’ in which Joseph Grimaldi also appeared.  It’s thought that the term ‘Mother Goose’ was popularised by the French ‘Mother Goose’s Rhymes’, by Perrault, published in 1697 but it existed before that.  There is a reference to the phrase in Loret's ‘La Muse Historique’ collected in 1650 and in a work by Guy de la Brosse, in 1628.  Which gets us pretty close to the St Olave’s burial year of 1598, but still doesn’t explain the entry in the register.  Oddly, there is another burial site for Mother Goose, 1690, in Boston, Massachusetts. Possibly the phrase was a perfectly acceptable name for a mother with the surname Goose. Greater minds than ours have failed to solve this one.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Mother Goose

Commemorated ati

St Olave's Church

'The Uncommerical Traveller' was the name of articles that Dickens wrote for ...

Read More

Other Subjects

Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association

Started by Samuel Gurney MP and the barrister, Edward Thomas Wakefield. Founded as the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association it changed its name to include cattle troughs in 1867.  London...

Group, Benefactor, Animals, Food & Drink

39 memorials
Maria Dickin

Maria Dickin

Social reformer and animal welfare pioneer. Born at 1 Farrington Terrace (Now 41 Cassland Road), Hackney. She saw the plight of sick animals and owners who could not afford veterinary fees, whilst ...

Person, Animals, Philanthropy

1 memorial
Dogs killed in medical experiments in 1902

Dogs killed in medical experiments in 1902

232 dogs died in 1902 as a result of medical experiments. Wikipedia gives: "In 1875 there were around 300 experiments on animals in the UK, a figure that had risen to 19,084 in 1903 when the brown...

Animal, Animals, Medicine

2 memorials
Hyde Park Barracks / Knightsbridge Barracks

Hyde Park Barracks / Knightsbridge Barracks

This site was first developed in 1795 for use by the Horse Guards. The barracks were designed by architect James Johnson and buildings were added up to 1803. (British History Online – 1st Barracks ...

Group, Armed Forces, Animals

2 memorials
Dead Parrot Sketch

Dead Parrot Sketch

One of the most famous of the sketches in the television comedy series 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. Written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese, and performed by Cleese and Michael Palin. Initiall...

Fiction, Animals, Humour, Seriously Famous, TV & Radio

1 memorial

Previously viewed

National Bank Ltd - NW10

National Bank Ltd - NW10

NW10, Craven Park Road, 86

A lovely and unusual plaque - we cannot discover when, nor by whom, it was erected.

1 subject commemorated