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Moll Dyer (c. 1697) is the name of a legendary 17th-century resident of Leonardtown, Maryland, who is said to have been accused of witchcraft and chased out of her home by the local townsfolk on a winter night. Her body was allegedly found a few days later, partially frozen to a large stone.
The legend of Moll Dyer is an oral-history folktale that has been told in the region of St. Mary's County, Maryland for decades, if not centuries. Local legend keeps that Moll Dyer was a 17th-century colonist in Leonardtown, Maryland. Dates surrounding the origin of this folktale are hazy, but the consensus is that the events took place during a February in the late 1690s- during the Maryland Witch Trials that resulted in multiple acquittals and one recorded death. There are currently no known primary sources, census data, or otherwise firmly historical evidences to prove that the events of this legend occurred. Records of Leonardtown's colonial period are often considered incomplete, since many were lost in the fire that destroyed the town courthouse on 8 March, 1831. [1]
Despite dubious sourcing, claims made to verify the story will often cite the following:
In recent years, community efforts have attempted to revive the legend of Moll Dyer. Several links have been made, even by the St. Mary's County Government, [4] to an allegedly real woman named Mary Dyer- who was possibly born in Devon, England in 1634 and first shows up in records in 1669, as an indentured servant in the Virgin Islands. In 1677, this same woman would travel by Capt. Thomas Taylor's ship to Dorchester, Maryland. It is unclear if this Mary Dyer ever resided or died in Leonardtown. These claims have been taken up and printed in several publications, including The Washington Post , [5] though their veracity is up for debate.
In 2021, Leonardtown Mayor Dan Burris declared February 26 to be "Moll Dyer Day" as a tribute to the town's rich history. [6]
A deadly plague (likely influenza) and poor crops had taken their toll on the small Leonardtown community, and the particularly harsh winter meant that people were fearful of not making it through the season. A deeply religious and puritanical community, the townsfolk turned to superstition, claiming that the famine, disease, and ice storms were the product of witchcraft.
A meeting in the local church determined that Moll Dyer, an older woman who lived on the southern edge of town, was the witch in question; and had called upon the Devil to terrorize the people of Leonardtown. Events rapidly escalated and a mob was formed with the intent of running her out of town.
Upon arrival, the mob surrounded and set fire to her hut, with Moll barely managing to escape and run past the crowd into the woods. Some accounts claim Moll Dyer saw the mob approaching and fled quickly, with only enough time to grab a light shawl for warmth. Regardless of the telling, she runs for miles- until her legs finally give in.
Knowing she would die of exposure before sunrise, she found a small boulder and placed her right hand upon it. She then raised her left hand to the moon and called down a curse on the people of Leonardtown. Days later, her body was found frozen to the stone, with her hand still held up towards the sky.
The details of the curse are variable depending on the teller, but usually fall in the realm of blighted crops, infertility, child mortality, or familial misfortune.
Her spirit is said to still haunt the land surrounding Leonardtown, looking for the men who forced her from her home. It is also claimed that a handprint of discolored stone can occasionally be seen on the "Moll Dyer Rock" in front of the Tudor Hall Mansion.
Many supernatural events are reported near the modern-day Moll Dyer Road, a branch off of Maryland Route 5 that is claimed to be the site of either her residence or death. Reports of shadow people, will-o'-the-wisps, a white dog causing car accidents, "a thick, unnatural fog," and frequent lightning strikes are all common.
As with all folktales, the story has been passed down through the generations and changes with the telling. In 1994 Thomas Jarboe conducted a series of interviews with ten local residents; including a member of the Dyer family, a local historian, and several people from families that have lived in the county since the 1600s.[ citation needed ]
According to these interviews, Moll Dyer may have come from England, Ireland, Virginia, Kentucky, New England, or Connecticut. She is said to have been a spinster, a widow, a woman scorned in love, or the mother of two sons. She may have born as a Dyer or married a man named Dyer.
Two people said they had heard her name as "Moldy Dyer," and that she was a Native American (likely Chaptico) maid abandoned by her white lover after the birth of their child.
The date of her death varied from the mid-1600s to the late 1700s. As Leonardtown was established (as Seymour Town) in 1660, this would place her as a very early colonist, most likely English and Catholic. Several people said they thought she had come to Maryland because it was more religiously tolerant than other colonies. Since the Anglican Church was formed about a century prior and English Catholics often fled to the Americas to escape persecution, this aspect of the tale could be plausible.
