Goose, Elizabeth (1665–1757)

American writer, possibly the legendary Mother Goose, who contributed to the first American book of nursery rhymes for children. Born Elizabeth Foster in 1665; died in 1757; married Isaac Goose, in 1682; children: six (two died in infancy); stepmother to ten.

Much in the life of Massachusetts-born Elizabeth Goose establishes her identity as the real Mother Goose, whose rhymes and stories comprised a book called Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children, published in 1719. Born Elizabeth Foster in 1665, she married the widower Isaac Goose in 1682 and became the stepmother of ten children. The couple added six children of their own, and Elizabeth evidently relied heavily on her memory's store of old rhymes, stories, and fables to keep her brood quiet and entertained. Reportedly, it was Thomas Fleet, a printer and Elizabeth's son-in-law, who assembled her repertoire into the children's book Songs for the Nursery. Unfortunately, no copy of the publication is known to have survived, but some scholars believe that Fleet's edition predates by ten years the translation of France's Charles Perrault's Tales of My Mother Goose into English. Perrault's work is considered the source of many perennial favorites like "Old King Cole," and "Sing a Song of Sixpence." Elizabeth Goose, who at the very least was probably the first American Mother Goose, died in 1757, and is buried in the Old Granary Burial Grounds near the Park Street Church in Boston.