George Pickingill
Encyclopedia
George Pickingill was an Englishman, believed a cunning man and farm labourer who lived and worked in the Essex
village of Canewdon
. He first came to notoriety when he was made the subject of a study by the folklorist Eric Maple during the 1960s, and later when the contemporary witch
Bill Liddell published the claim that Liddell had not only been a cunning man, but had also been a practicing Luciferian
or pagan
member of the Witch-Cult
who had founded nine coven
s across England, something which has been criticised as being implausible by historians.
His surname also appears in a number of variants, "Pickengale" and "Pitengale" among others.
. (He would move to Canewdon with wife and young children some time between 1864 and 1868.) He was the eldest son of Charles Pickingill originally of Canewdon, variously described as an agricultural labourer and a blacksmith, and Susannah or Hannah. George Pickingill had a younger brother and three younger sisters who survived infancy. His year of death is supposed to be 1909 on the basis that he is to be identified with a "George Pettingale" buried in that year, (an identification that Bill Liddell has challenged on the basis that "George Pettingale" received a Christian burial which Pickingill's hostile relationship with the church would have precluded). In 1856 a George Pickingill married a Sarah Ann Bateman from Tillingham
; this appears to be our cunning man and his wife who is however always thereafter called Mary Ann. She died some time between 1881 and 1891. They had daughters Martha Ann in 1858 and Mary Ann in 1863, and sons Charles Frederick (born approximately 1862) and George (born approximately 1868). George the younger appears to have been serving a term of imprisonment in 1891 and to have died in 1903. While the sons apparently died without issue the daughters each married and had several children.
Maple described Pickingill as "a tall, unkempt man, solitary and uncommunicative. He had very long finger-nails, and kept his money in a purse of sacking". He also noted that he worked as a farm labourer and that he was a widower with two sons.
s - which were his familiar spirit
s - to do the job for him. Maple also noted that "Those whom he permitted to visit his cottage said that the ornaments could be seen through the window rising and falling, one after the other, in a kind of dance", something he believed had its origins in a Dutch folkloric tradition that may have been imported to Essex when many Dutch migrants settled there in the seventeenth century.
Pickingill was sufficiently well known in Essex as an accomplished cunning man that people came to visit him from outside the village of Canewdon in search of magical aid, sometimes "from great distances", including men from the Essex village of Dengie
, who sought his advice in a dispute that they were having over wages. Meanwhile, as Maple noted, the agricultural village of Canewdon had developed a reputation associating it with witchcraft
and magic
by the end of the nineteenth century, when it was often thought of as "The Witch Country". This was possibly due to its relative isolation from neighbouring settlements, as it was surrounded by marshland, and the insular nature of its community. Maple recorded that in this period there was a rumour that there were either six or nine elderly women living in Canewdon who were malevolent witches who used their magic to harm others. It was believed that whilst they were not known to one another, they all owed their allegiance to a singular wizard or master of witches, and there was a rumour in the local community that Pickingill himself was this figure.
carrying his coffin drew up to the churchyard, the horses stepped out of their shafts. He was subsequently buried in the church's graveyard, whilst his house fell into dilapidation before falling down.
and to have played a major part in 19th century esoteric circles. In particular Pickingill is claimed to have been a major influence on the Societas Rosicruciana
and the Golden Dawn
, although they eventually broke with him over his increasing reputation for Satanism and black magic. By this account Pickingill was a modernizing hereditary witch
who reformed the craft, founding nine covens, and introduced the novelty in the English context of female leadership. Further to this account, it was Gerald Gardner
's contact with some of these covens which enabled him to found modern Wicca
. The famous magician Aleister Crowley
was supposed to have been a Pickingill initiate. Bill Liddell claims to be passing on information derived from his own family traditions and from various unidentified "craft elders".
Historian Ronald Hutton
has concluded that Liddell's claims are unlikely to be true but cannot be conclusively disproven. The gist of Hutton's argument is that the world of nineteenth century English magicians is well documented and one would have expected such an influential figure as Pickingill is presented as being to have left some trace on the records. Hutton's own field research confirms Pickingill's local reputation as a "traditional cunning man". Liddell's claims, or the claims transmitted by him, are not widely accepted among Wiccans, see History of Wicca
. By his own account Liddell's sources are disparate and his claims do not necessarily all stand or all fall together. By his own account Liddell is a descendant of one of George Pickingill's male cousins, and it is possible that research into the Pickingill family tree will eventually throw light on the Liddell material.
