What do you get when you mix political and religious feuds with the creative and bored minds of 18th century New Jersey colonists and unexplained animal deaths? Apparently you get the amalgamation of a dragon and a goat that is the Jersey Devil.
The Jersey Devil, previously known as the Leeds Devil, is a cryptid that was born from old colonial folktales. It is said that the creature was born to a woman called Mother Leeds, who bore twelve children before becoming pregnant once more with her 13th child…
At this she cursed the baby (weirdly not the husband that impregnated her, but I digress), crying out that this wicked child would be the devil. While the baby was born a normal child, it supposedly quickly transformed into a grotesque creature.
The creature had hooves, a goat’s head, and bat wings while standing on its hind legs like a kangaroo. (Interestingly enough, a chupacabra is said to also resemble a kangaroo in stature and movement.) Overall, however, the Jersey Devil is said to be dragon-like.
This folktale was likely the result of a political feud with the Leeds family. Starting in the 17th century, the Leeds family lived in the Pine Barrens: the main location for supposed sightings of the Leeds Devil.
The Leeds family was actually rivals of Benjamin Franklin! The two of them had competing almanacs in publication at the same time. On top of that, Daniel Leeds (the creator of the almanac) was into the occult and esoteric, publishing astrology and other seemingly “pagan” information in his almanacs (much to the chagrin of the local Quakers.
Later, when Daniel Leeds’ son Titan took over the almanac and continued printing about astrology, Benjamin Franklin “jokingly” predicted Titan Leeds’ death using the astrology Titan loved…
Of course, Titan did not take this as a joke and made a public statement about the foolishness of Franklin…
However, Franklin still being a joker, claimed that his prediction was correct and the statement was made from the ghost of Titan Leeds. This only served to make Titan more upset. Franklin didn’t drop the act that his competitor was a ghost haunting him until long after Titan’s actual death in 1738.
The folktale of a boogeyman-like creature in the Pine Barrens, combined with the esoteric leanings of the Leeds family and Franklin’s constant referral to a member as a ghost is likely what led to the pervasiveness of this cryptid. While the origin story may be a little silly, this cryptid continues on as an interesting legend in south New Jersey.
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