The Witch of Ridley Creek was born Margaret Mattson. On June 13, 1670, one hundred acres of land in Ridley was patented to Neals Mattson, her husband. This land extended along the west side of Crum Creek (or Crum "Kill" as it was known in Dutch) to a point at about the north line of land held by Jacob Hughes. On February 27, 1683/4 Margaret was indicted for witchcraft and appeared before William Penn and a jury. She pled not guilty and so was tried by the county jury of 12 men. The first witness testified that he had heard 20 years ago that the prisoner at the bar was a witch and that several cows had been bewitched by her. The second witness was a man who reported that his mother had told him that the prisoner had told her that she bewitched her cow, but it was a mistake, and the cow would get well because it was not her cow but another's who should die. The third witness was also a man who said that a friend's wife sold her cattle because they had been bewitched. He also said that one night the daughter of the prisoner called him up quickly, and when he came there was a great light just before and an old woman with a knife in her hand at his bed feet. She entreated him to sell his cattle or she would send them all to hell.

Margaret was Swedish (or Finnish) and could not speak or understand English. William Penn knew no Swedish, so they employed an interpreter for the trial. Margaret said that the first witness was not truthful, and she would be happy to answer the one woman's claims if she would appear. Margaret's daughter also denied the veracity of the third witness' claims. Margaret denied all claims, and quite rightly, further pointed out that it was all hearsay.
The legend is that William Penn asked Margaret directly,
"Art thou a witch? Hast thou ridden through the air on a broomstick?"
Margaret, with her lack of understanding of the language, answered, "Yes."
At that point, Penn pointed out that riding a broomstick was not illegal. The jury went out and returned with a verdict of being guilty of 'having the common fame of being a witch' but not guilty in the manner and form of that which she was indicted for. Her husband and son-in-law then pledged 50 pounds each as a guarantee of Margaret's good behaviour for the next 6 months. Margaret was very fortunate. The Quakers had some very strict laws concerning the behaviour of the citizens of Pennsylvania. Working on Sunday, smoking on the street and swearing in public were all punishable by heavy fines. The least indication that someone may be practicing witchcraft could be just cause for a sentence of death by hanging. This was the first and only witch trial in Pennsylvania.
Interestingly, during construction of the Philadelphia Airport, what was described as a "witch bottle" dating from the 1600's was unearthed. A witch bottle is a charm against witchacraft. The witch bottle could be fashioned according to a number of recipes, including:

"Place in three jars the liver of a live frog stuck full of new pins and the heart of a toad stuck full of throns from the holy thornbush. Cork and seal the jars. Bury each jar in three different churchyard paths, seven inches from the surface and seven inches from the porch. While burying this, the Lord's Prayer must be recited backwards. As the hearts and livers decay, so will the witch's power vanish."* (ICK!)

Other spells claim that the witch's body would decay with the contents of the jar. The jar usually had to contain the victim's blood and/or urine, with soem of his or her hair and nails. When urine was included, it was said that the witch would perish from the inability to pass her own urine. Some recipes call for the jar to be cooked over a fire instead of buried or drowned. In this case the witch would feel the intense pain of the fire and would be forced to beg the person for relief. If the bottle burst before this, the witch would die.
The bottle in Tinicum was of the buried variety and was said to contain a number of pins and some liquid. The discovery of this jar shows how real the early settlers believed the threat of witchcraft was.

The songs and the ways of healing practiced by the early Finns and Swedes would have been very strange to the English settlers. I have read that the Mattsons were actually Finns, not Swedes. They had been recruited from the place they had relocated to in Sweden to escape religious persecution in their native land. It is unlikely that English record keepers of the time would have known or cared about the difference between Swedish and Finnish. They probably considered them all the same.
Shortly after the trial, the Mattsons relocated to New Jersey, where they lived at Nothnagle Cabin, which is the oldest log cabin still standing in America!

New information about Margaret Mattson in the upcoming book, Spooky, Creepy PA, due for release in early 2010.