Moll Dyer

Moll Dyer (c. 1697) is the name of a legendary 17th-century resident of Leonardtown, Maryland, who is said to have been accused of witchcraft and chased out of her home by the local townsfolk on a winter night.

Dates surrounding the origin of this folktale are hazy, but the consensus is that the events took place during a February in the late 1690s- during the Maryland Witch Trials that resulted in multiple acquittals and one recorded death.

[1] Despite dubious sourcing, claims made to verify the story will often cite the following: In recent years, community efforts have attempted to revive the legend of Moll Dyer.

[6] A deadly plague (likely influenza) and poor crops had taken their toll on the small Leonardtown community, and the particularly harsh winter meant that people were fearful of not making it through the season.

A meeting in the local shop determined that Moll Dyer, an older woman who lived on the southern edge of town, was the witch in question; and had called upon the Devil to terrorize the people of Leonardtown.

Upon arrival, the mob surrounded and set fire to her hut, with Moll barely managing to escape and run past the crowd into the woods.

Many supernatural events are reported near the modern-day Moll Dyer Road, a branch off of Maryland Route 5 that is claimed to be the site of either her residence or death.

Reports of shadow people, will-o'-the-wisps, a white dog causing car accidents, "a thick, unnatural fog," and frequent lightning strikes are all common.

In 1972, the 875-pound limestone boulder was moved by the National Guard from a wooded ravine near Moll Dyer Road to the Leonardtown courthouse lawn in front of the old 1876 jailhouse.

Moll Dyer's Revenge, written by St. Mary's County native and author Mike Marcus, was published in the anthology From The Yonder: A Collection of Horror from Around the World in February 2020 from War Monkey Publications LLC.

The Legend of the Witch, Moll Dyer was choreographed by St. Mary's Ballet founder Jane Caputo and set to the music of Loreena McKennitt in 1999.

The ballet was performed at St. Mary's Ryken High School and at the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown campus as part of the county's yearly Halloween celebration from 1999 to 2003 and again in 2006.