Judith Catchpole

Judith Catchpole, a young maidservant in colonial America, was tried in 1656 for witchcraft and infanticide before one of the earliest all-female juries in the United States. According to popular belief, all-female juries did not occur until much later.^[1] The state of Wyoming claims the first all woman jury was empaneled in Laramie on March 7, 1870.^[2] Even after the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1920, not all states permitted all female juries.^{[citation needed]}

Catchpole was an indentured servant in the colony of Maryland, arriving there by boat from the Commonwealth of England in January 1656. Upon her arrival she was accused of several crimes, resulting in a trial on September 22, 1656 in the General Provincial Court in Patuxent County, Maryland. This trial was the first to have an all-female jury in colonial Maryland and one of the earliest in colonial America.^[3]