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Hi......I am assuming this was the Sarah Mott who was, as people believed, cured of bewitchment by the famous cunning man   James "Cunning"  Murrell of Hadleigh? (The story is in the article "A Wizard of Yesteryear" by Arthur Morrison, printed in the Strand magazine 1900, you can find a copy of it on the files of the Pickingill email list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pickingill/ and perhaps elsewhere on the web by now. The stacks of a big library may have the original, I found a copy in Melbourne University library rare books collection)

These wizards, witches and cunning folk are my interest, and I have been struck by how often the surname "Mott" turns up in connection with them. This may be just because there were a lot of Motts in Essex; but I have also been struck by how often these Motts are tailors or drapers or the like....The thing here is there was (according to the folklorist Maple) a family of traditional layers-out of the dead  in the Rochford area of Essex, whose name he gives only as "M_". Although not a wizarding family, as JK Rowling would say, they did have a numinous reputation. I am suspecting, no more than that, that this "M_" family were Motts.

You will find the Morrison article of interest in any case, as a window on 19th century rural Essex....

Hi aa1webb,

The first thing I want to make clear is I am definitely not stalking you! Our interests seem to overlap, in particular I am very interested in one Sarah Ann Summers (born in Canewdon) who married a William Higby of Hawkwell (born in Eastwood) in 1861

You will remember that I am interested in alleged witches and cunning folk in the Rochford area and surrounds.

Sarah Ann's granddaughter was Lilian "Granny" Garner of Canewdon who figures in the legend of reputed witch George Pickingill. Granny Garner is reported as claiming  that her mother belonged to one of Pickingill's covens (and later she herself)....but it turns out that her mother was an incomer born in Malta. However in 1911 Granny Garner as a young woman was living with her grandparents, and my guess is that her "mother" was actually her grandmother.

The person who has done the heavy research lifting in this area is Bill the Exile who uncovered the hard facts above, without being reponsible for my speculation about the meaning of those facts. Some of the above information, and a little more, can be found on his site at:
http://www.deadfamilies.com/Z3-Others/Higby/Higby-Walter-Gen3.htm

I imagine that Granny Garner still has living relatives in the area, and that they know of reputed affiliations! It would be interesting to hear from any such!

...... I have found most of his children, and they moved down from the Epping area to Rochford. thank's for replying.  Lyn

Hi essexgirl, they moved down from the Epping area from Rochford? I'm trying to find out when the gypsy presence around Eastwood began (hi aa1webb!) , my information so far being that it started when Epping Forest gypsies relocated to Eastwood in the 1870s. Long story why I'm interested, already went into it on another thread on this board!.....but briefly it is to do with alleged Romany affiliations of alleged witch George Pickingill.

best, Jeremy

Hi aa1webb , thanks for the welcome.

The exact question I am asking is "For how long has there been a significant gypsy population at Eastwood, Essex ?"

The background to this question is the mystery (in some circles the controversy!) concerning the "cunning folk" of the area, notably George Pickingill (or Pettingale, Pickengale etc), ?1816 -1909, of Hockley, Eastwood, Canewdon and elsewhere.

The man doing most of the genealogical research into this area at the moment calls himself "Bill the Exile" and the relevant part of his site is at:
http://www.deadfamilies.com/Z3-Others/Pickingill-Index-Page.htm
You may find some material that more generally deals with your interests, and more is I believe projected.

The controversy about Pickingill largely concerns whether he was on the one hand a run-of-the-mill village cunning man or whether he had a sphere of influence very much greater than that. The evidence for the latter opinion largely rests on the testimony of one Bill Liddell, so the credibility of Bill Liddell's information is an important issue. He has always insisted that Pickingill was of Romany kin. This was not mentioned by the folklorist who first publicized Pickingill (that was Eric Maple in a series of articles in the journal Folklore, it is available on JSTOR) so it is I think a bit of a test issue as to Liddell's broader credibility.

Maple traces the gypsy connection to Eastwood back to he 1870s. But (for example) you will see from Bill the Exile's page that George Pickingill was apparently living in Tinkers Lane Eastwood before then. The question is, does this add to the circumstantial evidence that Pickingill was of gyspy kin or not?

The Pickingill/Pettingale name appears to derive from "Portingale", meaning Portugal or Portugese, (although that is disputed like everything else on this subject); and there is a record of a George Portingale, "Captain of Egyptians" in Essex in 1611. (George was not then such a common forename as it became..) That is breaking news, so to speak, so I don't quite know how significant it is.....

Fanny Bird and Nelly Button were among the many reputed witches of southern Essex, they're mentioned in Maples' articles and turn up on census records...The "Silly Bill" Spearman Maple mentions ("of the well known gypsy family" or words to that effect) was supposed to live in Latchingdon but I haven't so far found any record of him.

An important article on Cunning Murrell, published in 1900, is at:
http://www.witchgrotto.com 

I personally first became interested in this subject writing an article on Pickingill for wikipedia; the article is out-of-date now but has some still useful links, it is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pickingill

I could go on but this will be more than enough!

Best, Jeremy