Grace Sherwood, the Witch of Pungo

Grace Sherwood lived on a farm in Pungo, in what was then Princess Anne County and is now part of Virginia Beach. She married the planter James Sherwood in 1680, raised three sons and was known for her knowledge of herbs and healing. Beginning in 1697, neighbours accused her of bewitching a bull, hogs and a cotton crop; she sued them for slander and lost. After her husband’s death in 1701 she was alone and vulnerable, and in January 1706 a neighbour, Elizabeth Hill, accused her of causing a miscarriage by witchcraft.

The court struggled even to find jurors willing to search her home and body, but in March 1706 a jury of women reported two unexplained “marks.” With her consent, the justices ordered a trial by water. On July 10, 1706, she was taken down the lane now called Witchduck Road to a point near the mouth of the Lynnhaven River and thrown in, bound. She floated – taken as a sign of guilt – and when weighted, she freed herself and swam back. She was jailed beside the parish church, perhaps for nearly eight years, but recovered her property and lived on her farm until her death around 1740, aged about 80.

Legend did not leave her alone. Stories grew that a storm blew down the chimney when she died and that only a cloven hoofprint was left in the ashes; that the Devil had taken her body; and that black cats haunted the county. Her farmhouse, standing into the 20th century, was burned by vandals and finally bulldozed in 2002. The most enduring tale is gentler: each July, residents say, a mysterious light dances over the water of Witch Duck Bay where she was ducked.

In recent decades the community has worked to restore her name. On July 10, 2006, the 300th anniversary of her trial, Governor Tim Kaine granted her an informal pardon, after a campaign led by local historian Belinda Nash of nearby Ferry Plantation House. A bronze statue by Robert Cunningham, showing Sherwood with a raccoon and a basket of rosemary and garlic, was unveiled near the old courthouse site in 2007, and annual reenactments of the ducking – in which no one is ducked – now start from the shore near Ferry Plantation.

A strange moving or dancing light said to appear each July over Witch Duck Bay, at the spot where Sherwood was ducked. Older folklore adds a storm at her death, a cloven hoofprint in the hearth and haunting black cats.

Witch Duck Bay and Witch Duck Point on the Lynnhaven River, off Witchduck Road in Virginia Beach, especially around July 10. Her statue stands near the hospital on Independence Boulevard, near the site of the colonial courthouse.

Sherwood is commemorated by Witchduck Road, Witch Duck Point and Bay, Sherwood Lane, a state historical marker and a memorial at Old Donation Episcopal Church, her former parish. Annual ducking reenactments began in 2006, and her story features in books such as Ghosts, Witches & Weird Tales of Virginia Beach and in Virginia Beach History Museums programs.