According to the legend, Moll Dyer rested on a large stone before she died, leaving indentations (either hands, knees, or both) behind. This rock was lost for centuries until 1968, when a writer for the Washington Evening Star, Philip H. Love, read about the legend in a local historical journal and sought to locate the rock. A grocer who lived nearby claimed to have known about the rock since he was a young boy, leading Love to the location.
In 1972, the 875-pound limestone boulder was moved by the National Guard from a wooded ravine near Moll Dyer Road to the Leonardtown courthouse lawn in front of the old 1876 jailhouse. A simple plaque near the rock read "Moll Dyer Rock, circa 1697."
The Moll Dyer Rock sat in this location for nearly 50 years, until early 2021, when the St. Mary's County Historical Society relocated the large stone to the grounds of Tudor Hall, where the Historical Society has its headquarters. [7] Today, the rock sits under a plexiglass covering and has a more elaborate plaque detailing the events of the legend.
Touching the stone allegedly causes people to feel nauseous, dizzy, or otherwise deeply uncomfortable. It is also said to bring illness and misfortune to one's family.
Small offerings - flowers, sweets, trinket, mittens, etc.- are often left near the stone to nullify the effects of the curse.
The Weather Channel aired an episode about Moll Dyer in their series American Supernatural on 5 October 2014.
Sister Witch, The Life of Moll Dyer was written by local novelist David W. Thompson and published by Solstice Publishing on October 31, 2017. Inspired by Moll Dyer's life, it pulls together the historical record and local oral traditions surrounding her legend.
Moll Dyer's Revenge, written by St. Mary's County native and author Mike Marcus, was published in the anthology From The Yonder: A Collection of Horror from Around the World in February 2020 from War Monkey Publications LLC.
The Legend of the Witch, Moll Dyer was choreographed by St. Mary's Ballet founder Jane Caputo and set to the music of Loreena McKennitt in 1999. The ballet was performed at St. Mary's Ryken High School and at the College of Southern Maryland's Leonardtown campus as part of the county's yearly Halloween celebration from 1999 to 2003 and again in 2006. [8] The ballet recasts the legend in the mold of a morality tale of feminism and tolerance.
Moll Dyer was one of the historical figures that inspired the titular character in The Blair Witch Project . [9] [10]
The song "Fire and Snow" (2007) by folk/rock duo Hobbyhorse of San Francisco is about Moll Dyer.
The Washington Times has called her "perhaps Maryland's best-known bit of witch lore". [11] Local newspapers occasionally reprint the story. [12]
Moll Dyer Road, 3.4 miles south of Leonardtown, is named after her, [13] as is the creek, Moll Dyer's Run, which parallels the road then crosses Route 5, goes past Our Lady's Chapel [14] on Medley's Neck Road, and eventually flows into Breton Bay.
St. Mary's County, established in 1637, is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 113,777. Its county seat is Leonardtown. The name is in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus. St. Mary's County comprises the California-Lexington Park, Maryland Metropolitan Statistical Area, which also is included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area. It is part of the Southern Maryland region. The county was the home to the first Maryland Colony, and the first capital of the Colony of Maryland. Settled by English Catholics, it is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in North America, at a time when the British colonies were settled primarily by Protestants. The county is home to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station and St. Mary's College of Maryland. Traditionally, St. Mary's County has been known for its unique and historic culture of Chesapeake Bay tidewater farming, fishing, and crabbing communities. But with the advent of the military bases, growth of an extensive defense contractor presence, and the growth of St. Mary's College of Maryland, as well as increasing numbers of long-distance Washington, D.C. commuters, it has been undergoing a decades-long transformation which has seen the county's population double since 1970.
Waldorf is a census-designated place in Charles County, Maryland, United States. Located 23 miles (37 km) south-southeast of Washington, D.C., Waldorf is part of Southern Maryland. Its population was 81,410 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous community in the state and the largest community in Southern Maryland. Waldorf has experienced dramatic growth, increasing its population 16-fold from fewer than 5,000 residents in 1980 to its current population. It is now the largest commercial and residential area in Southern Maryland as well as a major suburb in the Washington metropolitan area.
