Charles Godfrey Leland

  Charles Godfrey Leland was the founder and first president of 
the Gypsy Lore Society, and was a prolific author and folklorist.
He is best known, in this day and age, as being the author of:
Aradia or the Gospel Of The Witches.

  He was born in Philadelphia on 15 August 1824. Interestingly,
15 August is the date attributed to the ascension of the Virgin 
Mary into heaven; as well as the attributed date of Buddha's 
ascension. Leland himself was well aware of this, and counted 
himself very fortunate for it. 

  Coming from Puritan stock on his father's side, and a mixture 
of Huguenot and Puritan, on his mother's; this unusual man
was never more at ease than in the company of his Gypsy friends. 
An ancestor - a High German Doctor - had a reputation as a sorcerer,
and 'Rye', as his family called him, was believed to have inherited
his gifts. Leland is said to have believed that this ancestor was 
"Washington Irving's 'High German Doctor' who laid the mystic spell 
on Sleepy Hollow." 

  From a very early age, Leland was an avid reader with a love
of nature and an affinity for the occult. His early education 
would be termed 'progressive' today, and by the age of Seventeen,
he started his upper education at Princeton University. By his
own admission, he hated being at Princeton. On a visit home
his father suggested that he go to Europe, "for his health and 
to study." 
    
   Enrolling in the University of Heidelberg; Leland determined 
that he had less of an interest in mathematics than he did in 
hanging out with smugglers, Gypsies and pirates. He even met an
old slave trader whom may or may not have helped formed his strong
abolitionist leanings as a grown man. Leland wrote many letters 
to his brother Henry, detailing his fascinating adventures in
minute detail.

   After returning to America, he finished his education then
set up shop as an Attorney at Law. That career last a grand total
of six months, but he soon caught his stride as a writer. In due
time he became the Editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin.
While in that position, he wrote frequent fiery attacks on 
'the institution of slavery', putting him out of favour with
many Southerners who depended on slave labour to run their
plantations.

    Leland wrote the Ballad of Hans Breitmann which was written in 
an approximation of a heavy German accent. After the deaths of his
parents and his brother, Henry, Leland was left in a comfortable 
financial position, and he decided to go to England, where a 
publisher had expressed an interest in re-publishing his work 
the Ballad of Hans Breitmann. For ten years he hob-nobbed with 
the famous people of his day - as well as rekindling his friendships 
'with the out casts of society'.

 In a letter dated 17 December 1871, to Mrs. John Harrison, Leland
wrote:
     "I am following up my Gypsies with great success and 
    have one regular Romany Chal who passes Saturdays with me.
    I am really getting to talk the language well and could
    write you a letter in it. Nobody ever yet, except Barrow,
    got into their good graces so, and they tell me their
    tricks and secrets without reserve."

    Around 1888, Leland was 'initiated into the Witch-Lore of the 
Romagna'. He had been travelling around Florence when he met a
woman he called 'Maddalena'. This Maddalena is said to have been
from Romagna Toscana, where she was born into a 'witch family'.
(Kindred?) She is credited as the source for a great deal of his
knowledge of the Stregheria.

     Charles Godfrey Leland died in Florence, Italy on 20 March
1903.
  
Some of Leland's Writings:

Aradia or the Gospel Of The Witches
Ballad of Hans Breitmann
The Book of English Gypsy Songs
The Egyptian Sketch Book
Etruscan Magic and Occult Remedies
Gypsy Lore Journal
Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling
Legends of Florence (2 vol)
Memoirs
The Mystic Will

Source For this Biography:

"Witchcraft The Old Religion" 
Dr. Leo Louis Martello
Citadel Press, 
publication date not given.

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