Who was Old Mother Red-Cap, Tasmin Blee, James Murrell or Daddy Witch? They were all Cunning-Folk, what some have called: "white-witches", wise-men/women, charmers, blessers, conjuers, or even pellors. They were for the most part practitioners of beneficent magic and were regularly consulted for a variety of services, such as finding missing persons and lost objects, herbalism, detecting a thief, curing illnesses in people and animals, exorcizing spirits, making amulets, casting spells and breaking the spells of others, and identifying witches who practiced malevolent magic. When trying to research these Cunning-Folk it is important to remember who wrote their "histories," and therefore why many of the tales surrounding them are dark or sinister.

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The title "Mother Red Cap" was used as a generic title for ale-wives and witches alike. Of the women called by this title, the first well-known Mother Red Cap had a child at 15 by a man called Gipsy George. George was hanged at Tyburn for stealing sheep. (Tyburn was an extreme western suburb of London, and executions took place there for many centuries. As such some 50,000 people were put to death here over the 600 or so years that it served as a place of execution from the 12th century. The form of execution was often the ritual torture of being hanged, drawn and quartered.)

Mother Red Cap then took up with a man called Darby, who disappeared after a few months of drunken quarrelling and was never seen again. Then her parents were convicted of killing a girl by black magic and were hanged. She took up with a third lover call Picher, who before long was found in her oven, burnt to a cinder. She was tried for his murder but was acquitted, after a witness declared that he often took refuge in the oven to escape her cruel tongue, and could well have been burnt by accident. She then became something of a recluse, but was occasionally seen in the lanes and hedgerows, collecting herbs and berries.

The night she died, people declared that they saw the devil walk into her cottage, but no one saw him come out. She was found the next morning, sitting by a pot on the fire, her cat beside her. When the cat was given some of the contents to drink, it's hair fell off in two hours, and the cat died soon after.

A old rhyme, said to be used by cunning folk when they set out on journeys "Mullein and rue, and red- cap too, hie me over to ______ ." (The blank being the place you are bound to.) Sometimes it is given as "Yarrow and rue." In several tales, it is presented as a flying spell.

Tamson Blight was called by the people of Helston 'Tammy Blee'. She was most likely the most well known Cunning-Woman of her time period. She is certainly one of the best remembered 'pellors' of West Cornwall. She was known to be able to take away of curses put on people by witches of the black arts, and could cure people of illnesses as well as animals. Her fame was such that even on her deathbed people were carried to her on stretchers and laid beside her - 'only to rise up and go down the stairs perfectly cured'. Tammy Blee's husband, James Thomas, a driver of a mine engine, also had similar powers.

James Murrell and is said to have been born in Rochford, in Essex, England, in the year 1780. He lived for many years in Hadleigh, in Essex, and until his death in 1860, he practiced as a 'cunning man' and had the popular reputation of being a wizard.

Murrell styled himself as 'The Devil's Master,' and claimed the power to exorcize evil spirits, destroy witches, and restore lost and stolen property. He was in demand as an animal healer throughout Essex, Suffolk, and North Kent. His method consisted of taking a good look at the animal, then passing his hands over the affected part, muttering a prayer, and, lastly, hanging an amulet about the creature's neck. His treatment was usually considered to be successful. Murrell was also a renowned herbalist; drying herbs hung in profusion from the ceiling of his cottage, and he was known to have annotated and 'corrected' a copy of Culpeper. In addition, he was said to be infallible as an astrologer.

Murrell is remembered for his pursuit of witches. He employed iron witch-bottles, which were cast by the local smith, whose descendents were still living in Hadleigh at the time Maple wrote his article. The casting of the first bottle was said to have defied all the smith's efforts, until Murrell recited a charm and all went well. By means of the witch bottles, Murrell was said to have the power to summon anyone, even those who had gone overseas and were wanted at home.

Cunning Murrell died on 16 December 1860, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Hadleigh churchyard, beside most of his twenty children. According to Maple, 'His death certificate laconically states "James Murrell: Profession Quack Doctor: Natural Causes," in spite of the claim of a rival wizard, a Rayleigh man, that he had most unnaturally "done for Murrell" by means of a witch-bottle.' The ghost of Cunning Murrell was seen gathering herbs by the roadside after his death.

Daddy Witch was a very well known Cunning Woman in the Cambridgeshire area, specifically in Horseheath. This little village has numerous stories surrounding witches and cunning folk. Daddy relates to "father" and to "male", so even though "Daddy Witch" was a woman this most likely indicates that she was a devotee of a male God, possibly Herne, or even Cernunnos. Her knowledge and skills, tradition continues, were gained from a book called 'The Devil's Plantations'.