Margaret Leigh was born in 1685 in a cottage at Jackfield on the edge of the
moors at
Burslem (now one of the towns of
Stoke-on-Trent) in
Staffordshire. She was reputedly a solitary character who made a living selling milk from her herd of cows to travellers and passers-by. Described as ugly - possibly disfigured through
smallpox After claims that her
ghost haunted the town, it is said Spencer—along with clerics from
Stoke,
Wolstanton, and
Newcastle-under-Lyme—
exhumed her body, opened the coffin, and threw in the still-living blackbird that had been her companion. They then reburied Molly in a north to south direction, at a right angle to all the other graves in the churchyard.
Legacy Leigh ran a successful business and in her
will left substantial sums to relatives including her mother, Sarah Booth, who received the rent and profits from Jackfield. A friend, Alice Beech, who lived on land at Wall Flatt, owned by Leigh, witnessed the will, dated 21 March 1748, and was given Wall Flatt after Leigh died. Her will also included land at Newbold Astbury, near
Congleton, and gold mourning rings for all her surviving relatives. that all her land and tenements – apart from Wall Flatt – should be sold and the profits used to build "a hospital in Burslem for the reception and habitation of ... poor women" and to provide food and clothing for these "poor women of the Parish". There is, however, no evidence that such a hospital was built. Historians believe Leigh earned Spencer's enmity for refusing to contribute to the church's upkeep while he spent too much time drinking: "Molly was a very religious woman and she did support her church. She was, really, a decent person." Her association with Lovatt was said to "immediately destroy any possibility whatsoever of her being a 'witch' or of low standing in society". ==Mythology==