Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19621. Modern versions of the rhyme include: The 'pig' mentioned in the song is almost certainly not a live animal but rather a kind of pastry, often made with an apple filling, smaller than a pie. Another version of the rhyme is: This rhyme is often conflated with a separate and longer rhyme: Both rhymes were first printed separately in a "Tom the Piper's Son", a chapbook produced around 1795 in London, England. The
Nursery rhyme towards entertainment, but there is evidence for many rhymes existing before this, including "To market, to market" and "Cock a doodle doo", which date from at least the late 16th century. The first English collections, "Tommy Thumb's Song Book" and a sequel, "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book", are both thought to have been published by Mary Cooper in London before 1744, with such songs becoming known as 'Tommy Thumb's songs'. John Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, "Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets