Why were certain women accused of witchcraft in the 1600s?

This mini-"between the seasons"- episode of Legacy Lore explores how fear, gender, religion, and social control shaped witchcraft accusations across Colonial America and England.

Learn how coverture laws, the domestic sphere, and community suspicion made widows, midwives, healers, and outspoken women vulnerable during the witch trials. Witchcraft wasn’t about magic. It was about power and patriarchy.

Sources:

• Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. Norton, 1987.

• Norton, Mary Beth. In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692. Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

• Willis, Deborah Malevolent Nurture: Witch-Hunting and Maternal Power in Early Modern England, 1995.

• Roper, Lyndal Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany 2004.

• Gibson, Marion Reading Witchcraft: Stories of Early English Witches 1999

• Cott, Nancy F. The Bonds of Womanhood: “Woman’s Sphere” in New England, 1780–1835

• Erickson, Amy Louis Women and Property in Early Modern England 1991

• Rediker, Marcus Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World 1987

In this special interview episode, I sit down with Jen, also known as The Formidable Genealogist, to talk about the behind-the-scenes process of building accurate family trees and uncovering the truth behind historical records.

Jen shares strategies for verifying sources, navigating conflicting records, and breaking through research roadblocks.

We also talk about her widely-used PDF research guides that help researchers master platforms like FamilySearch, Ancestry, Newspapers.com, and Find a Grave, along with advice for anyone beginning their family history journey.

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In the final episode of Season One, we revisit the life, legacy, and 1671 witchcraft accusation of my 11th great-grandmother, Eleanor Neale of Colonial Virginia. Through original records, historical context, and new theories, we explore how power, land disputes, gossip, and patriarchal control (not magic) sparked the accusation that nearly destroyed her.

This reflective episode examines indentured servitude, headrights, early American superstition, and how the fear of outspoken women shaped witchcraft history. Eleanor’s story is one of survival, resilience, and generational impact her descendants now number in the thousands.

A reminder that history remembers but not always correctly.

Season 2 returns spring 2026.

A neighbor's rumor. A test of faith. In 1671 Virginia, Eleanor Neale faced a witch trial that could end her life.

This episode reveals how her courage, a prayer, and a horseshoe changed her fate.

There’s a point where whispers stop being whispers. They become rumors, not because they’re true, but because enough people believe them.

Host Sammy Jo unravels how gossip, gender, and fear collided to shape the fate of Eleanor Neale, a woman who refused to stay silent in 17th-century Virginia. Drawing from court depositions and real colonial records, this episode exposes how a single rumor could determine a woman’s destiny.

As neighbors traded secrets and reputations shattered, Eleanor found herself caught between survival and silence. Her refusal to spread gossip wasn’t defiance, it was self-preservation. But in a society built on fragile egos and patriarchal control, even silence could be weaponized.

Through immersive soundscapes and historical analysis, Legacy Lore connects the whispers of 1665 to the broader cycle of fear that fueled witchcraft accusations and silenced generations of women. What happens when the truth becomes too dangerous to tell?

Further Readings and Sources for this episode:

• 1. Northumberland County Record Book 16 (1659–1666) Virginia Colonial Court Records, deposition of Eleanor Neale, September 16, 1665, p. 164.
  2. Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. 19. Northumberland County Records (edited by Beverley Fleet), Library of Virginia Archives.
  3. Hening’s Statutes at Large, Vol. II. Laws of Virginia (1642–1676), for context on slander, fornication, and witchcraft statutes.

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A new clue in Eleanor’s story has just surfaced.

In this short bonus episode, host Sammy Jo shares a recent AncestryDNA update that expanded her genetic map revealing new connections to Ireland.

What does this mean for Legacy Lore: The Accused? It opens an entirely new direction in the search for Eleanor Neale’s origins, and a chance to trace where her story truly began.

🎧 A quick update from the genealogical frontlines, proof that even after 350 years, the story isn’t finished.

Head over to Instagram (@legacylorepod) to see my Linktree for DNA testing kit information.

Every investigation reaches a point where the facts stop cooperating.

In Episode 4 , The Confession, host Sammy Jo steps out from behind the story to confront the contradictions inside her own research.

Was Eleanor Neale, the woman accused of witchcraft in 1671 Colonial Virginia, the same Eleanor listed years earlier on a transport ship from England? Or had history confused her with a noblewoman or even her own daughter-in-law?

Join Sammy Jo as she retraces records that don’t align, faces the gaps in centuries-old archives, and even compares her DNA results against the regions Eleanor might have called home. What happens when family lore and hard evidence refuse to agree?

🎧 Part historical detective story, part personal reckoning, this episode exposes how easily our ancestors’ truths can blur into myth.

Further Readings and Sources for this episode:

1. ​Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. 31 (Beverley Fleet) – 1641–1642 fornication/adultery proceedings
2. ​Northumberland County Record Books 1658–1662 & 1666–1673, Library of Virginia Digital Collections
3. ​O’Hart, John (1892), Irish & Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry – transport lists reference

This bonus episode is a dramatized retelling of real events from the North Berwick witch trials of the 1500s.

While it’s based on historical records, some dialogue and perspectives have been fictionalized to help immerse you in the time period and emotional weight of the story.

This episode also contains referenced to torture, executions, and the persecution of women - which may be distressing for some listeners.

We board a royal ship and step into the fear that took hold of a king’s mind, and into the trials that shaped witchcraft law across the Atlantic. The spark that would one day reach the Virginia colony, and a woman named Eleanor Neale.

Sources used for this episode:

1. ​King James VI (1597). Daemonologie, in Forme of a DialogueTrial Records of the North Berwick Witch Trials (1590–1592)An Act Against Witchcrafts, Sorcerie, and Necromancie.” (Witchcraft Act of 1563)Larner, Christina. Enemies of God: The Witch-Hunt in Scotland. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.

Remaining sources can be found on the blog: www.legacylore.com.