,
and occasionally a _fortune-teller_, died a few years since
at Huntspill, where she had resided for the greater part of a
century. She was extremely illiterate, so much so, as not to be
able to write, and, I think, could scarcely read. She lived for
some years in a house belonging to my father, and while a boy, I
was very often her gratuitous amanuensis, in writing letters for
her to her children. She possessed, however, considerable
shrewdness, energy, and perseverance, and amassed property to the
amount of several hundred pounds. She had three husbands; the
name of the first was, I believe, _Gool_ or _Gould_, a
relation of _Thomas Gool_, the subject of the above Poem; the
name of the second was _Martin_, of the third _Pain_;
but as the last lived a short time only after having married her,
she always continued to be called Joannah Martin.
_Joannah_ was first brought into public notice by the Rev.
Mr. WARNER, in his _Walks through the Western Counties_,
published in 1800, in which work will be found a lively and
interesting description of her; but she often said that she
should wish me to write her life, as I was, of course, more
intimately acquainted with it than any casual inquirer could
possibly be.
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