Little Jack Horner

The earliest known record of this popular nursery rhyme of Little Jack Horner seems to appear in 1725, in a ballad by Henry Carey. a poet and songwriter who lived in England.

The rhyme refers to a young boy, sitting in the corner of his room, and eating a "Christmas Pie". A "Christmas Pie" was a common name for the English dish of "mince pie", a baked pastry of a mixture of finely chopped meat, fruit, and spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. The first known reference to mince pies dates way back to the 13th century. The pie was usually baked and served around the Christmas season, and that's how it's name became associated with the holiday. It is still popular in England today.

Some tales attribute the story to events surrounding a man named Thomas Horner, who might have been the model for Little Jack Horner. Horner was sent on an errand by the head of a local monastery ; Horner's task was to deliver a Christmas pie to London, and inside the pie were hidden deeds to properties. Allegedly enroute to his destination, Horner removed one of the deeds for himself, and the particular one he chose also contained some rights to a lead mine.

The nursery rhyme says that Jack pulled out a "plum" and it was probably a reference to the Latin word for lead plumbum.