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The Origins of Jack and Jill Nursery Rhyme
From the French Revolution to an ill-fated couple from an English village.
I guess like many of us, I am often intrigued by some of the origins of common words, phrases and nursery rhymes. This past week I learned about some of the theories suggested as the historical roots for that old nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill. I’m not sure about today, but when I was a small kid it was still popular enough to be sung and chanted despite going back well over two hundred years.
It is not certain when the rhyme first originated. The rhyming of ‘water’ with ‘after’ suggests that it may go as far back as the sixteenth century. However it is known to have been published in London around 1765, contained in a reprint of John Newbery’s Mother Goose’s Melody.
A number of theories jostle for recognition as the origins of the rhyme.
The first hails from the small village of Kilmersdon in Somerset circa 1697. It is the tale of two young lovers, Jack and Jill, that some sources suggest were unmarried. When Jill was pregnant, Jack was killed in a rockfall — ‘Jack fell down and broke his crown’ — while attempting to draw water from a hilltop well. Soon after, Jill gave birth to their child but subsequently died — ‘and Jill came tumbling after’ — either from grief or a consequence of giving birth. The latter seems more…
