Goodwife Joan Wright (born c. 1596, date of death unknown), sometimes "Jane Wright" [1] and called ''Surry's Witch," is the first person known to have been legally accused of witchcraft in any British North American colony. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Goodwife Joan Wright (born c. 1596, date of death unknown), sometimes "Jane Wright" [1] and called ''Surry's Witch," is the first person known to have been legally accused of witchcraft in any British North American colony. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Joan (or Jane) Wright was born around 1596 in Hull, Yorkshire, England. In 1610, she married Robert Wright, and they later emigrated to the Colony of Virginia, originally living in Elizabeth City. [6] They had two sons, William and Robert. [6] She was a self-professed healer and described as a "cunning" woman, the term used for those who practiced "low-level" or "folk" magic. [7] She was also left-handed, which deemed her untrustworthy and suspicious by the day's standards. [8] Wright lived and worked as a midwife in Surry County and was referred to as "Goodwife Wright". [3]
In 1626, the Allington family refused to have Wright as their midwife because she was left-handed. [9] The mother fell ill with a breast infection and the newborn baby died shortly after it was born. Quickly, the family and neighbors began to accuse Wright of the infant's demise. [10]
On September 11, 1626, Wright was called before the General Court of Virginia in Jamestown, Virginia on the charge of witchcraft. [11] [12] The presiding judge of her hearing was Sir George Yeardley, the Colonial Governor of Virginia. [13] The formal accusation and investigatory hearing of Wright is the earliest witchcraft allegation on record against an English settler in any British North American colony. [14]
The court heard extensive testimony during the inquiry. Her accusers claimed that she had cursed their local livestock and crops, caused a heavy rainfall, bewitched their butter churns, accurately predicted the deaths of several of her neighbors, and cast a spell that caused the death of a newborn baby. [15] During the inquiry, Wright did nothing to dispute the charges of witchcraft, and, in some instances, subtly encouraged this belief. [3]
It is believed that Wright was acquitted despite her admission that she did possess basic knowledge of witchcraft practices. [16] [13] In her response to her charges, she remarked, "God forgive them." [17] Available court records do not describe how the hearing ended, and there is no surviving record of a sentence. [18]
A Virginia witch trial loosely based on the story of Joan Wright is featured in a 2017 episode of the British drama television series Jamestown. [19]
In 2019, an original play, "Season of the Witch" premiered at the Jamestown Settlement. The play is a dramatic retelling of the witch trials in Virginia, with a focus on the story of Wright. [20]
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, died under torture after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in the disease-ridden jails.
Sir George Yeardley was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated 1609 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten months, he is best remembered for presiding over the initial session of the first representative legislative body in Virginia in 1619. With representatives from throughout the settled portion of the colony, the group became known as the House of Burgesses. Burgesses have met continuously since, and is known in modern times as the Virginia General Assembly.
Ann Putnam was a primary accuser, at age 12, at the Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts during the later portion of 17th-century Colonial America. Born 1679 in Salem Village, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, she was the eldest child of Thomas (1652–1699) and Ann Putnam (1661–1699).
The City of Henrico is one of the oldest counties in the Colony of Virginia. It was one of four incorporations established in the colony by its proprietor, the Virginia Company. The City of Henrico, which included the settlement of Henricus, was the furthest incorporation upstream on the James River. In 1634, Henrico was reorganized under royal authority as the shire of Henrico, one of eight shires in the Crown Colony of Virginia, Later, it became known as Henrico County, Virginia.
Jordan Point is a small unincorporated community on the south bank of the James River in the northern portion of Prince George County, Virginia, United States. It is about 20 miles from Richmond and 30 miles upstream from Jamestown on the James River. It was the location of extensive archeological research between 1987 and 1993. This research provided substantial information about human existence in the area from the prehistoric to the late colonial eras. In particular, the research extensively studied the Jordan's Journey settlement that existed between 1620 and 1640 during early years of the Virginia colony.
