Stepney Folk

 

Joan Peterson, The Wapping Witch

She was tried for witchcraft. Defence witnesses testified that she could cure headaches and sick cattle. Prosecutuon witnesses charged her with having a black cat and a squirrel as her familiars. Her servant said she had seen her talking to 'a bushy' tailed fiend' and she had also been bewitched. Joan Peterson was hung at Tyburn on 12 April 1652.

(Note publication of book in 1652 The Witch of Wapping, London, Printed for Tm. Spring, 1652. Reel 103, Item 1076. Witchcraft in Europe and America from Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.)