Grace Sherwood

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:

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.”

On Aug 5th, 2023 noted historian Scott Moore (above) visited Old Donation and provided his account of the Grace Sherwood story. He said beginning in 1697, talk of Grace being a witch started to surface, which fueled gossip in the community. Her husband James brought deformation suits to court which only fueled more gossip. A few years after James died Aug 15th, 1701, Elizabeth Hill came to the Sherwood’s farm and beat Grace about the face. Grace promptly sued the Hills for assault and battery. The court found in favor of Grace noting she had been assaulted, bruised, and beaten badly about her face. Elizabeth Hill got angry over the verdict believing her action was justifiable against a witch by showing how facial blood could prove Grace had magic powers. As a result of the court's ruling, the Hills began charging Grace in court with witchery. Eventually the court got tired of the Hill’s continued claims, and so did Grace, having been searched various times for marks of the devil and enduring trips in and out of court. Grace finally agreed on July 10th, 1706 to a ducking in the Lynnhaven River. The Court ordered the Sheriff to take precautions to preserve her from drowning, and then take her into his custody and commit her to jail secured in irons until such time Grace was brought to trial. The record is silent about any further action against Grace, and there is no proof she was convicted of any crime by the court, only that she was convicted as a witch by the waters of the Lynnhaven River. She eventually was released from jail and got her farm back.

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

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." The other reference is an article by Rogers Dey Whichard in the June 1,1941 Virginian Pilot.

ONE OF SEVERAL FABLES ABOUT GRACE SHERWOOD

by Bob Perrine
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). In April 1680 James married Grace in the first Lynnhaven Parish Church. 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 Grace was tending her fields alongside her young daughter, Elizabeth, 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. In 1701 Grace’s husband James died while standing outside the church waiting for Grace in the church where proceedings were being held against Grace. Just after he 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 was a witch. Grace defended herself the best she could making markings on Elizabeth's body which would prove significant in court. And sure enough, the next time Elizabeth appeared in court, seeing her bloody face, the judge 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. What happened next was never written in court records which had been lost in a fire in Richmond, only in myths about Grace as the “Witch of Pungo.” Elizabeth’s conviction upset her to such a degree that she started stirring up the church folks telling them Grace should have the same punishment those poor women suffered in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials, ducked in a river. Coming from miles around 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. Some grabbed Elizabeth, and ripped off her clothes. There they saw the marks of the devil which was mistaken from the wounds Elizabeth had received when she had accosted Grace in a bloody fight. The crowd at this point wanted to see someone ducked in the river, and so they picked Elizabeth, not Grace. As the crowd melted away Grace collected her three boys, went back to Pungo, and lived peacefully there 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.