Grace Sherwood

Who was Grace Sherwood?

Grace White Sherwood, known as the Witch of Pungo, is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. A farmer, healer, and midwife, her neighbors accused her of transforming herself into a cat, damaging crops and causing the death of livestock. She was charged with witchcraft several times; at her eventual trial in 1706, she was accused 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 subsequently have spent up to eight years in jail before being released.

Sherwood lived in Pungo, Princess Anne County, and married James Sherwood, a planter, in 1680. The couple had three sons: John, James, and Richard. The elder James died in 1701; Grace Sherwood inherited his property and never remarried.

Sherwood's 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. The following year she was accused of witchcraft by two neighbors; she supposedly bewitched the hogs and cotton crop of one of them. Sherwood sued for slander after each accusation but her lawsuits were unsuccessful and her husband had to pay court costs. In 1706 she was convicted of witchcraft and was incarcerated. Freed from prison by 1714, she recovered her property from Princess Anne County, after which she lived on her farm until her death in 1740 at the age of about 80.