Grace sherwood witch trial

July 28, 2023

Those traveling through Virginia Beach, Virginia will likely find themselves driving along one of the town’s most well-traveled streets: Witchduck Road. The name is peculiar, seemingly out of place surrounded by more familiar names such as Independence Boulevard and Donation Drive.

The history of this name carries a legacy dating back hundreds of years and represents one of the state’s darkest hours.

Grace White was born in 1660 in the Colony of Virginia, likely within the small town of Pungo, to a Scottish father and English mother.

Grace sherwood witch trial series

There is little information available concerning her upbringing, and in the spring of 1680 she married a farmer, James Sherwood, and the couple went on to have three sons. The Sherwood family was poor despite owning over one-hundred acres of land, and primarily lived amongst other small land-owning families.

Grace herself worked her family’s farm land, grew her own herbs to care for both people and animals, and also acted as a midwife fo