Moll Pitcher - in Literature

In Literature

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92), also a native of Massachusetts, wrote a 900-line poem about her entitled simply Moll Pitcher. It was Whittier's second published work. The poem is not complimentary, describing her as a witch engaged in sinful work:

She stood upon a bare tall craig
Which overlooked her rugged cot -
A wasted, gray, and meagre hag,
In featured evil as her lot.
She had the crooked nose of a witch,
And a crooked back and chin;
And in her gait she had a hitch,
And in her hand she carried a switch,
To aid her work of sin, -

Contemporaries, however, describe her as plain: not beautiful, but not a hag; ordinary in appearance. Later in life, Whittier grew to dislike the poem.

Massachusetts playwright J.S. Jones (1811–87) wrote Moll Pitcher, Or the Fortune Teller of Lynn.