When the Sea Became a Court: Katherine Grady and a 1654 Witchcraft Execution at Sea

In 1654, during a violent Atlantic crossing to colonial Virginia, a woman named Katherine Grady was accused of witchcraft aboard an English ship. She was tried at sea, convicted without a formal court, and executed before ever reaching land.Primary & Early Printed SourcesRobinson Transcripts, Virginia colonial court abstracts (referenced by later historians; the original General Court record concerning Captain Bennett does not survive).“Witchcraft in Virginia,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. VIII (1900–1901), p. 162.Statutes of the Realm, 1 James I, c.12 (1604), “An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits.”Secondary ScholarshipThomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971.Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: W. W. Norton, 1987.Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.