Grace Sherwood was a healer, midwife, and farmer from Princess Anne County and Pungo, Virginia. Sherwood's neighbors claimed that she ruined crops, killed livestock, and conjured storms. She was tried for witchcraft several times, the first in 1697 when she was accused of casting a spell on a bull, resulting in its death. The following year she was charged again, for bewitching the hogs and cotton crop belonging to one of her neighbors. Her final trial took place in 1706, when she was accused of bewitching Elizabeth Hill, causing Hill to miscarry. The court ordered that Sherwood's guilt or innocence should be determined by ducking her in water. If the water rejected her and she floated, then she was guilty; if the water accepted her and she drowned, then she was innocent. Sherwood floated to the surface, and subsequently spent up to seven years and nine months in the jail next to Lynnhaven Parish Church. She was free by 1714 and succeeded in recovering her property from Princess Anne County, after which she lived quietly until her death in 1740 at the age of 80.
Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Sherwood> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1517: According to traditional accounts, Martin Luther first posted his Ninety-Five Theses onto the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, present-day Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther> 1864: Nevada was admitted as the 36th U.S. State, in part to help ensure Abraham Lincoln's re-election as President of the United States eight days later. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada> 1941: More than 101 crew members of the USS Reuben James perished when their vessel became the first United States Navy ship sunk by hostile action during World War II after it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-552. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Reuben_James_%28DD-245%29> 1973: Three Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin after a hijacked helicopter landed in the prison's exercise yard. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Mountjoy_Prison_helicopter_escape> 1999: All 217 people on board EgyptAir Flight 990 were killed when the aircraft suddenly plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, US. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: fetch (n): 1. The source and origin of attraction; a force, quality or propensity which is attracting. 2. A stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass; a trick or artifice. 3. The apparition of a living person; a wraith <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fetch> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Wherein lies happiness? In that which becks Our ready minds to fellowship divine, A fellowship with essence; till we shine, Full alchemiz’d, and free of space. Behold The clear religion of heaven! --John Keats <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Keats> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
