177:, and her successful predictions astounded the educated and the uneducated alike. She was consulted by all classes, including visiting noblemen from Europe. Her predictions concerned "love affairs, legacies, discovery of crime, successful lottery tickets, and the more common contingencies of life." But her most important predictions involved the outcome of voyages. Crews were said to refuse to sail on voyages she predicted would be disastrous, and shipowners to refuse to risk their ships.
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in Lynn. He and Lydia
Silsbee were married in 1735. There were no public schools for girls at the time of her youth, but Moll Pitcher seems to have received some education. On October 2, 1760 she married Robert Pitcher, probably an apprentice of her father. The couple continued to live with the
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Treasure-seekers also consulted her, but she was said to have little patience with them, sometimes responding "Fools, if I knew where money was buried, do you think I would part with the secret?" Eccentric (and successful) businessman
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Pitcher died in 1813 and was buried in the West Lynn Burial Ground. Her grave was unmarked until 1887, when a tombstone with the following epitaph (from
Whittier's poem) was erected in her memory:
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Contemporaries, however, describe her as plain: not beautiful, but not a hag; ordinary in appearance. Later in life, Whittier grew to dislike the poem.
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Diamonds and had four children, John, Rebecca, Ruth and Lydia. Her parents and brother died about 1788, and Moll
Pitcher inherited the family property.
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173:, with a clientele that continued to increase in importance for the next 50 years that she lived. Her fame reached throughout
200:. It was Whittier's second published work. The poem is not complimentary, describing her as a witch engaged in sinful work:
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She is also
Referenced by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852).
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Moll
Pitcher was said to have descended from a long line of "wizards." Her father, Aholiab Diamond, was a
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196:(1807–92), also a native of Massachusetts, wrote a 900-line poem about her entitled simply
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It is said that soon after her marriage she was known as a fortune-teller, a reader of
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260: Sleeps calmly where the living laid her;
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was said to place implicit confidence in her predictions.
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288:Dedham: Historic and Heroic Tales From Shiretown
144:. A tree in West Dedham, today Westwood, was
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360:, Salem, Massachusetts, v. III no. 3, p. 35.
392:Poetry and hymns by John Greenleaf Whittier
237:Moll Pitcher, Or the Fortune Teller of Lynn
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132:; c. 1736 – April 9, 1813) was a
402:People from Marblehead, Massachusetts
220:And in her hand she carried a switch,
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214:She had the crooked nose of a witch,
264:Left, by its latest mistress, free,
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290:. The History Press. p. 14.
208:Which overlooked her rugged cot -
254:Even she, our own weird heroine,
218:And in her gait she had a hitch,
204:She stood upon a bare tall craig
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377:People from Lynn, Massachusetts
258:Sole Pythoness of ancient Lynn,
210:A wasted, gray, and meagre hag,
262:And the wide realm of sorcery,
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216:And a crooked back and chin;
212:In featured evil as her lot.
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323:"Whittier, John Greenleaf"
165:Predictions and popularity
109:John, Rebecca, Ruth, Lydia
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327:The Columbia Encyclopedia
231:Massachusetts playwright
224:To aid her work of sin, -
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19:Not to be confused with
412:19th-century occultists
407:18th-century occultists
286:Parr, James L. (2009).
194:John Greenleaf Whittier
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358:The Essex Antiquarian
340:The Women of Sin City
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183:"Lord" Timothy Dexter
146:named for her in 1837
16:American clairvoyant
142:Lynn, Massachusetts
297:978-1-59629-750-0
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73:April 9, 1813
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397:Clairvoyants
382:1730s births
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130:Mary Diamond
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126:Moll Pitcher
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30:Moll Pitcher
387:1813 deaths
175:New England
134:clairvoyant
371:Categories
273:References
233:J.S. Jones
171:tea leaves
158:cordwainer
152:Background
88:Occupation
69:1813-04-09
52:Marblehead
343:(reprint)
329:, 6th ed.
313:., p. 34.
114:Parent(s)
106:Children
48:ca. 1736
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128:(born
98:Spouse
246:Death
140:from
311:Ibid
292:ISBN
136:and
77:Lynn
63:Died
45:Born
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