Little Jack Horner

Various Meanings and Historical Allusions

The most common variation of the “Little Jack Horner” rhyme used in modern culture is the substitution of “mincemeat” for “Christmas”. This is linked to the interchangeable use of the terms “mince” or “mincemeat pie” with that of “Christmas pie” in Medieval England.

According to the Chadds Ford Historical Society, mincemeat is the traditional English Christmas pie. In medieval England, families would share the duties of preparing the mincemeat pie and exchange pies with neighbors as gifts. The family that neglected to make a mincemeat pie would have committed a social faux pas.

The Christmas Pie as described in “Little Jack Horner” is very significant to historical analysis of the nursery rhyme. According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Centenary Ed., 1970 p. 578:

Jack Horner.  A very fanciful explanation of the old nursery rhyme "Little Jack Horner" is that Jack was steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and that by a subterfuge he gained the deeds to the Manor of Mells. It is said that these deeds, with others, were sent to Henry VIII concealed, for safety, in a pastry; that "Jack Horner" was the bearer, and that on the way he lifted the crust and extracted this "plum".

The Horner family, who currently resides in the Manor of Mells, contests the association of their ancestor with the Jack in the nursery rhyme. They claim that the land was appropriated in a legal manner and that their ancestor, was named Thomas not Jack.

However there is great evidence to the legitimacy of the aforementioned interpretation.

In 1525, a monk named Richard Whiting was elected for the position of Abbot of Glastonbury. His time in power had been very successful until King Henry VIII, renounced the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Pope and became the supreme head of church. King Henry VIII ordered religious houses and monasteries to relinquish the properties to him. Stewards dispatched to bring property deeds to the king. A Thomas Horner, who was steward to the Abbot at the time, was believed to have been sent to the king with a pie concealing deeds. While this may sound strange it is very typical of the time. Custom dictated that noblemen send a Christmas pie to the King as a gift. According to historian, Dan Roberts at the University of Richmond, in medieval times it was common to transport valuables inside of pastries to deceive highwaymen and thieves. Therefore it is logical that the king’s annual Christmas pie could be delivered concealing the deeds without suspicion.

This is where the name conflict begins. If this is true why isn’t the nursery rhyme called Little Tom Horner?

As indicated in the Oxford English Dictionary the term Jack was used as a common name for servants, knaves and young boys and as a way of referring to any common male whose identity was unknown. Since Thomas Horner was a steward it is highly likely that he would have been referred to as “Jack”.

Early editions of the Jack Horner rhyme also suggest that Jack Horner was not quite innocent. The earliest known published version of the Jack Horner poem was attributed to poet Henry Carey in 1725. The following is an excerpt from Carey’s Namby: A Panegyric on the New Versification Address’d to A---- P----, Esq.:

Now he sings of Jacky Horner,
Sitting in the Chimney corner,
Eating of a Christmas pye,
Putting in his thumb, O fie!
Putting in, O fie! His thumb,
Pulling out, O strange a plum.

Carey, Henry. A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling, 1926. Los Angeles, California: University of California, 1970

Carey’s use of Jack Horner was a political demonstration against his rival Ambrose Phillips whom he labeled with the childish moniker “Namby Pamby”. According to Frederick T. Wood, editor of “The Poems of Henry Carey,” Ambrose Phillips wrote trite poems to children of nobility, in an obsequious effort to gain status. In conjunction with several other nursery rhymes Carey makes a successful mockery of Ambrose Phillips.

Carey’s version of Jack Horner leads us to believe that Jack was not the quite the good boy that he would have us believe. Jacky Horner is found in a chimney corner, in this version. One can envision him, filthy, covered with soot. Why would a good boy be in the chimney corner with a pie? What is he hiding? The term fie, adds to this allusion. As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, fie is an expression of shame, disgust or feigned shock. Carey’s repetition of the word suggests that Jacky Horner is up to no good.

A version of the rhyme can also be found in the 1764 chapbook, “The History of Jack Horner Containing the Witty Pranks he Play’d From his Youth to his Riper Years, Being Pleasant for Winter Evenings.” This extended version of the rhyme strays from the both current and Carey versions, but has the same basic idea:

When friends they did together meet,
To pass away the time,
Why little Jack be sure would eat
His Christmas pye in rhyme.
And said Jack Horner, in the corner,
Eats good Christmas-pye:
And with his thumbs pulls out the plumbs
And said Good boy am I.

Opie, Iona and Peter Opie, Comps. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1951, p.234, No. 264

Although the text doesn’t seem to implicate Jack, the very title of the chapbook contributes to the concept of trickery and deceit.

While the linkage of nursery rhymes to historical events is often mythical, there is substantial evidence that connects Thomas Horner, the steward, to Little Jack Horner, the nursery rhyme. A Thomas Horner, steward to the last abbot of Glastonbury was the same Thomas Horner who sat on the jury that condemned the Abbot Whiting. This very same Thomas Horner somehow acquired the deed to the Manor at Mells in Somerset, whether the pie was figurative or literal is still uncertain.