Leonardtown is a town in and the county seat of St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 4,563 at the 2020 census. Leonardtown is perhaps most famous for the national oyster-shucking championship that is held annually at the St. Mary's County fairgrounds.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
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 jail.
Elizabeth "Betty" Parris was one of the young girls who accused other people of being witches during the Salem witch trials. The accusations made by Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams caused the direct death of 20 Salem residents: 19 were hanged, while another, Giles Corey, was pressed to death.
Bridget Bishop was the first person executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Nineteen were hanged, and one, Giles Corey, was pressed to death. Altogether, about 200 people were tried.
Maryland Route 5 is a 74.34-mile (119.64 km) long state highway that runs north–south in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs from Point Lookout in St. Mary's County north to the Washington, D.C. border in Suitland, Prince George's County. MD 5 begins as two-lane undivided Point Lookout Road which runs from Point Lookout to an intersection with MD 235 in the northern part of St. Mary's County. Point Lookout Road passes through rural areas as well as the county seat of Leonardtown. After the MD 235 intersection, the route becomes four-lane divided Three Notch Road and continues into Charles County, where it becomes Leonardtown Road. Here, the route bypasses Hughesville and continues north toward the Waldorf area, which it bypasses to the east on Mattawoman Beantown Road. The route merges onto U.S. Route 301 and enters Prince George's County, splitting from US 301 at an interchange in Brandywine. From here, MD 5 continues north on Branch Avenue, running through suburban areas, before becoming a freeway as it passes Andrews Air Force Base and has an interchange with Interstate 95 (I-95)/I-495. Past the Capital Beltway, the route runs through suburban areas of Hillcrest Heights and Suitland before reaching the Washington, D.C. border, where Branch Avenue SE continues, crossing Pennsylvania Avenue SE and eventually terminating at Randle Circle.
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches is a book composed by the American folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland that was published in 1899. It contains what he believed was the religious text of a group of pagan witches in Tuscany, Italy that documented their beliefs and rituals, although various historians and folklorists have disputed the existence of such a group. In the 20th century, the book was very influential in the development of the contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca.
Mary Ann Warren was an accuser and later confessed witch during the 1692 Salem witch trials. She was a servant for John and Elizabeth Proctor. Renouncing her claims after threats of beating from her master, she was later accused and arrested for allegedly practicing witchcraft herself, after which she again became afflicted and accused others of witchcraft. Her life after the trials is unknown.
Cornish mythology is the folk tradition and mythology of the Cornish people. It consists partly of folk traditions developed in Cornwall and partly of traditions developed by Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium, often shared with those of the Breton and Welsh peoples. Some of this contains remnants of the mythology of pre-Christian Britain.
Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692
Jeanne Blackistone Dorsey Mandel was a First Lady of Maryland and second wife of former Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel, whom she had met in January 1963. She was a native of Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, Maryland. She died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Grace White Sherwood (1660–1740), called the Witch of Pungo, is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia.
Blair Witch is an American horror media franchise created by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, distributed by Artisan Entertainment and produced by Haxan Films that consists of three feature films and various additional media. The development of the franchise's first installment, The Blair Witch Project, started in 1993. Myrick and Sanchez wrote a 35-page outline of a story with the dialogue to be improvised. Filming began in 1997 and lasted eight days. The film follows the disappearance of three student filmmakers in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary on the local legend known as the "Blair Witch".
The witch trials in Connecticut, also sometimes referred to as the Hartford witch trials, occurred from 1647 to 1663. They were the first large-scale witch trials in the American colonies, predating the Salem Witch Trials by nearly thirty years. John M. Taylor lists a total of 37 cases, 11 of which resulted in executions. The execution of Alse Young of Windsor in the spring of 1647 was the beginning of the witch panic in the area, which would not come to an end until 1670 with the release of Katherine Harrison.
Grissel Jaffray was a Scottish woman burned at the stake having been accused of witchcraft. Jaffray was one of an estimated 4000 to 6000 people who were tried during the Scottish Witch Trials of this period. She was the last person burned for witchcraft in Dundee and is commemorated in the city with a plaque and a mosaic marking the place of her execution.
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.
Rebecca Fowler was a woman convicted and executed for witchcraft in 17th-century Maryland. Around a dozen witch trials were conducted in Maryland during the 17th and 18th centuries, with most being acquitted. Fowler is the only documented legal execution of an alleged witch in Maryland history.
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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