William Harding (born c. 1625, date of death unknown), was the first man to have been convicted of witchcraft in the Colony of Virginia,[1] and also one of the few men to have been tried in a witch trial in Colonial America.[2][3]

Background

Wright was born around 1625 in England. He emigrated to British America and resided in Northumberland County. where he later was a landowner near Nomini Creek.[4][5] He was described as a "cunning man" and a troublemaker who caused dissension.[6][7]

Witch trial

Further information: Witch trials in Virginia

In November 1656, Scottish Reverend David Lindsay of Wicomico Church, Virginia accused William of witchcraft and sorcery, and he was subsequently imprisoned.[8][9] A 24-member jury was convened, and the witch trial heard testimony from numerous county residents.[10][11] All records regarding his charges have been lost.[12][13][14]

On November 20, 1656, Harding was found guilty of the charges, sentenced to 13 whip lashes, ordered to pay all court costs, and formally banished from the county.[15][16] Harding's banishment was considered unorthodox as it was not a prescribed punishment in the Witchcraft Act 1603.[16][17] His case was one of the few male witchcraft trials in the New World.[18][19]

References

  1. ^ Burr, George Lincoln (1914). Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases, 1648-1706. C. Scribner's Sons. p. 435. ISBN 9780722266083.
  2. ^ Meyers, Debra; Perreault, Melanie (2014-07-16). Order and Civility in the Early Modern Chesapeake. Lexington Books. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-7391-8975-7.
  3. ^ Sobel, Mechal (2021-06-08). The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia. Princeton University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4008-2049-8.
  4. ^ Waring, Lucy Lemoine (1971). Hardings of Northumberland County, Virginia, and Their Related Families: Mini-history, Homes and Churches. The author.
  5. ^ Marion Nugent, Nell. Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623 -1800. p. 337.
  6. ^ Gipson, Lawrence H. (1998). Revisioning the British Empire in the Eighteenth Century: Essays from Twenty-five Years of the Lawrence Henry Gipson Institute for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Lehigh University Press. pp. 211–212. ISBN 978-0-934223-57-7.
  7. ^ Bruce, Philip Alexander (1910). Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry Into the Religious, Moral and Educational, Legal, Military, and Political Condition of the People Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records. G.P. Putnam's sons. p. 288. ISBN 978-0-598-84156-8.
  8. ^ Moyer, Paul B. (2020-10-15). Detestable and Wicked Arts: New England and Witchcraft in the Early Modern Atlantic World. Cornell University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-5017-5106-6.
  9. ^ Picariello, Damien K. (2020-06-26). The Politics of Horror. Springer Nature. p. 163. ISBN 978-3-030-42015-4.
  10. ^ Wertenbaker, Thomas J. (1927). The First Americans. p. 146.
  11. ^ Scott, Arthur Pearson (1930). Criminal Law in Colonial Virginia. University of Chicago Press. p. 240.
  12. ^ Laulainen-Schein, Diana Lyn (2004). Comparative Counterpoints: Witchcraft Accusations in Early Modern Lancashire and the Chesapeake. University of Minnesota. p. 314.
  13. ^ Sheppard, Nancy E. (2018-10-08). Hampton Roads Murder & Mayhem. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-6538-1.
  14. ^ Booth, Sally Smith (1975). The Witches of Early America. Hastings House. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-8038-8072-6.
  15. ^ Beau, Bryan F. Le (2016-05-23). The Story of the Salem Witch Trials. Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-315-50904-4.
  16. ^ a b Hines, Emilee (2010-08-17). Mysteries and Legends of Virginia: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7627-6657-4.
  17. ^ Porterfield, Amanda; Corrigan, John (2010-04-26). Religion in American History. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-6137-4.
  18. ^ Hudson Jr., Carson O. Witchcraft in Colonial Virginia. The History Press. 2019. ISBN 978-1-4671-4424-7
  19. ^ Blanton, Wyndham Bolling (1972). Medicine in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Arno Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-405-03936-2.
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