Witches’ Well

Did you know there is a water fountain just outside Edinburgh Castle dedicated to those executed as witches in the 16th and 17th centuries? The “Witchcraft Acts” codified witchcraft as a criminal offense. In 1541, The Act against Conjurations, Witchcraft, Sorcery and Enchantments defined witchcraft as a felony, punishable by death and forfeiture of property to the state. The 1563 Act further defined not just the practice of witchcraft, but the consultation of a witch, as punishable by death. King James VI (later James I of England) demonstrated a particular obsession with witches, even publishing a book, Daemonologie, and participating in the interrogation of accused witches. He took that interest with him when he assumed the English throne. In 1604, another law was passed that further bolstered prosecution of witches: An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits, and hundreds of witches would be tried and executed.

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Witch’s Grave

If you try to look up other people’s stories of this place, you will find it under Kirtland, Ohio, but it is really in Mentor. The story goes that grave is for a witch who was murdered by the locals for her crimes and then buried way out here because no one wanted a witch’s grave in their cemetery. Occasionally the story is changed to state that there are two witches buried here, obviously legends shifted to accommodate the fact that there are actually two names on the stone.

The reality is much more mundane. The stone is for two early settlers of this area, who moved from Derby, Connecticut to what would become the edges of Mentor and Kirtland, Ohio. Just like a lot of folks, they died on their land and were buried there in a family plot. For reasons that I can’t be sure of at this time, their graves are the only ones here: maybe other family members were buried on the property and re interred at local cemeteries, were buried in cemeteries immediately, or maybe the family moved away before there were any more deaths.

I guess a lonely grave by the side of the road just begs for a creepy story, but the reality is pretty mundane.

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