Tommy Thumb's Song Book

Tommy Thumb's Song Book is the earliest known collection of British nursery rhymes, printed in 1744.

To which is added, a Letter from a Lady on Nursing; it was published by Mary Cooper of London.

[1] A few weeks after the first publication, Cooper produced another work, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, of which copies are extant.

[1] The 1788 edition begins with a letter to Nurse Lovechild, thanking her for bringing up the author's children and for the 'laudable design' of compiling a collection of songs 'fit for the capacities of infants ... by which they are often lull'd to Rest, when cross, and in great pain.'

It also asks her not to frighten the children by singing too loud or by telling the names of various Bogies, nor to injure them by swinging them by the arms.