Who was Jack Sprat?

The Jack Sprat of the famous nursery rhyme about eating fat and lean is likely not a real person. Rather, the content of the rhyme seems related to the contrast between two people who like dramatically different things and yet complement each other because of these differences.

Rather than being a specific person, the "Jack Sprat" character seems to have been an everyman figure that could be used in a variety of different English stories during the 16th century C.E. The earliest published mention of a Jack who could eat no fat appears in 1639, though not with the Sprat last name.