18 June 2012
Sourced primarily from Wikipedia.
This rhyme is of American origin and was first written by Sarah Josepha Hale (this is slightly contentious) in 1830, inspired by an actual incident.
A girl named Mary Sawyer took her pet lamb to school. A young man named John Roulstone who was training to become a religious minister was visiting the school and saw Mary and her lamb. There are actually three stanzas to the rhyme and it is theorised that the first stanza was written by John Roulstone, and the second and third by Sarah Hale.
As a sad end to the tale, the house that Mary Sawyer lived in, located in Sterling, Massachusetts, was destroyed by arson in August 2007.
Nursery Rhyme Origins: Mary Had A Little Lamb • Opuss № I