Grace Sherwood

Vorlage:Infobox person

Grace White Sherwood (1660 – August 1740), known as the Witch of Pungo, was a farmer, healer, midwife, and the only person convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. Sherwood's neighbors accused her of damaging crops, causing the death of livestock, and calling forth storms. Her final trial, in 1706, was on an accusation of bewitching Elizabeth Hill, causing her to miscarry. The court ordered that Sherwood's guilt or innocence be determined by ducking her in water. If she sank, she was innocent; if she did not, she was guilty. Sherwood floated to the surface, and may have spent nearly eight years in jail before being freed.

Sherwood lived in Pungo, Princess Anne County, Virginia (today part of Virginia Beach). She married James Sherwood, a planter, in 1680. The couple had three sons: John, James, and Richard. Her husband died in 1701; she inherited his property and never remarried. Sherwood's first trial was in 1697; she was accused of casting a spell on a bull, resulting in its death. The following year she was charged with bewitching the hogs and cotton crop belonging to one of her neighbors. Freed from her imprisonment in 1714, she succeeded in recovering her property from Princess Anne County, after which she lived quietly until her death in 1740 at the age of about 80.

On July 10, 2006, the 300th anniversary of Sherwood's conviction, Governor Tim Kaine restored her good name, recognizing that her case was a miscarriage of justice. A statue depicting her has been erected near Sentara Bayside Hospital on Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach, close to the site of the colonial courthouse where she was tried. She is sculpted alongside a raccoon, representing her love of animals, and carrying a basket containing garlic and rosemary, recognizing her knowledge of herbal healing.

Personal life

Sherwood was born in 1660.Vorlage:Sfn She was only child of John White, a farmer and carpenter, and his wife Susan.Vorlage:Sfn John White was of Scottish descent; it is uncertain whether he was born in America. He received a land grant in the Pungo area. His wife Susan was born in England.Vorlage:Sfn Records are not clear if Grace Sherwood was born in the Pungo area,Vorlage:Sfn or if she came to America as a young child.Vorlage:Sfn A local legend states that all of the rosemary growing in Virginia Beach came from a single plant she carried in an eggshell from England.Vorlage:Efn Vorlage:Sfn

Grace married a planter, James Sherwood, in April 1680; they were wed in the Lynnhaven Parish Church.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Her father gave the couple Vorlage:Convert of land, and on his death in 1681 he bequeathed them the remainder of his Vorlage:Convert farm.Vorlage:Sfn Even though they were landowners, the Sherwoods were a poor but respectable farm family living in an impoverished community.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Forty percent of the landowners in the region owned less than Vorlage:Convert and only 9 men (10% of the landowners) owned over Vorlage:Convert.Vorlage:Sfn The couple had three sons: John, James, and Richard.Vorlage:Sfn In addition to farming, Grace Sherwood also grew her own herbs to heal people and animals and was a midwife.Vorlage:Sfn When James died in 1701, Grace inherited his property.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn She died in August 1740 in Pungo, possibly in September, as her will was proved on October 1, 1740; it noted that she was a widow.Vorlage:Sfn She left five shillings each to her sons James and Richard and everything else to her eldest son John.Vorlage:Sfn

No drawings or paintings of Sherwood exist, but she was said to be tall, very attractive, humorous, and unconventional. She grew medicinal herbs, owned prime waterfront property, and wore trousers while working on her farm. The combination of clothing and good looks was said to attract men and upset their wives.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Sherwood went to court a dozen times in her life, either to fight charges of witchcraft or to sue her accusers for slander.Vorlage:Sfn Sherwood biographer and advocate Belinda Nash believes that Sherwood's neighbors invented witchcraft tales to get rid of her because of her beauty, strong will, lack of conformity, and knowledge of herbs.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

Witchcraft and Virginia

Vorlage:Further The existence of witches was taken for granted by the American colonists—witchcraft was considered the work of the Devil.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Witchcraft was deemed a threat to religion. Although colonists believed witches could be recognized by unusual or mysterious behaviors,Vorlage:Sfn Virginia had never experienced the type of witchcraft mass hysteria that had characterized the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. There, 19 colonists were hanged for witchcraft in 1692–1693, several years before the first accusations against Sherwood.Vorlage:Sfn New England's Puritans viewed witchcraft as a threat to their idea of exemplary godliness, and aggressively sought to act against those whom they believed practiced it.Vorlage:Sfn As Virginians viewed religion as a private relationship with God, ecclesiastical influence in Virginia courts was much less than in those of New England.Vorlage:Sfn

Puritan New England had settled in towns, and community pressure helped contribute to witchcraft convictions. There were few such towns in Virginia, where the population mostly lived on farms and plantations, scattered over a large area.Vorlage:Sfn Virginia's witchcraft fears were more often rooted in folklore than in theology, although the two often intermingled.Vorlage:Sfn The southeastern corner of Virginia, present-day Norfolk and Virginia Beach, saw more accusations of witchcraft than other areas.Vorlage:Sfn

