Witch pardoned 300 years after trial by water found her guilty

Published on Tuesday 11 July 2006 00:31

IT TOOK 300 years, but the only convicted witch from the American state of Virginia has finally been pardoned.

The state governor, Timothy Kaine, had been asked to exonerate Grace Sherwood, who was tried by water and accused of using her powers to cause a woman to miscarry.

Yesterday, on the 300th anniversary of her "ducking" trial, he obliged. "I am pleased to officially restore the good name of Grace Sherwood," he said in a letter read aloud by Virginia Beach's mayor, Meyera Oberndorf, before a re-enactment of the ducking.

On 10 July, 1706, Sherwood's thumbs were tied to her toes and she was dropped into a river. She floated - proof, it was said, that she was guilty because the pure water cast out her evil spirit.

Each year, a small group remembers her with a re-enactment ceremony.

Sherwood lived in what today is the rural Pungo neighbourhood and she is known as "The Witch of Pungo".

She went to court a dozen times, either to fight witchcraft charges or to sue her accusers for slander. In her final case, she was tried for using witchcraft to cause a woman to miscarry.

What happened to her after she was convicted is unclear: some court records may have been lost in a fire.

One theory is that she may have been jailed until 1714, when records show that she paid back taxes on her property. Sherwood is then thought to have lived quietly until her death at the age of 80.