There Was a Crooked Man#In popular culture
{{Short description|Traditional song}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name = There Was a Crooked Man
| cover = File:BookOfNurseryRhymes90.jpg
| alt =
| type = Nursery rhyme
| written =
| published = 1842
| writer = Unknown
| composer =
| lyricist =
}}
{{Portal |Children's literature}}
File:The Crooked House, Lavenham.jpg
File:Alexleslie.jpg is reputed to be the crooked old man]]
"There Was a Crooked Man" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 4826.{{cite web | url=https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50_list/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A4826 | title=Roud Folksong Index 4826 There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile | publisher=English Folk Dance and Song Society | work=Vaughan Williams Memorial Library | accessdate=1 February 2025}}
Origin
The rhyme was first recorded in print by James Orchard Halliwell in 1842:{{cite book |title=The Nursery Rhymes of England |first=James Orchard |last=Halliwell |publisher=C. Richards |location=London |year=1842 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89222/page/n214 30] |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89222}}
:There was a crooked man and he went a crooked mile,
:He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
:He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
:And they all liv'd together in a little crooked house.
It gained popularity in the early twentieth century.I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 340. One legend suggests{{cite web |url=http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/travels-peabod/2011/sep/12/four-great-little-places-you-probably-never-heard-/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006123020/http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/travels-peabod/2011/sep/12/four-great-little-places-you-probably-never-heard-/ |archivedate=6 October 2014 |title=Lavenham, England: Part one of four great little places |newspaper=Washington Times |date=12 September 2011 |first=Bob |last=Taylor |accessdate=5 November 2016}} that this nursery rhyme originated in the once prosperous wool merchant's village of Lavenham, about 70 miles northeast of London, having been inspired by its multicolored half-timbered houses leaning at irregular angles as if they are supporting each other. One Lavenham house in particular, 'The Crooked House' is often cited as the inspiration for the rhyme.{{Cite web |last=Watkins |first=Flora |date=2022-05-07 |title=What it's like to live in the world's most famous crooked house |url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/what-its-like-to-live-in-the-world-famous-crooked-house-in-lavenham-242219 |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=Country Life |language=en}}
Other sources{{cite book |last=Alchin |first=Linda |date=2013 |url=http://www.rhymes.org.uk/there_was_a-crooked_man.htm |chapter=There was a Crooked Man |title=The Secret History of Nursery Rhymes |edition=2nd |location=Surrey, UK |publisher=Neilsen}} state that the poem originates from British history, specifically the period of the Scottish Stuart King Charles I of England (reigned 1625–1649). The crooked man is reputed to be the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie, who signed a covenant securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The "crooked stile" in the poem was the alliance between the parliaments of England and Scotland or the border between the two, depending on the source. "They all lived together in a little crooked house" refers to the fact that the English and Scots had at last come to an agreement, despite the continuing great animosity between the two peoples, who nonetheless had to live with each other due to their common border.[https://books.google.com/books?id=WTitDwAAQBAJ&dq=poem+there+was+a+crooked+inspired+by+crooked+house&pg=PT78 Here Comes A Chopper to Chop Off Your Head - The Dark Side of Childhood][https://books.google.com/books?id=XKiA1Vb5cREC&dq=poem+there+was+a+crooked+man+crooked+stile+scotland&pg=PA43 The Secret History of Nursery Rhymes Page 43]
The great recoinage around 1696 led to sixpence coins that were made of very thin silver and were easily bent, becoming "crooked".[https://books.google.com/books?id=vG83AAAAMAAJ&dq=poem+there+was+a+crooked+man+sixpence+bent+coin&pg=RA1-PA17 The British Almanac, 1856, page 17]