Captain Samuel Mathews was a Virginia planter, political figure, and the father of Governor Samuel Mathews. Also known as Colonel Mathews, the elder Samuel became one of the most prominent men in the colony.
Temperance Flowerdew, Lady Yeardley was an early settler of the Jamestown Colony and a key member of the Flowerdew family, significant participants in the history of Jamestown. Temperance Flowerdew was wife of two Governors of Virginia, sister of another early colonist, aunt to a representative at the first General Assembly and "cousin-german" to the Secretary to the Colony.
Ann Hibbins was a woman executed for witchcraft in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, on June 19, 1656. Her death by hanging was the third for witchcraft in Boston and predated the Salem witch trials of 1692. Hibbins was later fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel The Scarlet Letter. A wealthy widow, Hibbins was the sister-in-law by marriage to Massachusetts governor Richard Bellingham. Her sentence was handed down by Governor John Endicott.
Katherine Harrison was a landowning widow who was subject to a historically notable 17th century witch trial in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Harrison was a servant earlier in her life, but when her husband who was a farmer died, she inherited property and wealth. Accusations of witchcraft followed this. Harrison was the last convicted witch in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1669. This case served as an important example "in the development of the legal and theological responses to witchcraft in colonial New England."
Grace White Sherwood (1660–1740), called the Witch of Pungo, is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia.
Dudley Bradstreet was an American magistrate who served as the Justice of the Peace of Andover, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials.
Cecily Jordan Farrar was one of the earlier women settlers of colonial Jamestown, Virginia. She arrived in the colony as a child in 1610 and was established as one of the few female ancient planters by 1620. After her husband Samuel Jordan died in 1623, Cecily obtained oversight of his 450-acre plantation, Jordan's Journey. In the Jamestown Muster of 1624-1625, she is one of fewer than ten women mentioned as a head of household and the only woman listed as sharing the head of household with a man she was not married to. In the year of Samuel Jordan's death, she set off the first breach of promise lawsuit in English North America when she chose the marriage proposal of William Farrar, who was bonded to help settle her estate, over that of Greville Pooley, who claimed his proposal had already been accepted. In 1625, Cecily prevailed when Pooley withdrew his claim. Afterward, she married William Farrar.
Bessie Wright was a healer in Perthshire who was accused of witchcraft in 1611, 1626 and then again in 1628.
Samuel Sharpe, sometimes referred to as Samuel Sharp or "Ssamuel" was an early Virginia colonist who settled in the area that became Charles City County, Virginia. He came to Virginia in 1610 with most of the passengers and crew of the Sea Venture as they made their way to the colony after 10 months in Bermuda. They had wrecked in a storm there and built two small boats to complete their journey to Jamestown. Along with Samuel Jordan, he represented Charles City as a burgess in the first general assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. He was a representative for Westover, an incorporation of Charles City, in the 1623/24 assembly and signed a letter along with several burgesses at the time of that assembly.
William Spencer was an early Virginia colonist on Jamestown Island, who was an Ancient planter and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia for Mulberry Island in 1632/33.
John Pollington was an early Virginia colonist who was a member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 for the "Citie" of Henricus, Virginia. In 1624, he was a burgess for Warrosquyoake Shire sometimes shown as Warresqueak and other variations, now Isle of Wight County, Virginia. He also was a landowner and merchant.
The Maryland Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Colonial Maryland between June 1654, and October 1712. It was not unique, but is a Colonial American example of the much broader phenomenon of witch trials in the early modern period, which took place also in Europe.
During a 104-year period from 1626 to 1730, there are documented Virginia Witch Trials, hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Colonial Virginia. More than two dozen people are documented having been accused, including two men. Virginia was the first colony to have a formal accusation of witchcraft in 1626, and the first formal witch trial in 1641.
The views of witchcraft in North America have evolved through an interlinking history of cultural beliefs and interactions. These forces contribute to complex and evolving views of witchcraft. Today, North America hosts a diverse array of beliefs about witchcraft.
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