Virginia’s political and religious leaders chose to prosecute offenses they felt might threaten the social cohesion of the colony, such as fornication, gossip, and slander. They preferred to ignore those, such as witchcraft, that might tear it apart.Vorlage:Sfn Virginia courts were reluctant to hear accusations of witchcraft and were even more reluctant to convict.Vorlage:Sfn Frances Pollard, director of library services at the Virginia Historical Society, states: "It was pretty clear that Virginia early on tried to discourage these charges being brought of witchcraft because they were so troublesome."Vorlage:Sfn

Unlike the Salem witch trial courts, where the accused had to prove her innocence, Virginia courts placed the burden of proof on the accusers.Vorlage:Sfn Further, Virginia courts generally ignored supernatural evidence, whereas the New England courts were known to convict people based solely on it.Vorlage:Sfn Virginia required proof of guilt through either searches for witch’s marks or ducking. Judges and magistrates would dismiss unsubstantiated cases of witchcraft and allow the accusers, who found themselves "under an ill tongue", to be sued for slander.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

Although few Virginia records survive from that era,Vorlage:Sfn at most, only 19 witchcraft cases were brought there during the 17th century, all but one of which ended in acquittal.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn The punishment handed out in the one case that ended in a guilty verdict was 10 stripes and banishment from the county.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn There were no executions for witchcraft in Virginia, although a woman named Katherine Grady was hanged on board a ship en route from England to Virginia in 1654 because passengers accused her of causing a storm.Vorlage:Sfn Nonetheless, as late as in 1736, Virginia's justices of the peace were reminded that witchcraft was still a crime, and first offenders could expect to be pilloried and jailed for up to a year.Vorlage:Sfn The last Virginia witchcraft trial took place in 1802 in Brooke County, now part of West Virginia. In that case, a couple claimed a woman to be a witch, an accusation ruled to be slander.Vorlage:Sfn

Sherwood appears to have been the only accused witch tried by water in Virginia.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn It was believed that, as water was considered pure, it would reject witches, causing them to float, whereas the innocent would sink.Vorlage:Sfn

Initial accusations

Sherwood was first charged with witchcraft in a court case held on March 3, 1697, in which Richard Capps alleged that she had caused the death of his bull with a spell. The court issued no written conclusions, but the Sherwoods filed a defamation suit which ended up being dismissed by mutual consent.Vorlage:Sfn In 1698, Sherwood was accused of bewitching her neighbor John Gisburne's hogs and cotton crop, and her husband initiated another action for defamation, which did not succeed. Elizabeth Barnes, wife of Anthony Barnes, alleged that Sherwood assumed the form of a black cat, entered Barnes' home, jumped over her bed, drove and whipped her, and left via the keyhole.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

In 1705, Sherwood was involved in a fight with Luke Hill's wife Elizabeth.Vorlage:Sfn Sherwood sued the Hills for assault and battery on December 7, 1705, and was awarded twenty pounds sterling.Vorlage:Sfn On January 3, 1706, the Hills accused Grace of witchcraft, but she failed to appear in court.Vorlage:Sfn On February 7, 1706, the court ordered her to appear and she was duly brought before the county court on the charge of having bewitched Elizabeth Hill, causing a miscarriage.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn This lawsuit stemmed from personal disputes between Sherwood and the Hills, in contrast to the earlier accusations against her, which sought to cast blame for misfortune.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

Final trial

The authorities empaneled two juries, both made up of women. The first searched Sherwood's home for waxen or baked figures which might indicate she was a witch. The second was ordered to look for "demon suckling teats" by examining Grace.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn In both instances, reluctance on the part of the local residents made it difficult to form a jury.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Eventually, on March 7, 1706, Sherwood was examined by a jury of 12 "ancient and knowing women" appointed to look for markings on her body that might be brands of the Devil.Vorlage:Sfn They discovered two moles, "marks not like theirs or like those of any other woman."Vorlage:Sfn The forewoman of this jury was the same Elizabeth Barnes who had previously accused Sherwood of witchcraft.Vorlage:Sfn After hearings in the second Princess Anne County Courthouse, which had just been built in 1706, Sherwood consented to be tried by water.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

Neither the colonial authorities in Williamsburg nor the local court in Princess Anne was willing to declare Sherwood a witch.Vorlage:Sfn Those in Williamsburg considered the charge overly vague, and on April 16 instructed the local court to examine the case more fully. For each court appearance, Sherwood had to travel Vorlage:Convert from her farm in Pungo to where the court was sitting.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

