Grace White Sherwood is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. A farmer, healer, and midwife, she was accused by her neighbors of transforming herself into a cat, damaging crops, and causing the death of livestock. On July 10, 2006, the 300th anniversary of Sherwood’s conviction, Governor Tim Kaine granted an informal pardon.
About Grace Sherwood in brief
Grace White Sherwood is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. A farmer, healer, and midwife, she was accused by her neighbors of transforming herself into a cat, damaging crops, and causing the death of livestock. On July 10, 2006, the 300th anniversary of Sherwood’s conviction, Governor Tim Kaine granted an informal pardon to \”officially restore good name\”, recognizing that she was wrongfully convicted. A statue depicting her was erected near Sentara Independence 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, in recognition of her knowledge of herbal healing. The existence of witches and demonic forces was taken for granted by the American colonists. Colonists believed that witches could be identified by strange behavior. As early as 1626, a grand jury in Virginia sat to consider whether Goodwife Joan Wright had caused the deaths of three women and had caused illness as revenge for not hiring her as a midwife. People’s fears of witchcraft were not based on religious beliefs, but on their religious fears of the devil. The first allegations of sorcery were executed in 1692–1693, some years before the first accusations of sorcery against Sherwood were made against her. She was a party to at least a dozen lawsuits, in which she had to defend against accusations of witchcraft, or inWhich she sued her accusers for slander.
In 1706 she was convicted and was incarcerated. Freed from prison by 1714, she recovered her property from Princess Anne County. She did not remarry, and lived on her farm until her death in 1740 at the age of about 80. No drawings or paintings of Grace Sherwood exist, but contemporary accounts describe her as attractive and tall and possessing a sense of humor. The combination of clothing and good looks was said to attract men and upset their wives. No record of the outcome of the witchcraft trials in Virginia is extant, but there is no evidence that the outcome was favorable to Sherwood. She had three sons: John, James, and Richard. The Sherwoods lived in Pungo, Prince Anne County, Virginia, in 1680. Her husband gave the Sherwoods 50 acres of land when they married, and on his death in 1681 left them the remainder of his 145 acres farm. In April 1680 Grace White married a respected small-farm landowner, James Sherwood, in the Lynnhaven Parish Church. In 1680 the couple had three boys: James, John, and John. When James died in 1701, Grace inherited his property, She didn’t remarry. She never remarried and never had any children of her own. Her first case was in 1697; she was. accused of casting a spell on a bull, resulting in its death, but the matter was dismissed by the agreement of both parties. Sherwood sued for slander, but her husband had to pay court costs.
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This page is based on the article Grace Sherwood published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
