Elly Kedwardedit
From Blair Witch
[edit] The Life of Elly Kedward
In the summer of 1769, "Elly Kedward" sailed from Ireland to Baltimore aboard the sea-faring vessel The Reliant. She eventually settled in the town of Blair, Maryland. Being a Catholic in a predominantly Protestant community, Elly became somewhat reclusive. Some have claimed that her original name was Annabeth Hutchison, and that she was born in 1706 in Nether Cross, England to Sarah Hutchison, and that her family included a uncle by the name of Benedict Townshend, whose wife was Mary and whose daughter, Lettice, was the same age as her cousin Annabeth/Elly.
[edit] Banishment and Death
In the winter of 1785, several children of the town accused Kedward of practicing witchcraft. It's possible that she'd been prodding the kids to analyze some sort of illness she'd detected. Either way, when the parents found out, Elly was banished into the woods, blindfolded and tied to a tree. Some sources indicate that she was tried and convicted first, but that is unlikely. Elly was presumed dead from exposure during what some say was the worst winter in history. The following year, all of Kedward's accusers, half the town's children had vanished. The townsfolk blamed Elly the Witch. Fearing a curse, they fled Blair as soon as the weather broke and never spoke of the incident again.
