when was this nursery rhyme first published?
1797
Humpty Dumpty
The earliest known version was published in Samuel Arnold's "Juvenile Amusements" in 1797 with the lyrics:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Four-score Men and Four-score more,
Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.
is humpty dumpty an egg or a potato Egg what is this story or rhyme? Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle
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Humpty Dumpty [SEP] Origins
The earliest known version was published in Samuel Arnold's "Juvenile Amusements" in 1797 with the lyrics: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Four-score Men and Four-score more, Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before. William Carey Richards (1818–1892) quoted the poem in 1843, commenting, "when we were five years old ... the following parallel lines... were propounded as a riddle ... Humpty-dumpty, reader, is the Dutch or something else for an egg". A manuscript addition to a copy of "Mother Goose's Melody" published in 1803 has the modern version with a different last line: "Could not set Humpty Dumpty up again".