Moll Dyer

Moll Dyer (died c. 1697?) is the name of a legendary 17th-century resident of Leonardtown, Maryland, who was said to have been accused of witchcraft and chased out of her home by the local townsfolk on a winter night. Her body was found a few days later, partially frozen to a large stone. Stories say her spirit haunts the land, looking for the men who forced her from her home. The land near her cabin is said to be cursed, never again growing good crops, and an unusual number of lightning strikes have been recorded there.

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. According to these interviews, Moll Dyer is said to have come from Ireland, Virginia, Kentucky, New England, or Connecticut. She is said to have been a widow, a woman disappointed in love, or the mother of two sons. She may have born a Dyer or married a man named Dyer. Two people said they had heard her name as "Moldy Dyer" and that she was an Indian maid abandoned by her "paleface" lover after the birth of a child. The date of her death varied from the mid 1600s to the late 1700s. Several people said they thought Moll Dyer was Catholic or that she had come to Maryland because it was more religiously tolerant than other colonies. A white dog is mentioned as causing accidents on Moll Dyer road.

One interviewee reported that while hunting along Moll Dyer's Run around 1970 he saw a "very dense fog patch, cylindrical in shape, with the light emanating about eight inches down from the top.... It crossed the stream and went east ... moving across the wind instead of with the wind ... then turned and went south.... But what made it really strange was that it did it twice! ... I'm not saying that it was the spirit of Moll Dyer. I just don't know what it was."

The story has survived for generations, though no historical record has been found of Moll Dyer's existence. Records from the colonial period are often incomplete and the county courthouse burned in 1831 so early documents were lost. Historical evidence includes:

• An immigration record shows that Mary Dyer, Marg. Dyer, and Malligo Dyer were transported to Maryland in October 1677 on a ship commanded by Capt. Thomas Taylor (Maryland Hall of Records Land Books, Liber 15, Folio 438). (Moll is a nickname for Mary.)
• A "great epidemic" occurred in Southern Maryland in 1697/98. (Archives of MD, V23, p. 396)
• In the 18 August 1892 edition of The St. Mary's Beacon (Edition 604, Volume LII), Joseph F. Morgan wrote that Moll lived in the area for many years, and that her cottage was burned while "Cotton Mather held sway in the land of the Puritans." (Mather was born in 1663 and died in 1728.) This story has been reprinted in the "Chronicles of St. Mary's," which are available from the St. Mary's County Historical Society.
• There were several witchcraft trials in Maryland, starting in 1654 and continuing until 1712. Rebecca Fowler of neighboring Calvert County was hanged as a witch on 9 October 1685 (Maryland Historical Magazine XXXL pP. 271-298).

The Washington Times has called her "perhaps Maryland's best-known bit of witch lore". Local newspapers reprint the story from time to time.