On May 2, 1706, the county justices noted that while no particular act of maleficium had been alleged against Sherwood, there was "great cause of suspicion".Vorlage:Sfn Consequently, the Sheriff of Princess Anne County took Sherwood into custody.Vorlage:Sfn Maximilian Boush, an early warden of Lynnhaven Parish Church, prosecuted the case against Sherwood. A jury from the Lynnhaven Parish Vestry (Colonel Edward Moseley, Captain John Moseley, Lieutenant-Colonel Adam Thoroughgood, Captain Woodhouse, Sir John Cornick, Captain Chapman, William Smyth, and Mr. Richardson) ordered a trial by ducking to be carried out on July 5, 1706, but heavy rains caused a postponement until July 10.Vorlage:Sfn Sherwood was taken inside Lynnhaven Parish Church, placed on a stool and ordered to ask for forgiveness for her witchery.Vorlage:Sfn She replied, "I be not a witch, I be a healer."Vorlage:Sfn

At about 10 a.m. Sherwood was taken down a dirt lane now known as Witchduck Road,Vorlage:Sfn to John Harper's plantation near the mouth of the Lynnhaven River (now a private residence).Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn News of the intended ducking had spread, and attracted people from all over the colony,Vorlage:Sfn who began to chant "Duck the witch!"Vorlage:Sfn According to the principles of trial by water, if Sherwood floated she would be deemed guilty of witchcraft; if she did not, she would be innocent. It was not intended that Sherwood drown; the court had ordered that care be taken to preserve her life.Vorlage:Sfn

Five women of Lynnhaven Parish Church (Sarah Norris, Margaret Watkins, Sarah Goodaerd, Mary Burgess, and Ursula Henley) examined Sherwood's naked body on the shoreline for any devices she might have to free herself and then covered her with a sack.Vorlage:Sfn Six of the eight-member jury that had ordered the ducking rowed in one boat Vorlage:Convert out in the river,Vorlage:Sfn and in another were the sheriff (Colonel Edward Mosely), the magistrate, and Sherwood. Just before she was pushed off the boat Sherwood spat out under clear skies, "Before this day be through you will all get a worse ducking than I."Vorlage:Sfn Bound across the body – her right thumb to her left big toe and her left thumb to her right big toe – she was cast into the river, and quickly floated to the surface.Vorlage:Sfn The sheriff then tied a Vorlage:Convert Bible around her neck. This caused her to sink again, but she untied herself, and returned to the surface, convincing many spectators she was a witch.Vorlage:Sfn As Sherwood was pulled out of the water a downpour reportedly started, drenching the onlookers.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Several women who subsequently examined her for additional proof found "two things like titts on her private parts of a black coller", and she was jailed pending further proceedings.Vorlage:Sfn

Aftermath

What happened to Sherwood after her ducking is unclear,Vorlage:Sfn but she served an unknown time in the jail next to Lynnhaven Parish Church,Vorlage:Sfn which may have been as long as seven years and nine months.Vorlage:Sfn She was ordered held "to be brought to a future trial", but no record of another trial exists, so it is possible the charge was dismissed at some point.Vorlage:Sfn On September 1, 1708, she was ordered to pay Christopher Cocke 600 pounds of tobacco for an reason not specified in surviving records.Vorlage:Sfn In 1714, she paid back taxes on her property—a Vorlage:Convert land grant that Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood helped her to recover from Princess Anne County—off what is now Muddy Creek Road.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn She lived the remainder of her life quietly until her death in 1740, aged about 80.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

One legend says that her sons put her body near the fireplace and a wind came down the chimney and her body disappeared amid the embers, with the only clue being a cloven hoofprint.Vorlage:Sfn Her remains lie unmarked under a clump of trees in a field near the intersection of Pungo Ferry Road and Princess Anne Road.Vorlage:Sfn Stories about the Devil taking her body, unnatural storms, and loitering black cats quickly arose after her death, and local men killed every cat they could find. The widespread killing of cats might have caused the infestation of rats and mice recorded in Princess Anne County in 1743.Vorlage:Sfn

Legacy

Grace Sherwood's case was little known until Virginia Beach historian and author Louisa Venable Kyle wrote a children's book about her in 1973. Called The Witch of Pungo, it is a collection of seven folk tales from Princess Anne County, written as fiction, although based on historical events.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Sherwood's story is also told in "Cry Witch", a courtroom drama at Colonial Williamsburg, the recreated 18th-century capital of Virginia.Vorlage:Sfn

A statue by California sculptor Robert Cunningham depicting Sherwood with a raccoon and a basket of rosemary was unveiled on April 21, 2007 on the site of the present-day Sentara Bayside Hospital, close to the site of both the colonial courthouse and the ducking point.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn The raccoon represents Sherwood's love of animals and the rosemary her knowledge of herbal healing.Vorlage:Sfn A Virginia Department of Historic Resources marker (K-276) was erected in 2002, about Vorlage:Convert from Sherwood's statue. The place of her watery test and the adjacent land are named Witch Duck Bay and Witch Duck Point.Vorlage:Efn Vorlage:Sfn One of Virginia Beach's minor north–south thoroughfares on its western side, traversing Interstate 264 at exit numbers 14–16, has been named "Witchduck Road".Vorlage:Sfn Other commemorations in Virginia Beach include Sherwood Lane and Witch Point Trail.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn

