Joan Wytte (1775 - 1813) – The Witch of Bodmin Moor
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be writing about some famous witches from across time and some that may be less known. Over the centuries, those who carried the name of ‘Witch’ have been hated, disowned by family, shunned by their communities, persecuted, incarcerated and killed! They were said to be evil and in league with the Devil himself! Some people still believe that to this day but that’s far from the truth.
Witches primarily work with nature to help others. A lot of us are healers who wish no ill will on anyone. I’m certainly not consorting with any evil entities! Yes, I work with spirit but only to give messages of comfort to those who wish to contact their loved ones who have passed. I see no evil in that at all.
This week, I’m going to tell you the sad story of Joan Wytte.
She was born in 1775 in Bodmin to a family of weavers and tanners. She could supposedly communicate with Fairies and spirits and became known as ‘The Fighting Fairy Woman of Bodmin’. Joan was clairvoyant and people went to her for her skills as a seer, diviner and healer. She also bore the name of ‘Witch’. She would regularly visit a local holy well where she did scrying and tied clooties on the branches of the trees. A clootie, pronounced ‘kloo-tee’, is a type of Charm. It’s a strip of cloth taken from the clothing of someone who’s ill. As it decays on the tree, the body of the sick person heals. This is a form of sympathetic magic. These charms of cloth and ribbons are still tied to the trees at holy wells in modern times.
Sometime in her twenties, Joan developed really bad tooth decay that eventually caused a painful abscess and in those times, there weren’t many remedies or treatments for dental problems. The constant and growing pain (and probably the poison from the abscess) changed her behaviour over time and she started to become ill-tempered and rather snippy. She’d shout at random people and picked fights for no reason. She also turned to drinking alcohol to try and dull the pain, but this only made her mood swings worse, especially her anger. She became delirious, rambling and ranting to herself. This made others believe that she was possessed by the Devil. One day Joan became involved in a fight. There aren’t any great details about it and I’m not sure how it came about, but it’s said that she fought with several people and threw them all around like a ragdoll! It’s told that she developed supernatural strength and picked up her opponents like they weighed nothing, beating them up severely, but having not injuries herself. She was eventually arrested and taken to Bodmin Jail, where she would live out the rest of her days.
Joan slowly withered away in prison for years, suffering the same dreadful fate as other prisoners who had no money to be able to buy their freedom. Eventually, the poor diet and damp conditions - especially working the treadmill, the fate of all prisoners - caused her to become ill with pneumonia and she died, just aged 38. Her body was dissected by the prison’s surgeon and her skeleton was placed in a prison storeroom.
When a new prison governor, William Hicks, took over he decided to use Joan’s skeleton for amusement in a Séance for friends. Her skeleton was placed in a coffin and a bone put in it for her spirit to use to answer their questions. Two people were given bones, which would be rapped. One was for ‘YES’ and one was for ‘NO’. Out of sight, Hicks had another person who also had a bone and would play the part of Joan to really scare his friends. According to lore, (I personally like to think this is true) the Séance took an unexpected turn. The coffin lid suddenly flew open and the bones were forcibly taken from all three people and they were sent flying across the room. Then the bones started beating on them, causing injuries to the heads and shoulders of everyone there. The violence then stopped as abruptly as it had started.
After the Séance incident, Joan’s bones were returned to the prison storeroom where they remained until 1927, when the place was closed. Her skeleton was acquired by a doctor in north Cornwall and was eventually passed to an antique dealer where it was bought by Cecil Williamson, founder of the museum of Witchcraft, which is located in Boscastle, Cornwall. Williamson put the bones on display in a coffin in the museum and it’s said that the building started to experience a lot of ghostly activity from that time.
When the museum was sold in 1996, the new owners, Graham King and Liz Crow, experienced poltergeist activity associated with Joan’s skeleton. They consulted a witch from St. Buryan, Cassandra Latham, who told them the spirit of Joan Wytte didn’t want to be on public view and wouldn’t rest until she was given a proper burial. Her bones were removed from display for that very reason. The empty coffin remained on display, along with an account of the tragic story of Joan Wytte.
She was buried with some tobacco, a clay pipe, a drop of brandy, special oils, and finally some magical herbs and incense. She was buried in peaceful woodland and her gravestone reads:
“Joan Wytte.
Born 1775. Died 1813 in Bodmin Jail.
Buried 1998.
No longer abused”.
I’ve been very emotional writing about Joan. It pains me to know that she suffered so much and I’m so angry at the sheer lack of respect for her after her passing. After 185yrs, she finally got the burial she deserved and it makes me so happy that her spirit can finally rest.
Join me next week for more on the witches of old.
Love and light to you all.
Blessed be xxx