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
village of Canewdon
Canewdon
Canewdon is a village in north Rochford District of Essex in England, approximately 4 miles northeast of the town of Rochford. Canewdon is situated on one of the highest hills of the Essex coastline from which St. Nicholas church affords wide views of the Crouch estuary. Canewdon parish extends...
. He first came to notoriety when he was made the subject of a study by the folklorist Eric Maple during the 1960s, and later when the contemporary witch
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
Bill Liddell published the claim that Liddell had not only been a cunning man, but had also been a practicing Luciferian
Luciferianism
Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer, originally a name referring to the planet Venus when it rises ahead of the Sun....
or pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
member of the Witch-Cult
Witch-cult hypothesis
The Witch-cult is the term for a hypothetical pre-Christian, pagan religion of Europe that survived into at least the early modern period. As late as the 19th and early 20th centuries, some scholars had postulated that European witchcraft was part of a Satanic plot to overthrow Christianity; most...
who had founded nine coven
Coven
A coven or covan is a name used to describe a gathering of witches or in some cases vampires. Due to the word's association with witches, a gathering of Wiccans, followers of the witchcraft-based neopagan religion of Wicca, is also described as a coven....
s across England, something which has been criticised as being implausible by historians.
His surname also appears in a number of variants, "Pickengale" and "Pitengale" among others.
Early life
George Pickingill's age is given variously at different census's but it seems clear that he was baptised in 1816 in the Essex village of HockleyHockley
Hockley is a large village and civil parish in Essex, England located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea. More specifically it lies between Rayleigh and Rochford. It came to prominence during the coming of the railway in the 1890s and at the 2001 census had a population of 13,616 people, many...
. (He would move to Canewdon with wife and young children some time between 1864 and 1868.) He was the eldest son of Charles Pickingill originally of Canewdon, variously described as an agricultural labourer and a blacksmith, and Susannah or Hannah. George Pickingill had a younger brother and three younger sisters who survived infancy. His year of death is supposed to be 1909 on the basis that he is to be identified with a "George Pettingale" buried in that year, (an identification that Bill Liddell has challenged on the basis that "George Pettingale" received a Christian burial which Pickingill's hostile relationship with the church would have precluded). In 1856 a George Pickingill married a Sarah Ann Bateman from Tillingham
Tillingham
Tillingham is a small village and civil parish with 1,015 inhabitants in 2001, located from Burnham-on-Crouch and from Bradwell-on-Sea, in Maldon District and the ceremonial county of Essex in England...
; this appears to be our cunning man and his wife who is however always thereafter called Mary Ann. She died some time between 1881 and 1891. They had daughters Martha Ann in 1858 and Mary Ann in 1863, and sons Charles Frederick (born approximately 1862) and George (born approximately 1868). George the younger appears to have been serving a term of imprisonment in 1891 and to have died in 1903. While the sons apparently died without issue the daughters each married and had several children.
Maple described Pickingill as "a tall, unkempt man, solitary and uncommunicative. He had very long finger-nails, and kept his money in a purse of sacking". He also noted that he worked as a farm labourer and that he was a widower with two sons.
Magical career
In his role as a cunning man, the folklorist Eric Maple noted that Pickingill unusually did not charge for his services, but did receive some money from visitors, and his recorded roles included restoring lost property and curing minor ailments, both of which were common practices amongst British cunning folk. Maple also noted that Pickingill was known to use cursing and malevolent magic on occasion, something that he contrasted with the activities of other contemporary cunning folk that he had studied, such as James Murrell. Pickingill was also known for his ability to control animals, namely horses, and it was believed that when he struck a hedgerow with his stick, game animals would run out that could then be caught, killed and eaten. It was also rumoured that he could do things faster than ordinary human beings, and that he could do an hour's job in only a few minutes, with some believing that he got his impImp
An imp is a mythological being similar to a fairy or demon, frequently described in folklore and superstition. The word may perhaps derive from the term ympe, used to denote a young grafted tree.-Folklore:...
s - which were his familiar spirit
Familiar spirit
In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...
s - to do the job for him. Maple also noted that "Those whom he permitted to visit his cottage said that the ornaments could be seen through the window rising and falling, one after the other, in a kind of dance", something he believed had its origins in a Dutch folkloric tradition that may have been imported to Essex when many Dutch migrants settled there in the seventeenth century.
