Jack Sprat's Pig - English Children's Songs - England - Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Rhymes from Around the World  - Intro Image
Jack Sprat's Pig - English Children's Songs - England - Mama Lisa's World: Children's Songs and Rhymes from Around the World  - Comment After Song Image

Thanks and Acknowledgements

This rhyme and illustration can be found in The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (circa 1920) edited by Walter Jerrold (1865 - 1929) and illustrated by Charles Robinson. It can also be found in The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith, and printed in the USA (Jack Spratt is spelled with two "t's" in The Little Mother Goose).

This rhyme cannot be found in two of the most comprehensive collections of nursery rhymes called The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) and The Annotated Mother Goose (1962). Perhaps it was new to the early 20th century.

If anyone knows anything about the origin of this rhyme, or if you recall hearing it growing up, please email me and let me know. -Mama Lisa