The Grace Sherwood Stone
4449 N. Witchduck Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23455
Everyone is cordially invited to stop by and see the stone.
In 2021 the Grace Sherwood Stone was moved next to the Old Donation Episcopal Church National Register of Hisoric Places plaque. Then the stone was again moved and placed in front of shrubbery out in front of the church historic graveyard.
Pete Owens, leader of the Historic Traditions Commission (HTC) standing behind the Rosemary bed in the Herb Garden
In 2013 the HTC voted to ask for charitable contributions for the Grace Sherwood Stone. After placement in the Herb Garden, on July 10th 2014 the "Dedication and Blessing of the Grace Sherwood Stone" was held.
The Reverend Drew Foisie opened
the proceeding with a prayer
"Blessing of the Stone" Sermon:
"Blessing of the Stone" Sermon:
Accept, we pray, this stone and its placement in this garden; and grant that as we look upon it, we will remember Grace and lay aside our prejudice and fear, and incline our hearts to walk in love and act with justice." Then Rev Foisie and others, using sprigs of Rosemary dipped in Holy Water, blessed the stone.
Belinda Nash (above) then gave a eulogy about Grace Sherwood. In 2012 she wrote about Grace in "A Place in Time: The Age of the Witch of Pungo."
Church Historian Bob Perrine (above) concluded the dedication. "Today we come together to honor a woman who was a member of our church. She reportedly helped people when called upon, caring for the sick with her extensive knowledge of herbs. Grace’s label as a witch was not lifted for 300 years until Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine in 2006 restored her good name.”
In 2022, the Church Cemetery Committee voted to purchase a plaque honoring Grace Sherwood’s husband James Sherwood, and place it next to the Grace Sherwood Stone. The plaque was made, and on Aug 5th, 2023 noted historian Scott Moore visited the Historic Traditions Commission meeting and suggested James Sherwood was buried on the Sherwood farm because this was usually the tradition of the time. Not so from a finding of cemeteries in the Virginia Colonial Triangle. One example that stands out was that of Old Donation's famous Thurmer Hoggard IV (1819-1902). He and his family were buried in the Emmanuel Church graveyard, rather than on his expansive estate, Poplar Hall on Broad Creek. The Historic Traditions Committee, on advice (without evidence) from Scott Moore then voted down its placement next to the Grace Sherwood stone. Since the plaque stated James was buried in the church graveyard, it was sent back to Norfolk Monuments Company and destroyed, even though three historic records document James' burial was in the Old Donation graveyard. In Belinda Nash's 2012 book, A Place in Time: The Age of the Witch of Pungo, Belinda says on page 108-109, "James Sherwood departed on August 15, 1701 at the age of 42. He was buried in the 2nd Lynnhaven Parish churchyard, shaded beneath an oak tree." The WikiTree article https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sherwood-1494
ONE OF SEVERAL FABLES ABOUT GRACE SHERWOOD
This is the story about Grace Sherwood, part fact, part fiction, part tale, part legend, and part unrecorded history – all bundled into one more Virginia Beach colonial fable along with Pocahantas and Virginia Dare.
James Sherwood (1660-1701) fell in love with Grace White (1660-1740), an illiterate, but beautiful young woman in the back country of Pungo. In 1675, James and Grace, at their young ages of 15, had a daughter, naming her Elizabeth (1675-1726), five years before their official marriage. James married Grace in the first Virginia Lynnhaven Parish Church in April 1680. The couple lived in the Pungo area of Princess Anne County where they had three sons, John, James, and Richard. As a grown-up Elizabeth Sherwood married George Symes and moved away.
In 1695 while tending her fields alongside her young daughter, a next-door neighbor, Elizabeth Hill, the town gossip, went over to see what two beautiful women dressed in men’s britches were doing out in the field without a husband. In Elizabeth’s mind Grace made fun of her by introducing her to her daughter as Elizabeth. Even if true, Elizabeth Hill felt she was being ridiculed and went back home. An angry Elizabeth Hill started spreading rumors about Grace working in the field alongside her daughter in men’s birches without her husband, possibly growing plants for a Witches Brew. Neighbors shrugged off her gossip saying, “So what?”
When Elizabeth Hill heard about what happened to women accused of witchery up North in Salem, Massachusetts, Elizabeth added to her stories the reason why her husband was not out in the field helping Grace. Elizabeth thought maybe Grace was growing plants for her concoctions used in her Witches Brew. Elizabeth Hill even went further using outlandish tales about Grace sitting on her while she slept, and then escaping through a key hole in the form of black cat. Her tales ratcheted up to traveling to England in an egg shell and bringing back rosemary the same night, a plant which started all the rosemary growing in America. Again, neighbors shrugged her off saying, “So what?”
James brought deformation suits to court against the Hills to defend Grace’s good name which only fueled more gossip. Elizabeth Hill’s husband beseeched Elizabeth to let the whole thing with Grace just blow over. Not listening to her husband, it became obvious to Elizabeth she had to step up her accusations against Grace, but only if she could get Grace’s husband James out of the way. Since James always accompanied Grace to court to defend her against Elizabeth’s accusations, Elizabeth got the Hill clan involved.
History has no record of how James died, but records do show he passed away while standing near the church since he always waited for Grace when she was in court where the church held those proceedings. Some folks say James was buried at his home in Pungo, but there are no references to substantiate this, considering that he died while waiting for Grace in the church grave yard.
