The Mystical Magic of Moll Pitcher

April 9, 1813 was the date upon which Moll Pitcher (Mary Diamond) transitioned from this Mortal Plane into the Great Beyond.

In modern parlance, Moll can best be described as a celebrity psychic. She was a highly sought after seeress and fortune teller, who specialized in reading tea leaves. Large numbers of people, often rich and powerful ones, would come from miles around to consult her before embarking on risky undertakings, in particular, voyages, which were intrinsically risky back then.

Moll was born in Marblehead, Mass. and lived in nearby Lynn. Both towns are quite close to Salem, City of Witches, so maybe there is something to her claim that she came from a “long line of Wizards”. (Lucky for her, the practice of hanging those such as she had been abandoned a century earlier, though I bet many still frowned on such devilish arts). As with the legendary New York dancer Jack Diamond she was likely of Irish extraction, the name coming from the Gaelic “Ó Diamáin”.

She is not to be confused with Molly Pitcher, heroine of the American Revolution, or with Moll Flanders, fictional character from Defoe’s eponymous novel. All three are apt to be mixed up due to their associations with lore and literature. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a 1832 poem about this Moll (which is how I learned of her), and Hawthorne referenced her in The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852). And J.S. Jones immortalized her in the 1839 play Moll Pitcher; or, The Fortune Teller of Lynn. Her own prophecies were published in the 1895 volume pictured above. You can read it here.

If Moll Pitcher were alive during the present economic crisis, there would be a line at her house snaking around the block, which would be only appropriate for those seeking an audience with a “pythoness”.