George Pickingill

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George Pickingill (?1816-?1909) was an English cunning man and agricultural labourer living in the Essex village of Canewdon, who has become a significant and controversial figure in modern paganism and Wicca. His surname also appears in a number of variants, "Pickengale" and "Pitengale" among others. ^[1]

Besides his name much else about him is unclear. His memory was revived in the 1960s in a work of popular folk-lore by Eric Maple ^[2] who passed on various various stories about his activities including the claim that he was the "master" of a supposed group of witches traditionally associated with Canewdon. Maple also recorded activities more typical of a cunning man, such as curing minor ailments and finding lost property. 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 Wicca 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 modernizinghereditary 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". ^[3]

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". ^[4] 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 ^[5], and it is possible that research into the Pickingill family tree will eventually throw light on the Liddell material.

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 Hockley. (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 ^[6], (an identification that Bill Liddell has challenged ^[7] 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 a daughter Martha Ann in 1858, 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. One third generation descendant, Martha Ann's daughter Emily Wood, is recorded; she was born about 1890.^[8]