Black Joan

Black Joan was the mother of John Childermass. Evidently an experienced thief, she also ran a ring of child pick-pockets in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and in his youth Childermass was one of these. (This explains the practised ease with which he picks Henry Lascelles's pocket of a snuffbox in the course of a struggle[63], and earlier his ability to detect that his own pocket has been picked by Vinculus[20].)