At least one person was executed for witchcraft in Maryland. Before the U.S. was founded in 1776, at least eight individuals in Maryland were accused of or indicted for witchcraft under the province’s statute entitled “An Acte against Conjuration Witchcrafte and dealing with evill and wicked Spirits.” One woman, Rebecca Fowler, was the only person to be executed after her conviction in 1685. She died by hanging in October of that year.
![[Karla Hailer, a fifth-grade teacher from Scituate, Massachusetts, stands at the site where five women were hanged as witches more than three centuries years earlier in Salem]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/05/26/18/Witch_Pardon_74752.jpg)
The earliest known accusation occurred in 1654 and the latest happened in 1712. Those accused are Elizabeth Bennett in 1665, Hannah Edwards in 1686, John Cowman in 1674, Mary Lee circa 1654, Rebecca Fowler in 1685, Virtue Violl in 1712 and Moll Dyer. The date of Dyer’s accusation is unknown.
The English statute would be repealed in 1735. Heather A Bagnall, a Democratic delegate representing Anne Arundel County who wrote the resolution, says that misogyny played a large part in the trials and that the judicial procedures would not meet modern standards.
Bagnall also wants to restore the reputations of those who were indicted, banished, forced to flee or even acquitted following accusations. If the resolution passes, the state will issue a formal apology to the descendants of the individuals who were indicted.
“The State of Maryland acknowledges the trauma and shame that wrongfully continued to affect the families of the accused,” the document states. Beliefs in witchcraft were commonly held across the world and the British colonies in particular during that time, leading to the notable Salem Witch Trials, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people.
