"Mother Leeds" has been identified by some as the real-life Deborah Leeds, on grounds that Deborah Leeds' husband, Japhet Leeds, named twelve children in the will he wrote during 1736, which is compatible with the legend. Prior to the early 1900s, the Jersey Devil was referred to as the Leeds Devil or the Devil of Leeds, either in connection with the local Leeds family or the eponymous southern New Jersey town, Leeds Point. Some versions of the legend also state that there was a subsequent attempt by local clergymen to exorcise the creature from the Pine Barrens. In some versions of the tale, Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the devil, himself.
Growling and screaming, the child beat everyone with its tail before flying up the chimney and heading into the pines. Born as a normal child, the thirteenth child changed to a creature with hooves, a goat's head, bat wings, and a forked tail. The Lenape people who originally inhabited the Pine Barrens believed the area was inhabited by a spirit called M'Sing, which sometimes took the form of a "deer-like creature with leathery wings." Mother Leeds's 13th child Īccording to popular folklore, the Jersey Devil originated with a Pine Barrens resident named Jane Leeds, known as "Mother Leeds." The legend states that Mother Leeds had twelve children and, after finding she was pregnant for the thirteenth time, cursed the child in frustration, crying that the child would be the " devil." In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night while her friends gathered around her.
Japhet Leeds House, Moss Mill Road, Leeds Point, Atlantic County, New Jersey (c.
0 kommentar(er)
