This was already an old English children's folk song when it was published in _Gammer Gurton's Garland_ (1810). Robert Southey (1774-1843), the English poet, wrote in his diary that this song always scared him when he was a little boy. He would beg his sisters not to sing it, but they always did, anyway.
(From the liner notes of Adam Miller's "Along Came a Giant - Traditional American Folk Songs for Young Folks.)