Nash worked tirelessly to get Sherwood pardoned.Vorlage:Sfn The Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, officially restored Sherwood's good name on July 10, 2006, the 300th anniversary of her conviction.Vorlage:Sfn At that year's annual reenactment of the ducking, Danielle Sheets, co-biographer of Sherwood and co-author with Nash, Sheets' mother, played the part of Sherwood.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn No one is actually ducked in the reenactments, which take place from a spot across from Ferry Plantation House along Cheswick Lane, which is very close to Witch Duck Bay. After the 2006 reenactment, Nash unveiled the still-unfinished statue.Vorlage:Sfn A strange moving light, said to be Sherwood's restless spirit, reportedly still appears each July over the spot in Witch Duck Bay where Sherwood was thrown into the water.Vorlage:Sfn

Notes and references

Explanatory notes

Vorlage:Notes

References

Vorlage:Reflist

Bibliography

Vorlage:Refbegin

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Denise Watson Batts: Statue of exonerated 'Witch of Pungo' finds place to rest In: The Virginian-Pilot, March 24, 2007. Abgerufen im August 5, 2013
Denise Watson Batts: Witch of Pungo pardoned by governor after 300 years In: The Virginian-Pilot, July 10, 2006. Abgerufen im August 10, 2013
Edward Bond: Damned Souls in a Tobacco Colony: Religion in Seventeenth-Century Virginia. Mercer University Press, Macon, GA 2000, ISBN 0-86554-708-4.
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Janet Dunphy: Rural Charm Meets City Splendor In: The Virginian-Pilot, Witchduck.org via The Virginian-Pilot, August 13, 1994. Abgerufen im August 5, 2013
Marion Gibson: Witchcraft Myths in American Culture. Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-97977-1.
Christopher Hill: The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution. Viking Press, New York 1972, ISBN 0-14-013732-7.
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Edward W. James: Grace Sherwood, the Virginia Witch. In: The William and Mary Quarterly. 3. Jahrgang, Nr. 2. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA Oktober 1894, JSTOR:1914583. Note: includes transcripts of legal proceedings.
Edward W. James: Grace Sherwood, the Virginia Witch. In: The William and Mary Quarterly. 3. Jahrgang, Nr. 3. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA Januar 1895, JSTOR:1914774. Note: includes transcripts of legal proceedings.
Edward W. James: Grace Sherwood, the Virginia Witch. In: The William and Mary Quarterly. 3. Jahrgang, Nr. 4. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA April 1895, JSTOR:1915288. Note: includes transcripts of legal proceedings.
Edward W. James: Grace Sherwood, the Virginia Witch. In: The William and Mary Quarterly. 4. Jahrgang, Nr. 1. College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA Juli 1895, JSTOR:1916177. Note: includes transcripts of legal proceedings.
Belinda Nash, Danielle Sheets: A Place in Time: The Age of the Witch of Pungo. W. S. Dawson Company, Virginia Beach, VA 2012, ISBN 1-57000-107-3.
Vorlage:Cite thesis
Richard Seltzer: Grace Sherwood, the witch of Virginia. Samizdat, abgerufen am 5. August 2013. Note: this is a transcript in modern English, with shorthand expanded, of the Burr book.
Ian Shapira: After Toil and Trouble, 'Witch' Is Cleared In: The Washington Post, July 12, 2006. Abgerufen im August 10, 2013
Richard Weisman: Witchcraft, Magic and Religion in 17th-Century Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA 1985, ISBN 0-87023-494-3.
Monica C. Witkowski: Grace Sherwood (ca. 1660–1740). In: Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 15. August 2012, abgerufen am 5. August 2013.
Grace Sherwood – The One Virginia Witch. In: Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 69. Jahrgang. Harper & Brothers, New York (google.com).
Grace Sherwood & The Witch of Pungo. Princess Anne County/Virginia Beach Historical Society, abgerufen am 5. August 2013.
Grace Sherwood – the Witch of Pungo (1660–1740). Old Donation Episcopal Church, 2010, archiviert vom Original am 12. April 2012; abgerufen am 6. September 2010.
The Haunting of Witchduck Road. Virginiabeach.com, abgerufen am 5. August 2013.
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The Witch of Pungo: 300 Years After Her Conviction, Governor Restores Grace Sherwood's Good Name. Virginia Historical Society, 2006, abgerufen am 5. August 2013.
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External links

Commons: Grace Sherwood – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

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