The earliest record of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in 1744, which noted only the first four verses.

[2] Several early versions picture a stocky, strong-billed bullfinch tolling the bell, which may have been the original intention of the rhyme.

The death of a robin by an arrow is depicted in a 15th-century stained glass window at Buckland Rectory, Gloucestershire.

[5] A similar fragmentary rhyme appears in the collected grammatical miscellany of 15th-century schoolmaster, Thomas Schort, which reads:[6] The rhyme is also similar to a poem, Phyllyp Sparowe, written by John Skelton about 1508, in which the narrator laments the death of his pet bird.

Peter Opie pointed out that an existing rhyme could have been adapted to fit the circumstances of political events in the eighteenth century.