Elizabeth "Harriot" Wilson

Elizabeth Wilson (c. 1762 – January 3, 1786) was an American whose execution by hanging for the purported murder of her children in southeastern Pennsylvania during the immediate post-Revolutionary War period made her a folklore figure in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Although her responsibility for the children's deaths had not been definitively established, the hanging was carried out and a pardon, granted by the state and entrusted to her brother, William, was not delivered in time to stop the execution.

However, "the Wilson Story" might best be considered historical fiction, as the popular tale incorporates elements of both, and even scholarly discussions of the events are at odds regarding certain details.

[1][12] Elizabeth is invariably described as exceedingly beautiful and always surrounded by admirers, but as with other portions of her tale, there are several versions of how she met her seducer.

[1][14] Whatever his name or his origin, the cad manipulated Elizabeth with false promises of marriage and "succeeded in depriving her of all that could render her respectable in the eyes of the world.

[8]) In one version her children were born in a stranger's house along the way, but certainly the more dramatic account has her arriving at her father's home still in the throes of labor.

[8][9][12] (The day is often described as a Sunday, with her parents leaving to attend church, but those sources that mention a specific date give 12 October 1784, a Thursday.)

[8] In the coming days or weeks a gruesome discovery was made: a hunter found the bodies of Elizabeth's twins hidden in the woods.

Several newspapers reported that Elizabeth's arrest took place in late December, 1784, roughly two and a half months after her children's deaths.

'[19] Elizabeth Wilson was charged with the "murder of her Two illegitimate Male Children" and imprisoned in the city of Chester's 4th Street jail.

[1][14][citation needed] Attorney General Bradford's case was built primarily on circumstantial evidence, but Elizabeth did not refute any of the charges against her.

[3] William hastily assembled a group of respected officials, including Judge Atlee, to witness Elizabeth's confession.

Biddle's journal includes a brief discussion of the Wilson case and, in addition to court and Council records, is one of the more reputable sources regarding the matter.

He was successful in compiling a list of several people, but he became ill around Christmas and spent some time recuperating at a friend's home in Philadelphia.

William swam the rest of the way, and by the time he reached dry land he was approximately 3.5 km (2.2 mi) downstream from where he'd entered the water.

Executions in this manner were often protracted, gruesome affairs, resulting in a slow death by asphyxiation rather than a quickly-broken neck, and hanging was considered (as it has been throughout history) one of the most shameful methods of capital punishment.

"[15] The sheriff of Chester (given as either Ezekiel Leonard or William Gibbons[4][12] ) was one of many who had come to believe that Elizabeth was innocent and who, following her confession, suspected that she might be pardoned.

Varying accounts state that William arrived anywhere from mere moments to twenty-three minutes too late to deliver Biddle's pardon and save his sister's life.

There is a liberal mixture of historical fact and melodrama, the latter in the form of extended monologues attributed to Elizabeth, as well as the texts of several letters supposedly written in her cell and "discovered" after her death.

[26] In addition to the various Narratives, a Boston printer, Ezekiel Russell, published …Elegy &c., a poetic telling of Elizabeth's story; it survives only as a fragment.

(While the date of Victim is unknown it appears to predate The Pennsylvania Hermit, another early source of the names Amos and Harriot.

From a publishing standpoint, the interest in Elizabeth's case was unprecedented in the new nation, and the sentimental features of many of the accounts were calculated to appeal to female readers, whose numbers increased dramatically following the Revolution.

The tragic, lurid tale of William and Elizabeth Wilson quickly became familiar throughout the Philadelphia area and was told and retold in local papers throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries.

Some themes, such as the broken marriage promise, are nearly universal, while many others exist in a single source and are at odds with all other versions of the tale, and with the historical record.

The Life of Amos Wilson contains the passage, "You see by the foregoing pages the gradation of evils dependent on a departure from...dignified modesty."

Readers are admonished to "(t)urn your attention to those houses of debauchery where Vice reigns triumphant, and on whom poor mourning Virtue sheds a tear of pity."

Again, these passages sometimes seem to have more to do with moral instruction than with relating the factual story of William and Elizabeth Wilson, and as many exist only in a single source their authenticity must be viewed skeptically.

For many years local folks claimed to see and hear a spectral horseman galloping across Chester and Delaware Counties and up to the old jail.

[3][8][29] When trees were cleared to make a parking lot for Indian Echo Caverns (the name given to William's hermitage on its development as a tourist attraction), it was said that the newly opened space revealed Elizabeth Wilson's wandering spirit.

[citation needed] More poignant are tales from East Bradford Township of a female spirit walking through the woods where (according to some sources) the bodies of Elizabeth's children were discovered, looking for something lost beneath the leaves.