Are you familiar with this nursery rhyme?
Now he sings of Jackey Horner
Sitting in the Chimney-Corner
Eating of a Christmas pye,
Putting in his thumb, Oh fie!
Putting in, Oh fie, his Thumb,
Pulling out, Oh strange! A Plum.
Perhaps you know a more modern version that goes like this:
Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating his (a) Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, “What a good boy am I!
I was fascinated to discover recently that the original version of this nursery rhyme is thought to be about a man named Thomas Horner. Thomas was the steward to Richard Whiting, the last Abbot of Glastonbury. Legend has it that prior to the destruction of the Abbey in September 1539, Richard Whiting sent Thomas Horner to London with an enormous Christmas pie. The pie, a gift for the King, contained the deeds to a number of manor houses and were a last ditch attempt by the Abbot to prevent the nationalisation of Glastonbury by the Crown. Horner is said to have opened the pie and extracted the deed to the manor of Mells in Summerset which he kept for himself. Horner’s descendants have refuted this myth and there are records to support their claim that Horner bought and paid for the manor.
Richard Whiting was arrested on the orders of Thomas Cromwell on 19 September 1539. The Abbey was stripped of its valuables and Richard Whiting was hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor on 15 November 1939.
The Abbey is now a ruin but it is still visited by 100 000 pilgrims a year. The Abbot’s Kitchen which served the Abbey survived the destruction and is considered to be one of the best preserved medieval kitchen in Europe.
About the author
Robbie Cheadle was born in London in the United Kingdom. Her father died when she was three months old and her mother immigrated to South Africa with her tiny baby girl. Robbie has lived in Johannesburg, George and Cape Town in South Africa and attended fourteen different schools. This gave her lots of opportunities to meet new people and learn lots of social skills as she was frequently “the new girl”.
Robbie is a qualified Chartered Accountant and specialises in corporate finance with a specific interest in listed entities and stock markets. Robbie has written a number of publications on listing equities and debt instruments in Africa and foreign direct investment into Africa.
Robbie is married to Terence Cheadle and they have two lovely boys, Gregory and Michael. Michael (aged 11) is the co-author of the Sir Chocolate series of books and attends school in Johannesburg. Gregory (aged 14) is an avid reader and assists Robbie and Michael with filming and editing their YouTube videos and editing their books.
Find and follow Robbie
Robbie’s Inspiration Blog Goodreads Facebook YouTube
Amazon author page Twitter: @bakeandwrite
Books by Robbie and Michael Cheadle
The Sir Chocolate books are a delightful marriage of story, verse and cookery
… a perfect recipe for sharing with children. Silly Willy goes to Cape Town tells the adventures of two very different brothers…and includes five party cake ideas.
You can purchase the Sir Chocolate books from:
or you can buy them in South Africa directly from the authors by emailing Robbie Cheadle at sirchoc@outlook.com.
How did your granny predict the weather? What did your great uncle Albert tell you about the little green men he saw in the woods that night? What strange creature stalks the woods in your area?
So many of these old stories are slipping away for want of being recorded. legendary creatures, odd bits of folklore, folk remedies and charms, and all the old stories that brought our landscape to life…
Tell me a story, share memories of the old ways that are being forgotten, share the folklore of your home. I am not looking for fiction with this feature, but for genuine bits of folklore, old wives tales, folk magic and local legends. Why not share what you know and preserve it for the future?
Email me at findme@scvincent.com and put ‘Living Lore’ in the subject line. All I need is your article, bio and links, along with any of your own images you would like me to include and I’ll do the rest.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Ohh, good one, Robbie. I suspect many, many nursery rhymes have their roots in real incidents, political or not. I’d never heard this one before. Wish there were some way to know for sure, someday. Thanks for sharing this “Living Lore,” and thanks to Sue for having you. 🙂
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I am glad you enjoyed the post and that you learned of a new nursery rhyme. You are quite right that many of them have historical origins. I have noticed that the US has different nursery rhymes of its own.
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Oh, I know the second version of this rhyme, but I’d never heard the first, nor the possible background behind it. I think that’s fascinating. And sometimes our U.S. rhymes are variations of those from other countries, just like above, so some of them can probably be traced back that way, and possibly connected to events that happened way back when. Fun!
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My family and I had the pleasure of renting an apartment in one of these manor houses when we visited England a few years ago. We didn’t even realize its connection until we got there. 🙂
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I think that sounds like a great experience, Alethea.
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Hanged, drawn, and quartered? They really wanted him dead! And people on death row now complain about an injection 🙂
This story is interesting, Robbie. Crafty to place deeds inside a pie, it gets my suspense writer brain excited, lol
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Yes, it was crafty, Jacquie. As I research the deaths of the ghosts in my new book I shudder. They killed people in the most awful ways in the past.
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That’s so fascinating! I always thought it was just a silly rhyme, but the history (or supposed history) changes it. Hung, drawn, and quartered is a gruesome way to go. Thanks, Robbie, for the interesting background.
