WITCHCRAFT IN VIRGINIA - William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 3 Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers, Vol. 1, No 3 (Jan., 1893), pp. 127-129. ----------- 127 WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE Quarterly Historical Papers Vol. 1 JANUARY, 1893. NO. 3. WITCHCRAFT IN VIRGINIA. A recent examination of the old records of the early coun- ties has added two more cases of witchcraft to the history of that subject in the Colony of Virginia. The case of Grace Sherwood has been hitherto pointed out as the solitary instance in the Colonial annals. Dr. Neill suggests a second which resulted in the hanging of the party suspected, but, as the affair occurred at sea, it is not a fair example. (1) In the Books of Northumberland County the Editor found the following: "20 Nov., 1656. Whereas Articles were Exhibited agt Wm Harding by Mr. David Lindsaye(2) upon suspicon of witchcraft sorcery etc. And an able jury of Twenty-four men were empannelled to try the matter by verdict of wch jury they found part of the Articles proved by several deposicons. The Court doth therefore order yt ye sd Wm. Harding shall forthwith receave ten stripes upon his bare back and forever to be Banished this County and yt hee depart within the space of two moneths. And also to pay all the charges of Court." Northumberland was at this time beset with wolves and Indians and was a true type of a frontier colony. ---------- (1) Neill's "Va. Carolorum," p. 257. (2) Minister. ---------- 128 Twenty-two years later occurred the following case, discov- ered by Mr. Edward W. James in the records of Lower Norfolk County and, like the preceding, unnoticed hitherto: "Lower Norfolk County, Va. Att a Court held the 15th January 1678-9 Capt. Wm. Robinson Mr. Adam Keeling Mr. Henry Spratt Justices Capt. Anthony Lawson In the diff between Jno Salmon planitif agt Alice the wife of Thomas Cartwrite defendt a Jury of women (Mrs. Mary Chi- chester forewoman) being Impaneled did in open Court upon their oaths declare that they haveing delegently Searched the body of the sd Alice & cann find noe Suspitious marks whereby they can Judge her to be a witch butt onely what may and Is usuall on women. It is therefore the Judgment of the Court and ordered that shee bee acquitted and her husbands bond given for he apearance to bee given up." Twenty-six years later the third case occurred. (1) Upon the complaint of one Luke Hill and wife in 1705, Grace Sherwood was tried in the County of Princess Anne "on the suspicon of witchcraft." She was first searched by an able jury of "ancient women," and then subjected to the water test -- being cast into the river, and "she swimming therein and bound contrary to custom," was again "committed to ye common Jaol of ye County to be brought to a ffuture tryall there." The Court, however, not knowing how to proceed to judgment "re- ferred ye case to the Supreme Court," the Council, for decision. The Council, in like perplexity referred it to the Attorney Gen- eral, Stevens Thomson. This learned gentleman returned a ---------- (1) See "Colonial Virginian," by R. A. Brock, "Va. Historical Papers,: Vo. X. "Virginia Historical Register," Vol, VII, 1833, pp. 69-78. "Life, etc. of George Mason" by Miss Kate Mason Rowland, Vol. I, p. 45. ---------- 129 reply, which a recent writer(1) has characterized "as sagacious in its way as the utterance of the Delphian oracle." Brock says: "The prosecution of the alleged witch, it may be concluded, ended with this opinion, as there is no further record. She survived, it appears, until 1741, her will in which she bequeaths her estate to her three sons being of record in that year in Princess Anne County." As the examination of the records has of late been very minute, the instances mentioned doubtless exhaust the list. In the records of the counties of York, Northampton, Surry, Hen- rico, Middlesex, Essex, Lancaster, Westmoreland, all of which the Editor has quite carefully examined, there is abundant evi- dence that the Virginians were not without the absurd and cruel severities of the age, but superstitions do not cut much figure. ---------- (1) "Magazine of American History," vol. X, "A Virginia Witch," p. 425. "Va. Calendar of State Papers," I, p. 100. The Attorney General's opinion reminds one of the Chancellor's answer to the King's enquiry in Tennyson's "Day Dream": "My lord, and shall we pass the bill I mentioned half an hour ago? The Chancellor, sedate and vain, In courteous words returned reply, But dallied with his golden chain, And, smiling, put the question by."