Mother Goose Grave - Granary Burial Ground - Boston, MA
Posted by: 
NorStar
N 42° 21.455 W 071° 03.709
19T E 330201 N 4691538
The claim is that Mother Goose is buried here at the Granary Burial Ground.
Waymark Code: WMR79Y
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 05/21/2016
Views: 17
In Boston, within the Granary Burial Ground, is this grave for Mary Goose, supposedly the first 'Mother Goose.'
The Granary Burial Ground is located on the northwest side of Tremont Street, about a quarter mile northeast from Boston Common.
The grave is located toward the rear of the cemetery, to the right of the obelisk to the Franklin family. It is just off one of the main paths. I used a guide handed to me at the entrance to find it.
The grave stone is a sheet of slate with words imprinted - well worn.
The words state:
"Here lies the body of
Mary Goose wife to
Isaac Goose aged 42
years..."
So, the story goes that Isaac Goose married Mary Balston with him, and had 10 children with him. She died and is buried here. Isaac married Elizabeth Foster who had six children with him. One of them was named Elizabeth. She married Thomas Fleet, a printer and they had a son. Elizabeth, the older, grandmother to this child, used to sing songs that she had learned over time. Fleet, after unsuccessfully trying to stop his mother-in-law from singing, compiled her songs and published them in 1719 as Songs for the Nursery or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children. By 1833 only one of these books was left, and it was republished as The Only True Mother Goose. So, somehow, partially from confusing the wives of Isaac, and partly for tourism sake, this grave was identified as being the grave of "Mother Goose."
So, the first thing is that the person buried here isn't even the mother-in-law of Thomas Fleet (Do we know where Elizabeth Goose is buried?). The second is that there still is controversy about how the Mother Goose tales originated. So, the connection is tenuous, even for Mother Goose. But, one thing that is true is that Mary Goose was "Mother Goose" to ten children.
Additional Requirement?:
Just visit and contemplate.
What's the Real Story?:
Mary Goose was not the mother-in-law to Thomas Fleet, who published the first version of nursery rhymes under the 'Mother Goose' pseudonym and may or may not have inspired the 'Mother Goose' tales in England.
Website Source: [Web Link]
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