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Thank you, Diana. I didn’t know the origins of this nursery rhyme either. It came up when I was researching the Abbot of Glastonbury who features in my ghost story. I thought it was so interesting I brought it into the story.
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It’s quite a story, and how strange that it would turn into a nursery rhyme.
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Fascinating history!
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Thank you, Ritu. English history is fascinating.
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It is indeed!
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I knew there was a meaning behind the nursery rhyme, Robbie, but couldn’t have said what it was. Thanks for this.
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My pleasure, Mary. I am glad you enjoyed this.
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Funny, but I had heard, at one time, that most nursery rhymes were created to make real life, more palatable. I love learning the history that you share. Thanks, Robbie
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Maybe American nursery rhymes are for that purpose; like Yankee Doodle. English nursery rhymes are frequently steeped in horrible history like Ring a ring ‘n roses and I had a little pear tree.
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Not more palatable… but they and our older ‘fairytales’ are often steeped in life-lessons.
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Thank you for sharing this post, Sue. I always enjoy visiting Ani and you. I will share again tomorrow. Hugs.
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It is always a pleasure to have you over, Robbie 🙂
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With Horner as a last name, you can bet I heard the American version of this nursery rhyme quite often as child. I had no idea of its history. Thanks for sharing, Robbie.
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Thanks for reading, Lyn. It is very interesting.
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Very interesting. I know that most nursery rhymes were originally political, but I only remember some of them and seem to have forgotten the rest. Thanks!
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Thanks for reading, Marilyn. I have always enjoyed nursery rhymes and find their history intriguing. Many of them have interesting political and other origins.
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Thanks for sharing this! I love nursery rhymes for their historic content — which I find is often dark or political. I have this theory that none of them were written simply for ‘fun’.
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Thank you, Christine. I have not come across any that were written for fun yet in my wandering research. I really enjoy digging into the history.
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Do you know if it is true that “Pocket full of posies” was supposed to represent the plague? I had read that many years ago, then heard it had been ‘debunked’ as a myth.
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The histories of these nursery rhymes are all speculative. There origins are so far back in history and people don’t know for sure. They make an assessment based on reason but their is no proof.
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Hmmm, well, since we cannot prove it either way, I shall stick to my original assessment of the plague. Otherwise “ashes, ashes” makes no sense! Fascinating stuff! 🙂
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I doubt if any of them were .
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Wonderful bit of history, but I hope they still weren’t drawing and quartering people in 1939.
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Not in England, Craig, but as you know there is plenty of truly dreadful stuff that goes on in the word. You still hear of the odd case of necklacing (covering a person with petrol and throwing a flaming car tire over their head] in South Africa. Our domestic servant’s brother was killed in Cape Town because he was a taxi driver and he was out of his region [which was Johannesburg]. The murderers cut off his head.
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I’m aware of some of this going on. Gangs do the tire thing here on occasion.
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Really! I didn’t think you had these sorts of issues in the US.
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It was a rare occurrence. Hispanic gangs in California. Seems like it was a dozen years ago.
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Thanks for sharing this interesting piece of English history with us. It’s fascinating how so many nursery rhymes have their origins in grim events. This would make a great blog series.
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Thanks Amy, I agree it would. I will think about it when I finish my interesting literature and musicals series.
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A fascinating post, Robbie. I once read a book about the origins of many familiar nursery rhymes.
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Thank you, Darlene. I must see if I can find a book like that. Very interesting.
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I tried to find it to give you the name but I must have given it away. Here is a good website
https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/More-Nursery-Rhymes/
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Thank you so much, Darlene.
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I did not know the history behind this nursery rhyme. Thank you for this! The only history behind a nursery rhyme I know of is that of Ring Around the Rosie. I suspect most know that story.
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It would be interesting to delve into the meanings behind some of the American nursery rhymes too, Jennie. I grew up on a diet of English nursery rhymes and stories.
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I think it would be interesting, too. Maybe I should start with learning about Mother Goose. Best to you, Robbie.
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Very interesting Robbie 💜💜💜
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Thank you, Willow.
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💜
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Fabulous how these nursery rhymes take on epic proportions and become myths. What a great post. Love it. Thanks, Sue and Robbie. ❤
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Thank you, Colleen. I am glad you enjoyed this post.
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Excellent share Robbie. I too wasn’t familiar with the original version. Make one wonder how many nursery rhymes evolved from a real story. 🙂
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Thank you, Debby. I wasn’t familiar with it either. I came across it by accident.
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Great post, Robbie, and thanks, Sue. Regarding the methods of execution, when I studied Criminology it became clear that cruelty had a different meaning then, and although the bloody code was the name people gave the English Criminal Law in the XVIII and XIX centuries (as many crimes were punishable by death), previous laws were not precisely kinder.
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Always a delight to see Robbie.
Yes… Nursery rhymes are as gruesome as fairytales. Hugs
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They often are, but both can teach a lot about the human journey. 🙂
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