Daniel Leeds (1651-1720) & Japheth Leeds (1682-1748)
Family Legend/Folklore
My website may be titled Hoosier Kin — an homage to five generations of my paternal line in Indiana — however, through my maternal line, my roots are profoundly dug into, planted deeply in southern New Jersey’s Atlantic Coast, too. This post was originally prompted and inspired by professional genealogist Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt FAMILY LEGEND in 2021, but again in 2024, FAMILY LORE. Here I share a legend that is the definition of New Jersey folklore: The Jersey Devil.
The Jersey Devil — maternal 6th great-granduncle?
LEGEND: In the 1730s, Mother Leeds was living in the Pine Barrens, around what is now Leeds Point, Atlantic County, New Jersey. Upon discovering that she was expecting her 13th child, she exclaimed in exhaustion and frustration that the child would be the devil, or more precisely, “let it be the devil!”
On a dark and stormy night in 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor; giving birth to a normal child, the 13th child then changed into a creature with hooves, a goat’s or horse’s head, leathery bat wings and a forked tail. Growling and screaming, it devoured the midwife and its mother, as well as some of its siblings before flying up the chimney and heading into the pines, hence forth becoming the legendary menacing monster in the sourthern New Jersey and Philadelphia area.
Picture: The Jersey Devil, The Philadelphia Post, 1909
FACT: In the 1730s, my maternal 7th great-grandparents through my maternal grandmother Dorothy Leeds (they are also my 8th, but that’s a story for another time)
Japheth and Deborah Leeds, Quakers, were living in the Pine Barrens, around what is now Leeds Point, Atlantic County, New Jersey. They had 12 known surviving children, the first born in 1704 and the twelfth in 1726, as named in my 7th/8th great-grandfather Japheth’s will, written in 1736 — a year after the purported birth of the legend’s 13th child.
THE JERSEY DEVIL ranks as THE legend in folklore in New Jersey. With its origins in the forboding Pine Barrens, an area that covers over a million acres in 7 counties, where in places the trees are so densely close together that it is next to impossible to see ahead of yourself — desolate and forbidding — it’s the quintessential setting for a devilishly scary tale. There’s more to this than the setting — what truly are the legend’s origins and how are my maternal 7th/8th great-grandparents connected?
Historical connections between the legend and my 7th/8th great-grandparents Japheth and Deborah Leeds are:
location in the Pine Barrens near Leeds Point,
time frame in the 1730s,
reference to the surname Leeds (indeed, prior to 1909, the Jersey Devil was known as the Leeds Devil)
Japheth’s will naming 12 surviving children, written in 1736.
But, are those connections the makings of such a fantastical tale? The story has multiple variations, but all follow the formula of what I presented above:
Mother Leeds — stormy night — crying out in frustration, cursing the birth of her 13th child — beastly creature — a legend was born!
Or, was it? Over the centuries, the story of the Jersey Devil has become entangled in myths, and the variations have almost completely obscured the actual events that birthed the legend.
BRIAN REGAL, a fellow of the Kean University Center for History, Politics & Policy wrote in “The Jersey Devil: A Political Animal” in NJS: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Summer 2015:
“Far from being a tale of a monstrous birth gone horribly awry, the story comes not from a blaspheming mother, but colonial era political intrigues, Quaker religious in-fighting, rumor mongering, astrology, almanac publishing, a cross-dressing Royal Governor, and a future Founding Father.”
JAPHETH’S FATHER, my 8th/9th great-grandfather, was Daniel Leeds (1651-1720). Daniel Leeds, a Quaker and a prominent figure in pre-Revolution colonial Southern New Jersey was from the southeast town of Leeds in Kent county, England — not the larger industrial city of Leeds in Northern England. Various accounts have him as a young man sailing to America on the "Shield" which landed at Burlington, West Jersey in December of 1678 or settling at Shrewsbury, New Jersey in 1677. In any case, he became one of the first Deputy Surveyors of West Jersey and subsequently the second Surveyor General of West Jersey, positions he held from 1681 to 1713. A member of the West Jersey Assembly in 1682, he was also a judge in Burlington County from 1692 to 1694.
Picture: Facsimile of Daniel Leeds’ 1713 almanac on abebooks.com
Publishing his first almanac in 1687, Daniel Leeds made significant contributions to the otherwise dry genre by addressing the reader personally, providing news of religious and community groups, fairs, courts, accounts and anecdotes as well as verse scattered throughout his almanacs. Leeds' fellow Quakers deemed these almanacs as too pagan because he used terms like “March,” referring to the Roman god of war, instead of the month’s ordinal number in plain language. Even though Daniel Leeds made public apology for some elements in the almanacs, the almanacs were censored and destroyed by the local Quaker community. Labeled as evil and Satan’s harbinger, Leeds abandoned the Quakers, firmly resolute to continue writing.
