Old Mother Goose....

Mother Goose is actually an imaginary author of a collection of nursery rhymes. She has been credited for the mother goose stories and rhymes, yet no specific writer has ever been identified with such a name. She appears as a character in one of the rhymes, as follows....

Old Mother Goose
When she wanted to wander
Would fly through the air
On a very fine gander.
Mother Goose had a house;
It stood in the wood
Where an owl at the door
As sentinel stood.

So what is the identity of Old Mother Goose?
The title 'Mother Goose' originates from the 1600's, during the time of the great witch hunts.
If you think about the words within the rhyme you will notice many similarities between Mother Goose and the popular conception of witches of this era.

• Witches were known to have familiars, most often cats, but other animals were also associated. In this case the familiar would be the goose, hence the name Mother Goose. 
• Witches were always thought to have lived alone, secretly secluding themselves from humans. In this rhyme old mother goose is said to have a house in the woods.
• A witch was often portrayed as an old crone, with no man to defend her against accusations and witchcraft.
• Witches are able to fly, most commonly known on a broomstick, however in this rhyme the broom has been replaced with the goose. 

What is a witches familiar?
Animals such as cats, frogs, pigs, ravens, goats, wolves, geese, crows, bats and mice were believed to be the forms adopted by a witches familiar. This is an evil spirit, in animal form used by witches to perform evil deeds and cast spells. A lack of knowledge and understanding of the cause of devastating events such as storms, droughts and disease, led to people becoming increasingly obsessed with witches, blaming them and their supernatural forces for these events.
A book called the malleus maleficarum' was published in 1486, and served as a guide used for the torture and persecution of witches. This was a best selling book of those times, only being out sold by the Bible. In 1563 witchcraft was outlawed in England, and by 1604 a witchcraft act passed. However the witchcraft hysteria grew leading to the Parliamentary appointment of Mathew Hopkins as Witchfinder General in 1644.

Many nursery rhymes originated in the 16th and 17th centuries and children then would have been familiar with stories of witches and witchcraft. This may explain why so many of the nursery rhymes of the periods featured the cat, frog, pig, goose, raven, goat, wolf, bat and mouse.