"Taffy was a Welshman" is an English language nursery rhyme which was popular between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19237.
[3] The rhyme may be related to one published in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, printed in London around 1744, which had the lyrics: Taffy was born On a Moon Shiny Night, His head in the Pipkin, His Heels upright.
[2] Similar versions were printed in collections in the late eighteenth century, however, in Songs for the Nursery printed in 1805, the level of violence in the poem increased: I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was in bed, I took the marrow bone and beat about his head.
[4] This version seems to have been particularly popular in the English counties that bordered Wales, where it was sung on Saint David's Day (1 March) complete with leek-wearing effigies of Welshmen.