IN RESPONSE TO this censorship, Leeds continued to publish his almanac and even more writings, including a series of books that satirized the Quakers. In the 1690s, after his almanacs and writings were even further censored by the Philadelphia Quaker Meeting, Leeds continued to dispute with the Quaker community, converting to the Anglican Church and publishing anti-Quaker tracts fiercely criticizing Quaker theology and accusing Quakers of being anti-monarchists.
The Quakers considered Leeds a traitor for supporting the British Crown aligned with the Anglican Church and for rejecting Quaker beliefs.
Picture: New Jersey State Archives
Also at this time, Daniel Leeds surveyed and acquired land in the Great Egg Harbor area on the Atlantic Coast, allowing him to distance himself from the Quaker community, eventually handing the land down to his sons as a family seat, Leeds Point: the area most associated with the Jersey Devil legend.
TO FURTHER IRE THE QUAKERS, 8th/9th great-grandfather Daniel Leeds supported New Jersey’s first British Royal Governor, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury (1661-1723). Cornbury is remembered as one of the most vilified and hated governors in colonial America — an infamous man that was accused of misusing the colony’s taxes and of being a cross-dresser. A portrait hangs in the New York Historical Society, generally believed to be Cornbury dressed as his aunt Queen Anne. Much of this slander came from Quaker opponents. As Cornbury was thoroughly and genuinely disliked, the accusations became more widely spread.
Picture: commons.wikipedia.org
IN 1716, 29 years after his first published almanac, Daniel Leeds handed over the almanac to his son Titan, Japheth’s brother. In an effort to make the almanac more his own creation, in 1728, Titan redesigned the cover page to display the Leeds Family Crest featuring Wyverns, creatures that just so happen to look an awful lot like what would later be the description given to the Jersey Devil — fearsome face, clawed feet, bat-like wings.
Picture: https://www.loc.gov/item/2006687381/
![IN THE DECEMBER 1732 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Franklin penned the following advertisement: “Just published for 1733: Poor Richard: An Almanack containing the lunations, eclipses, planets motions and aspects, weather … [and the] prediction of the death of his friend Mr. Titan Leeds.” Not only did Benjamin Franklin, the young printing upstart and future founding father, predict the established almanac rival’s date of death, October 17, 1733 at 3:29PM — but also the exact moment “at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury.” Titan Leeds did not die on October 17, 1733 …. nor was he amused with Franklin’s prank.The very much alive Titan Leeds responded about Franklin/Poor Richard in his 1734 almanac as a “false Predictor,” “conceited Scribbler,” “Fool,” and last but not least, “Lyar.” Poor Richard was stunned by these rude rebuttals, such name calling! With a wearied tone, in his next almanac, he responded:“Having received much abuse from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who pretends to still be living, and to write Almanacks in spight of me and my Predictions, I cannot help but saying, that tho’ I take it patiently, I take it unkindly.”He added that there was no doubt Leeds had died, for it was “plain to everyone that reads his last two almanacks, no man living would or could write such stuff.” This war of words continued for years.In this war of the almanacs, Franklin had quite an advantage: He owned and operated the printing house that churned out Titan Leeds’ — his main competitor’s — almanac. This crucial advantage allowed Franklin to read Leeds’ attacks and respond to them in Poor Richard’s Almanack before Leeds’ publication even went to press, further pouring fuel on the fire but also captivating much of the colonies’ reading public. Franklin’s decision to commence and stir this farce of a feud did indeed boost his sales.Titan Leeds actually did die in 1738. Franklin’s witty performance, although, did not. The 1740 edition of Poor Richard’s portrayed a late-night visit from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who entered Poor Richard Saunder’s brain via his left nostril and penned the following message:“I did actually die at that moment,” Leeds’ [Ghost] confessed, “precisely at the hour you mentioned, with a variation of 5 minutes, 53 sec.”It is interesting to point out that the traditionally acknowledged time period (mid-1730s) for the “birth” of the Jersey Devil coincides with the death of Titan Leeds.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ff50d6d4fd21777a23b0165/1610678957169-5FFBZD6I27CTD170EQ16/poor+richard+1733.jpg)
IN THE DECEMBER 1732 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Franklin penned the following advertisement:
Enter, BEN FRANKLIN…
“Just published for 1733: Poor Richard: An Almanack containing the lunations, eclipses, planets motions and aspects, weather … [and the] prediction of the death of his friend Mr. Titan Leeds.”
