Southern Maryland’s Moll Dyer

Moll Dyer's Rock 

Photo credit

My “home zone” is Southern Maryland, which has been described by many as one of the most haunted areas in the country. Many tales have been shared around childhood campfires over the years. Stories that sent shivers down my spine even as flickering flames lent warmth to the telling.

Sotterly Plantation and Greenwell State Park are the source of many of these stories. Ghostly nuns, deceased soldiers of bygone eras and victims of not so accidental deaths are said to roam the buildings’ halls and surrounding fields. A short jaunt up the road (as the crow flies) is the site of the “blue dog” haunting where a mysterious ethereal canine is said to guard the remains of his murdered master as he has for centuries. Add in Point Lookout where the Union held Confederate prisoners in conditions that made Andersonville look like an island vacation and you can see why the area has the reputation it does.

Naturally, having grown up with these legends, they are in one manner or another, incorporated into my writing. None stir my imagination like the story of Moll Dyer, however, an accused witch from the late 1600s.   

Although the historical proof of her existence is minimal, we have a local county road named after her, and likewise a small stream. There’s the rock purported to be where she breathed her last. Most researchers miss the colonial letter describing her “countenance” in an unfavorable manner, but we’re mostly left with legends. Oral tradition- once the only historical record, and the basis of the old truism “where there’s smoke, there’s fire. How apt is that for a tale of this nature?

Although there are some small deviations to the legend, most oral traditions agree: Moll was an herbal healer and hermit. Most state her origin was Ireland, although she likely arrived on a passenger ship from England. She arrived on our shores single and unaccompanied and never married. She preferred the company of the Native Americans to her European neighbors. She dressed in a manner of lost affluence (threadbare clothes originally made from the finest materials). She froze to death on the coldest night of 1697 after a citizen’s mob burned her small cabin to the ground believing her a witch and the source of a blight on the land. She was found days later, draped over a large rock with one hand raised to the heavens. Some say in prayer; others say to curse the local citizenry. She was discovered by a young lad in search of his missing cow.

So then, who was Moll Dyer? I won’t fabricate a correlation between any segment of the legend and other past lives lived here. It’s unnecessary to make her story more real. Her tragedy speaks to its own truth and …perhaps that’s enough. My answer to the question is Moll’s truth, even if intangible. Moll Dyer is everyone who’s faced injustice or been mocked for being different; those scorned for their beliefs and tormented for living a life true to themselves. She is anyone condemned at the court of public opinion and castigated for their lack of popularity or political correctness. She’s the embodiment of Sarah Goode of Salem fame, Anne Frank, John the Baptist, Joan of Arc, Anne Boleyn, Rosa Parks and…well, the list goes on! Moll, the accused witch, could be the patron saint of them all.

I believe Moll Dyer would be proud of her legacy, and that she’d feel some measure of peace and exoneration from the tales being told of her today. She was once used as a cautionary tale- a warning to little children to behave, but no longer. Now we remember Moll whenever we’re bullied, accused without cause or feeling friendless. Perhaps she gives us a twinge of conscience when we are the ones doing the bullying? It warms my heart to think that some good is our final inheritance from the tragedy of Moll Dyer.

David W. Thompson

​https://www.david-w-thompson.com

David is a multiple award-winning author, Army veteran, and graduate of UMUC. He’s a multi-genre writer, and a member of the Horror Writers' Association, and the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. When not writing, Dave enjoys family, kayaking, fishing, hiking, hunting, winemaking, and woodcarving.