CHAPTER 2 - THE GOODWIFE MURON MULDOON

In 1650, they ratified the town charter for “Heights of King James County.”

This meant that the formed town must submit to the County Governor, Deputy Governor, and Magistrate. These men and three Puritan Reverends were known as the County Commission. 

Because they formed King James County under the 1629 Royal Charter of the King James Colony, the settlers of the heights had little to say who could live in their town. 

The Commission intended to allow a slow but steady influx of Irish, Scottish, and Dutch immigrants to help the fledgling village. 

However, the Commission was strict Puritans who escaped the Royal Anglican Government in England. They hand-picked twenty Calvinist families to oversee the Heights in leadership and religion. 

The choice of well-off Puritan families inspired a Puritanism World View. 

Birthdays and holidays were considered pagan rituals. The Bible was the only textbook found. The only music played was Sunday hymns.

Of course, this type of stranglehold and legalism led to its own reform. A second house of worship opened on January 16, 1653. Theirs was a looser gospel, allowing the consumption of alcohol (in moderation), as well as the celebration of Easter, Christmas, and community fellowship that involved music other than hymns. 

These Reformists comprised the Irish, Scots, and Dutch.

They held Townhall meetings on the first Sunday of each month at a newly constructed Community Hall on Mill Pond Road near the South Bridge.

The gatherings often ended in baseless accusations and infuriation between the feuding congregations. Each accused the other of heresy, and eventually, witchcraft.

The town economy suffered as neither side would trade or buy with the other. Fights were breaking out, and vandalism of goods and wares was becoming more prevalent. 

Each side swore in enforcers to protect their interests in exporting goods. 

There were minor scuffles, a few shoving matches, and eventually fisticuffs. In a more significant incident in February 1653, a Calvinist militant named Isaiah Wrightman stopped a reformist woman, Mary Beckett, and her two young sons on her way back from the market. 

He shoved her and took a basket of fruit and vegetables from her arm. Her oldest son, eight years old, attacked Wrightman and bit him on the leg. The bite drew blood. Enraged by the young boy's action, Wrightman hit the boy so hard that it dislocated his jaw and rendered him unconscious.

Within the half-hour, the Reformist enforcers found out. They put together a seven-man posse and rode to Wrightman's home. 

He was waiting with three Calvinist thugs and his two grown sons. 

The two sides fought until one of Wrightman's boys fell to the ground. They kicked him until unconscious.  

Soon, merchants and buyers from other towns boycotted trade with the Heights. Buyers were afraid of being harmed in the chaos and violence. 

Then, in late April 1654, the feud reached its boiling point. 

As the Reformist's families were readying for a Good Friday service, a group of Calvinist's thugs attacked the unsuspecting celebration inside the church. They stabbed two Reformist deacons, and the home of a third was torched.

In retaliation, on Easter Monday, the Reformists attacked the home of three Calvinist leaders. They killed one elder and hanged him from a tree overlooking Mill Pond. They burned the other two houses to the ground and severely injured one enforcer. 

The County could no longer ignore the violence. So, the Commission ordered a small militia to billet the town and restore order.

An uneasy peace settled in. The Governor, a Puritan, called for forgiveness, reconciliation, and cessation of all hostilities. However, he would turn a blind eye to what happened next.

They officially brought the accusation of witchery against the Reformists, who requested that hearings into the matter begin immediately. The Calvinists convened the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

Their investigation centered on the goings-on of the Reverend Thomas Parsons, his family, and his congregation. The court had a dual purpose: try to convict those involved in witchery and carry out the sentence. 

Hysteria, deception, and persecution plagued the Reformist families. Ghost posses from both sides would hunt down suspected heretics and administer justice the way they saw fit.

Over the next year, these posses killed twelve people. They found seven Reformists and five Calvinists dead in Haley's Woods, along Shenandoah Road, or in the town square. 

In addition, they dumped several bodies in the Shenandoah, eventually found in Mill Pond, thus giving it the nickname the blood pool. 

A Calvinist Bishop now occupied the position of Deputy Governor. He convinced the Commission to appoint inquisitors zealous to do the Lord's work.

On June 16, 1655, they issued a commission by proclamation. It gave absolute power, without interference, to eleven Puritan Elders. It charged them with finding out heretics and witches, no matter the cost.

In late October 1655, they tried and convicted five Reformist women of witchery. They tortured them by dunking in Mill Pond and executed four by public hanging.

The fifth and final woman executed for using black magic was the good wife, Murron Muldoon. They burned her at the stake on November 24, 1655. But there was something very odd about her case. 

The Puritan Inquisitors reported Murron had bewitched Parsons with black magic, corrupting him with readings of Hammer of the Witches and seducing him.

One week after Muldoon's death, they found Parsons hanging from the dunking tree. The Calvinists accused Muldoon's husband, Seamus, of killing him and making it look like a suicide. 

The Reformists, however, blamed the Calvinists. They accused the Inquisitors of looking the other way as they murdered Parson in his home and then hung him at Mill Pond. 

Seamus, the town's blacksmith, was an elder in Parson's church. By all accounts, he was a devout husband and Christian. Nevertheless, they arrested and imprisoned him for two weeks. 

After a two-day trial, they found Seamus innocent of his wife's witchery. He was, however, sentenced to twenty-one lashes for ignorance of Muron Muldoon's actions. They sent him back to Scotland.

By 1671, King Charles revoked the 1629 Royal Charter of King James Colony. Citing gross violations of international trade, failure to govern the colony's people, and illegal investments in non-English business, they dissolved the Commission.

It was too late. Over forty-five people died during this bloody period in our history. The death of Muron Muldoon has become a legend. 

The tale of two stories about Murron and Reverend Parson remains to this day. There are rumors to be several covens operating in town. We seem to be at the center of denominational warfare. We've got Pentecostals, Reformed Baptists, and Catholicism, which replaced Calvinism. Add an abortion clinic and a Planned Parenthood Center, and the town is a spiritual battlefield.