Witch trials in Virginia

The English settlers brought several superstitions with them to the New World, including their beliefs in the devil’s power, demons, and witches.

[5] These beliefs first manifested in the Jamestown colonists’ early views towards the Virginia Indians, whom they believed to be worshippers of the devil.

[6] When he described the native peoples of Virginia, English colonist John Smith wrote, “their chief God they worship is the Devil,” and Powhatan, the chief, was “more devil than man.”[7] In 1613, Puritan minister William Crashaw also wrote that "Satan visibly and palpably reigns [in Virginia], more than in any other known place of the world.

[11] The entire history of witchcraft in Virginia is challenging to track, primarily due to the lack of documentation from the accusations and trials.

[13] The earliest witchcraft allegation on record against an English settler in any British North American colony was made in Virginia in September 1626.

[17] In 1654, Katherine Grady, en route to Virginia from England, was accused of being a witch, tried, found guilty, and hanged aboard an English ship.

In the case, Justices charged the accused, a woman named Mary (surname unknown), with using witchcraft to find lost items and treasures.

[8] That same year, Benjamin Franklin published a satirical report of a witch trial[22] in the Pennsylvania Gazette, which signaled a shift in the public's perception and acceptance of witchcraft, and embraced Deism, a form of religious belief that emphasized reason and rejected the supernatural.

[13] Virginia's witchcraft cases fell into relative obscurity in the succeeding years and largely out of public memory.

Mayor of Virginia Beach Meyera Oberndorf subsequently declared July 10 to be known as Grace Sherwood Day.

[20] A statue depicting Sherwood was erected in 2007 near Sentara Independence in Virginia Beach, close to the site of the colonial courthouse where she was tried.

There is also a yearly reenactment held at the Ferry Plantation House in Virginia Beach, as well as a commemorative plaque on the grounds.

[19] A Virginia witch trial loosely based on the story of Joan Wright is featured in a 2017 episode of the British drama television series Jamestown.