Pickingill was sufficiently well known in Essex as an accomplished cunning man that people came to visit him from outside the village of Canewdon in search of magical aid, sometimes "from great distances", including men from the Essex village of Dengie
Dengie
Dengie is a village and civil parish in the Maldon district of Essex, England, with a population of 135.It gives its name to the Dengie peninsula and hundred and to the Dengie Special Protection Area....
, who sought his advice in a dispute that they were having over wages. Meanwhile, as Maple noted, the agricultural village of Canewdon had developed a reputation associating it with witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
and magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
by the end of the nineteenth century, when it was often thought of as "The Witch Country". This was possibly due to its relative isolation from neighbouring settlements, as it was surrounded by marshland, and the insular nature of its community. Maple recorded that in this period there was a rumour that there were either six or nine elderly women living in Canewdon who were malevolent witches who used their magic to harm others. It was believed that whilst they were not known to one another, they all owed their allegiance to a singular wizard or master of witches, and there was a rumour in the local community that Pickingill himself was this figure.
Death
In the last weeks of his life, when he had become very ill, the local people moved Pickingill to the infirmary against his will, where he declared that at his funeral there would be one more demonstration of his magical powers. Many locals interpreted this as coming true, when as the hearseHearse
A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...
carrying his coffin drew up to the churchyard, the horses stepped out of their shafts. He was subsequently buried in the church's graveyard, whilst his house fell into dilapidation before falling down.
Bill Liddell's claims
More recently he has been claimed by a faction of modern pagan witchcraft centring around Australian-based Bill Liddell to have been a source of modern WiccaWicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
and to have played a major part in 19th century esoteric circles. In particular Pickingill is claimed to have been a major influence on the Societas Rosicruciana
Societas Rosicruciana
The Societas Rosicruciana is a Rosicrucian order which limits its membership to Christian Master Masons. The order was founded in Scotland, but now exists in England, Scotland, Canada, France, Portugal, Romania, Ireland and the United States...
and the Golden Dawn
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...
, although they eventually broke with him over his increasing reputation for Satanism and black magic. By this account Pickingill was a modernizing hereditary witch
Hereditary witch
A hereditary witch is one who is born into a tradition of esoteric origin. These traditions are often not recorded, except maybe in grimoires which are also passed down, but rely primarily on oral and physical tradition....
who reformed the craft, founding nine covens, and introduced the novelty in the English context of female leadership. Further to this account, it was Gerald Gardner
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brousseau Gardner , who sometimes used the craft name Scire, was an influential English Wiccan, as well as an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist, writer, weaponry expert and occultist. He was instrumental in bringing the Neopagan religion of Wicca to public attention in Britain and...
's contact with some of these covens which enabled him to found modern Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
. The famous magician Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
was supposed to have been a Pickingill initiate. Bill Liddell claims to be passing on information derived from his own family traditions and from various unidentified "craft elders".
Historian Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton
Ronald Hutton is an English historian who specializes in the study of Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and contemporary Paganism. A reader in the subject at the University of Bristol, Hutton has published fourteen books and has appeared on British television and radio...
has concluded that Liddell's claims are unlikely to be true but cannot be conclusively disproven. The gist of Hutton's argument is that the world of nineteenth century English magicians is well documented and one would have expected such an influential figure as Pickingill is presented as being to have left some trace on the records. Hutton's own field research confirms Pickingill's local reputation as a "traditional cunning man". Liddell's claims, or the claims transmitted by him, are not widely accepted among Wiccans, see History of Wicca
History of Wicca
The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early twentieth century, when it first developed amongst several secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon...
. By his own account Liddell's sources are disparate and his claims do not necessarily all stand or all fall together. By his own account Liddell is a descendant of one of George Pickingill's male cousins, and it is possible that research into the Pickingill family tree will eventually throw light on the Liddell material.