That little nursery rhyme was told to me as a child. The true origin of it is unknown, but at least one of the possible sources comes from the town of Lavenham, England.
I visited there once in the middle 1990s while in England on a work-related trip. The photos don't really capture the extent or prevalence of the leaning buildings - but there are several of them. So, how did they get that way?
It turns out they were in a hurry to build, because the town was growing very fast with a booming wool trade. Th economy took off in the region in the 14th and 15th Centuries. They used oak timbers for the structures. They filled between timbers using daub (clay, sand, straw, dung, and water). The timbers were green. So, as everything dried over time, the entire structure bent and warped creating a comically crooked community.
I stumbled upon a memory of this event while reviewing some genealogy.
I limit my personal genealogy work and research to the U.S. or the American Colonies after about 1700 - because I know how to navigate Court and Census Records with reasonable confidence. However, I have connected my researched ancestors to people others have researched and put on Wikitree. This has resulted in what I like to call "deep genealogy."
(It is important to note, though, the deeper in genealogy you go, the less confidence you have. Clerical errors, researchers' assumptions, and ancestral infidelity takes a toll on the accuracy.)
Nonetheless, because of this deep genealogy - I have discovered four ancestors that were living in Lavenham in the sixteenth century. They would have seen the same leaning houses I was tilting my head.
Their names were: John Fuller and his wife, Elizabeth Cole. John and Elizabeth came to Middlesex, Massachusetts before 1647 when their second child was born.
John came to own over a thousand acres in the region of Newton, Massachusetts growing crops as well as supplying malt for the production of beer.
John and Elizabeth are theoretically my 8th Great Grandparents. They share that spot with 1,022 other 8th Great Grandparents. A few of whom are identified, but most of whom are a complete mystery to me. Others, like Catherine Brew (whose name also suggests some connection to Malt or Hops) appears as my 8th Great Grandparent twice.
Knowing who these possible ancestors were, how and where they lived, and what they may have done can be fun. Experiencing a place they would have known gives the experience of the place some personal connection - even if the way I experience it is completely different than their experiences.
For more on John Fuller see: https://johnfullerofnewton.com/
