The Baker, the Bishop and the Baker's Son

On 29 October 1597 Joan Pie, a fortuitously-named baker from Nottingham, went to the house of her neighbours Thomas and Anne Porter to pay them a visit. But the object of her attention was unusual – Thomas's apprentice, a young man named William Sommers. Sommers had been a bad apprentice to Thomas Porter. He was the kind that masters dreaded, loafing in alehouses when he was supposed to be running errands, and coming home late and penniless. He even ran away for periods of several months. He had a low opinion of his master's abilities which he did not hesitate to share. But Joan Pie wanted to see this unhappy youth because he was reported to be possessed by the devil. She was one of the first, if not the first, visitors to Sommers – soon tens of others would follow, with one hundred and fifty people present nine days later on 7 November for Sommers's dispossession. Joan was ahead of the crowd and she took an active interest in Sommers's evolving condition. She visited in the mornings, evenings and at noon, keeping abreast of Sommers's behaviour and speeches in his fits.

On 5 November, a preacher arrived in Nottingham hoping to dispossess Sommers. Although he had been sent for by the Mayor and local ministers, the first person to meet him was Joan Pie. She had left Sommers's bedside purposely to intercept him and give him the latest, sensational news. Joan told the minister, John Darrell, exactly what he must expect when he saw Sommers – which appeared to the godly (puritanically-inclined) onlookers to be the possessed boy's imminent death. Darrell was later to explain that Joan accosted him as soon as he dismounted from his horse: ‘I was no soner light but tydinges was brought to me, by one of they[r] neighbour women Joahn Pye by name’.