The Last Woman In Canada To Be Convicted Of Witchcraft Was Born And Raised In Blyth

by Bob Montgomery

Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt was quite surprised when he learned that the last woman in Canada to be convicted of witchcraft was born and raised in Blyth.

Garratt says he read about it in an article by Huron County Historian David Yates, and Garratt was so intrigued by the story that he contacted playwright Beverley Cooper, who had also written Innocence Lost, the Stephen Truscott Story, and asked her if she would be interested in writing about this woman. The woman was arrested, tried and convicted in Goderich and held in the Goderich Jail. And now, the whole story will be told at the Blyth Festival. "The Trials Of Maggie Pollock" opens on August 2nd.

Garratt says the conviction was appealed to the Ontario Superior Court where it was upheld and sent back to the lower court and she was sentenced to what would be similar to house arrest today and she became a ward of her brother until her dying day. Garratt says what's really astounding about the story, which is a true story, is that it happened in 1919 ... after the First World War, after we had telephones and airplanes and the first car and even movies.

Garratt says the other amazing aspect of the story for him is that after fifty years of the Blyth Festival, they're still finding incredible local stories like The Trials of Maggie Pollick. And the house that Maggie Pollick lived in is still standing. The Trials of Maggie Pollick opens at eight o'clock on August 2nd at the Blyth Festival. For information and tickets go to the Blyth Festival website.

Photo courtesy of Blyth Festival