Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief

DESCRIPTION: "Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief." "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief." Or other verses listing occupations. Often used as a counting-out rhyme
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (Halliwell); something similar occurs in Caxton's _The Game and Playe of the Chesse_, c. 1475
KEYWORDS: playparty worker nonballad jumprope | occupations counting
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So) Britain(England(North)) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #42, "Flower Oracles" (1 short text plus excerpts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 24, "(Telling Fortunes)"; p. 49, "RIch Man, Poor Man" (2 texts)
Ainsworth-JumpRopeVerses, #25, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #489, "Rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 502, "TInker, Tailor...." (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #517 n. 56, pp. 216-217, "(My Belief)"
Welsch-NebraskaPioneerLore, p. 268, "(no title)" (1 short text, used to determine the occupation of a future husband)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, p. 58, "(Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor)" (1 text)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 49, "(Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor" (1 text)
cf. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 139, "What will my husband be?" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, (Joan McCaskill, collector), "Rope-Skipping Games", Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jun 1948), p. 11, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 256, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, Vance Randolph, "Jump Rope Rhymes From Arkansas" Volume 3, Number 2 (Summer 1953), p. 84, "(Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Marjorie Rowling, _The Folklore of the Lake District_, Rowman and Littlefield, 1976, p. 131, "(Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor") (1 short text plus related divination rhymes)
Roud #802
File: Newe042

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