<P> "Moore and Burgess Minstrels, St James's - hall TODAY at 3, TONIGHT at 8, when the following new and charming songs will be sung...The great American song of ROCK - A-BYE ..." </P> <P> This minstrel song, whether substantially the same as the nursery rhymes quoted above or not, was clearly an instant hit: a later advertisement for the same company in the paper's October 13 edition promises that "The new and charming American ballad, called ROCK - A-BYE, which has achieved an extraordinary degree of popularity in all the cities of America will be SUNG at every performance ." </P> <P> If this is, in fact, the same song, then this implies that it was an American composition and already popular there . An article in the New York Times of August 1891 (p. 1) refers to the tune being played in a parade in Asbury Park, N.J. and clearly by this date the song was well established in America . Newspapers of the period, however, credit its composition to two separate persons, both resident in Boston: one is Effie Canning (later referred to as Mrs. Effie D. Canning Carlton and the other the composer Charles Dupee Blake . </P>

Where does the nursery rhyme rock a bye baby come from