Just after James died, with a show of great sorrow, Elizabeth Hill put on an act in front of the church congregation claiming Grace’s witchery had filled their house with evil spirits and even crept into her husband’s body killing this strong and healthy 41-year-old man. Some church members believed Elizabeth’s story and wanting to see the body of James buried as quickly as possible. So they made a gravestone for James and buried him in the church graveyard beside the church.
Without her husband Grace had to fend against Elizabeth, and sure enough, not long after James died, Elizabeth came to the Sherwood farm and maliciously beat Grace about her face since she had heard that facial blood was different from normal blood, perhaps the blood of a witch which could prove Grave to be a witch. Grace defended herself the best she could making markings on Elizabeth's body which would prove significant on that fateful ducking day. This time, seeing her bloody face, the court ruled in favor of Grace awarding her just a paltry sum. This was the first court conviction against Elizabeth since she and her husband had been in and out of court for what seemed like many months. This conviction upset Elizabeth to such a degree that she went about stirring up the church folks to make sure Grace got more than ducked in the river, but put away in jail for a long time.
On the day Grace was scheduled to be ducked, the sherif was hesitant in carrying out the ducking since no court records had a court conviction notice, only that the folks in the Grace’s Lynnhaven Parish were ready to see a ducking for this non-traditional woman, even though she helped the church sick and delivered their babies. What happened next was never written in court records like much of the ducking story. Perhaps this is all part of church tales and ghost stories. Could this be what happened next? Remember, there were no court records!
On the day Grace was scheduled to be ducked, a huge crowd had gathered at the Lynnhaven River along Witchduck Bay to see Grace get her punishment for what her neighbor, Elizabeth Hill was claiming. Coming from miles around the crowd was set on seeing her tied up and cast in the Lynnhaven River. Elizabeth circled around the crowd with her gossip about Grace. To her discredit, the crowd began to believe the charges against Grace were concocted by Elizabeth. Realizing these stories were made up, the crowd began turning against Elizabeth. So maybe what happened next could have happened to the hated Elizabeth, not Grace. Perhaps some grabbed Elizabeth, and ripped off her clothes. There they would have seen marks of the devil which was mistaken from the wounds Elizabeth had received when she had accosted Grace in a bloody fight. This would have been easy to misjudge those marks as marks of the devil. The crowd at this pint wanted to see someone dunked in the river, and so Elizabeth, that town gossip and her hard-to-believe tails concocted against Grace made the one to be dunked became easy for the crowd to dragged Elizabeth to the river to be thrown in. Again, remember there are no records about who was thrown into the river. Grace was supposed to be the women thrown into the river so as to be the final note in folklore about Grace, not a tail that would end with Elizabeth Hill. So, does this story have a suitable ending? We do know this. Grace collected her three boys, went back to Pungo and lived peacefully until her death in 1740.
To this day, folks avoid going down Witchduck Road to Witchduck Bay to hear Elizabeth screaming – YOU GOT THE WRONG WITCH - YOU GOT THE WRONG WITCH!!! And down in the underworld Elizabeth walks around talking to anyone who will listen to her moaning, “How come Grace got to be famous and not me!”
On July 10th, on a day in 1812, Grace was supposedly thrown into Witchduck Bay, Folks put their ear to the church floor on that day hearing, “I be not a witch. I be a healer;” and according to local residents, a strange moving light, said to be Grace's restless spirit, still appears each July 10th over the spot out in Witchduck Bay where Grace was supposedly thrown into the water July 10th 1706 to test her for witchery. But there’s also other spirts out there in Witchduck Bay making their presence known each year on that very same day in July. Some folks believe its three soldiers looking for their ship, those three souls showing up a little over a hundred years after Grace's restless spirit had been making her yearly July 10th appearance out in same place in Witchduck Bay.
Here’s their story: Less than a month after the start of the 1812 War, three of our church members helped capture an English ship. All three are buried in the Old Donation Church cemetery, and every year on July 10th, the day they captured the English ship, some folks believe their spirits rise from their graves and gather down at Witchduck Bay, the same day of the month, July 10th, Grace Sherwood was supposedly thrown in the bay at the same spot as those soldiers. Some say Grace helped guide our three patriot souls to their boat each year, because they believe Grace was a great sailor, as in the legend about Grace sailing one night to England in an egg shell and bringing back a sprig of Rosemary the next morning, a sprig which started all the Rosemary growing today in Virginia Beach.
References: James and Grace’s daughter, Elizabeth (1675-1726),
1. Abstracts of Lower Norfolk Wills, pg. 76 from Norfolk County (formerly part of Princess Anne County), Virginia, Wills Book4,f98.
2. Virginia, Princess Anne, Deed Book 1, Part 2, pages 301 and 335.
3. Sims, Henry Upson, The Genealogy of the Sims Family of Virginia, the Carolinas and the Gulf States (Kansas City, MO: E L Mendenhall Inc., 1940), pp. 82-83
References: James Sherwood buried in the church graveyard
1. In Belinda Nash's 2012 book, “A Place in Time: The Age of the Witch of Pungo,” Belinda says on page 108-109, "James Sherwood departed on August 15, 1701 at the age of 42. He was buried in the 2nd Lynnhaven Parish churchyard, shaded beneath an oak tree."
2. The WikiTree article = https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sherwood-1494 states, "James was buried in the Old Donation Church graveyard, but due to two building projects over the years, his burial site location was lost."
3. An article by Rogers Dey Whichard in the June 1,1941 Virginian Pilot says James was buried in the Historic Graveyard next to Old Donation Church.
