Note 253 — Chapter XIV · SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION. (continued 2)

Prof. M. C. Tyler (History of American Literature, i. 90) quotes a statement of Burk (History of Virginia, Petersburg, 1805, vol. ii. appendix, p. xxx.), to the effect that in Princess Anne County a woman was once burned for witchcraft. But Burk makes the statement on hearsay, and I have no doubt he refers to Grace Sherwood, who between 1698 and 1708 brought divers and sundry actions for slander against persons who had called her a witch, but could not get a verdict in her favour! She was searched for witch marks and imprisoned. It is a long way from this sort of thing to getting burned at the stake! Mrs. Sherwood made her will in 1733, and it was admitted to probate in 1741. See William and Mary College Quarterly, i. 69; ii. 58; iii. 96, 190, 242; iv. 18.—There is a widespread popular belief that the victims of the witchcraft delusion in Salem were burned; scarcely a fortnight passes without some allusions to this “burning” in the newspapers. Of the twenty victims at Salem, nineteen were hanged, one was pressed to death; not one was burned. See Upham’s History of Witchcraft and Salem Village, Boston, 1867, 2 vols.