Not only did Benjamin Franklin, the young printing upstart and future founding father, predict the established almanac rival’s date of death, October 17, 1733 at 3:29PM — but also the exact moment “at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury.” Titan Leeds did not die on October 17, 1733 …. nor was he amused with Franklin’s prank.
The very much alive Titan Leeds responded about Franklin/Poor Richard in his 1734 almanac as a “false Predictor,” “conceited Scribbler,” “Fool,” and last but not least, “Lyar.” Poor Richard was stunned by these rude rebuttals, such name calling! With a wearied tone, in his next almanac, he responded:
“Having received much abuse from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who pretends to still be living, and to write Almanacks in spight of me and my Predictions, I cannot help but saying, that tho’ I take it patiently, I take it unkindly.”
He added that there was no doubt Leeds had died, for it was “plain to everyone that reads his last two almanacks, no man living would or could write such stuff.” This war of words continued for years.
In this war of the almanacs, Franklin had quite an advantage: He owned and operated the printing house that churned out Titan Leeds’ — his main competitor’s — almanac. This crucial advantage allowed Franklin to read Leeds’ attacks and respond to them in Poor Richard’s Almanack before Leeds’ publication even went to press, further pouring fuel on the fire but also captivating much of the colonies’ reading public. Franklin’s decision to commence and stir this farce of a feud did indeed boost his sales.
Titan Leeds actually did die in 1738. Franklin’s witty performance, although, did not. The 1740 edition of Poor Richard’s portrayed a late-night visit from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who entered Poor Richard Saunder’s brain via his left nostril and penned the following message:
“I did actually die at that moment,” Leeds’ [Ghost] confessed, “precisely at the hour you mentioned, with a variation of 5 minutes, 53 sec.”
It is interesting to point out that the traditionally acknowledged time period (mid-1730s) for the “birth” of the Jersey Devil coincides with the death of Titan Leeds.
RECAP and SUMMATION: During the pre-Revolutionary period, my Leeds ancestors from whom I descend in multiple lines called the Pine Barrens home, soured their relationship with the Quaker majority. The Quakers were in no hurry to give their former fellow religionist, my 8th/9th great-grandfather, Daniel Leeds — whom they labeled as evil and Satan’s harbinger — an easy time in circles of gossip. After all, they’d be the first to point out it was his pagan almanac that started it all!
Further, his son Titan stood (or should I say lay?) accused by Benjamin Franklin of being a ghost, a haunting, nostril-possessing specter. And let’s not forget about that crudely drawn family crest that he put on the almanac with Wyverns (small winged dragons) on it. Oh, how clever Ben Franklin was to take full advantage of the situation; to promote his new Poor Richard almanac by taunting his top competitor in such a ridiculous way. And, of course, everything Titan did in response played right into Franklin’s ploy.
From all of this, over the passage of time, the Jersey [Leeds] Devil was born. Quaker in-fighting, almanac wars, Daniel and Titan Leeds were all but forgotten leaving behind a nebulous notion of a terrifying creature in the Pine Barrens. References to the Jersey Devil do not appear in newspapers or other printed media until the 20th Century. The first major hoax coming from an article in the The Philadelphia Post in 1909 — schools were closed and mass hysteria spread throughout New Jersey and Philadelphia. New Jersey saw the opportunity to capitalize on the legend — building it, profiting from it, creating a cartoonish Jersey Devil.
To this day, as rustic rubes and monster aficionados scour the woods off the Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway for a bat-winged creature, I can’t help but wonder how Daniel Leeds and his sons would take in the absurd scene.
Lastly, if you’ve made it to this point in this lengthy post (thank you!), you may be asking: WHAT ABOUT JAPHETH AND DEBORA LEEDS, your 7th/8th great-grandparents? Why are they ascribed to the legend as the parents of the Jersey Devil, instead of Titan? It’s a bit of convoluted reasoning, but is simple: reason being that Japheth and Debora had 12 known children (his brother Titan did not) setting up the scenario for an unwanted 13th child, in the right time frame of the mid-1730s, also as a son of the much maligned Daniel Leeds, living in the those foreboding Pine Barrens. Nothing more, nothing less.
More indepth information:
The Secret History of the Jersey Devil - How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster by Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito
https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/secret-history-jersey-devil
Podcast, “Episode 192: Brian Regal, The Secret History of the New Jersey Devil”
https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-192-brian-regal-the-secret-history-of-the-new-jersey-devil/
Leeds Point
Daniel Leeds and His Descendants, Atlantic County Historical Society Yearbook
