Legacy Lore: The Accused and The Land
History remembers—but what if it remembers wrong?
When I began this project more than a year ago, I thought I was simply tracing a name. A name that belonged to my 11th great-grandmother, Eleanor Neale.
But as I dug deeper, her story began to reach out and grab hold of me. Because what I found wasn’t just a name on paper. It was a life, one defined by courage, survival, and the quiet defiance of a world that never made space for women like her.
In Episode One: The Accused, I step into Eleanor’s world for the first time. Her name appears in a 1642 court record, charged with fornication and adultery ….. and later, something far more dangerous: witchcraft.
To understand what those accusations meant, you have to understand the time she lived in. A woman in colonial Virginia belonged to her father until she belonged to her husband. She could not own land, testify against a man, or legally exist outside of the men around her. The law called it coverture, and under coverture, a woman’s identity was never truly her own.
And without giving away too much from the episodes (because maybe you have listened yet and if you haven’t then what exactly have you been doing?!) I shared that Eleanor received a very public punishment in 1642.
By the time we reach Episode Two: The Land, Eleanor’s story begins to shift and we learn just how powerful owning land can make you.
Eleanor and her husband, Daniel Neale, held over 1,200 acres, ten times more than the average man of their time. That ownership placed them among the colony’s elite, but it also painted a target on their backs. Because in 17th-century Virginia, a woman connected to wealth and influence was seen as dangerous.
Together, The Accused and The Land tell the story of a woman who lived in contradiction: punished for her choices, but remembered through her resilience.
For me, this project is about more than genealogy.
It’s about reclaiming voices that history tried to erase.
It’s about filling in the spaces between the lines, the ones that official records couldn’t or wouldn’t tell.
Eleanor Neale deserves to be remembered not as a witch, but as a woman who dared to exist on her own terms.
Sources & Further Reading
Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Vol. 1 (Beverley Fleet)
Northumberland County Record Book 1666–1673
Northumberland County Record Book 1658–1662, Part 1
Library of Virginia Archives & Digital Collections
Stephen R. Potter, Archaeological Investigations at Newman’s Neck, Virginia (1978)
If you’d like to see the full documents, or direct links to my sources, please email hello@legacylorepod.com.
Legacy Lore is an entirely independent production. researched, written, narrated, and edited by me, Sammy Jo Saraceni.
From scanning microfilm in the archives to mixing the final audio in my home studio, every step has been done by hand and with heart.
This isn’t a studio-backed show. It’s one woman’s effort to bring forgotten history back into the light. So if you notice a rough edge here or there, know that it’s part of something real and far more important to me than perfection: truth, connection, and legacy.
Follow @LegacyLorePodcast for behind-the-scenes content, historical extras, and upcoming episode previews.
