Elizabeth Wilson

Title page artwork from the first edition of The Pennsylvania Hermit, ca. 1838. Note William approaching on horseback, calling, "A pardon." Elizabeth Wilson ( 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 stay of execution, granted by the state and entrusted to her brother, William, was not delivered in time to stop the execution. There was tremendous popular interest in her story, which quickly evolved into a tale of moral failing and divine redemption. Following his sister's death, William became a recluse, popularly known as The Pennsylvania Hermit.

In some sources, William and Elizabeth are referred to as Amos Wilson and Harriot Wilson. However, the historical record leaves no doubt that the Hermit and his sister were named William and Elizabeth. The origin of these "alternate" names has never been fully explained.

Many key elements of the Wilsons' saga are documented in the records of the Chester County Courts and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, the story quickly became a part of local folklore and was embellished by generations of storytellers. It is possible to note which elements of the tale are a part of the historical record and which might be considered suspect. 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. The following is a synthesis of numerous, often conflicting sources and is best regarded as historical fiction.

Early life Very little background information has survived regarding the Wilson family. According to one account, William and Elizabeth's father was a farmer named John Wilson. John's first wife, and the children's mother, was also named Elizabeth.

Sources are divided regarding Elizabeth's age. Some report that she was nineteen when she died (born ca. 1766), others that she was twenty-seven (born ca. 1758). There is no record of other siblings, and some accounts specify that Elizabeth was her parents' only daughter and William their only son. Elizabeth was said to have been born in East Marlborough Township, in central Chester County. Theirs was a farm family of modest means but solid reputation. During the American Revolution, they sided with the British, and much of their property was confiscated by American forces., Mrs. Wilson died while the children were still young. Their father later remarried, but his second wife did not care for her stepchildren. She encouraged their father to send them away as soon as they were of age.

"The Victim of Seduction!" At sixteen, William was apprenticed to a stone carver in Lancaster County. Some portray her as a chaste and virtuous country girl, a devout Christian who made a terrible mistake. Others describe her as much more worldly, and one even reports another, earlier, out-of-wedlock pregnancy that ended in stillbirth. In early 1784 a George Magoleher was tried in Chester after being arrested "for fouling upon the body of Elizabeth Wilson," although it is not certain that this Elizabeth was the Hermit's sister. (Court documents reveal that this Elizabeth's father was named Thomas Wilson.) The Faithful Narrative also includes a lurid jailhouse confession attributed to Elizabeth in which she admits to several out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

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. In one, she was invited to a wedding in nearby Hock-Hossing (perhaps Hockessin in Delaware), where she met a friend of the groom. at the Indian Queen. 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."

Murder As soon as she was well enough to travel, Elizabeth returned to Philadelphia in search of her babies' father, whom she found at the Indian Queen. He feigned happiness at seeing her and again promised that they would be married.

Trial Elizabeth Wilson was charged with the "murder of her Two illegitimate Male Children" and imprisoned in the city of Chester's 4th Street jail. The judge was William Augustus Atlee. Atlee was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and at that time Supreme Court justices also served on the county-level Courts of oyer and terminer, making a regular circuit of the counties to hear trials for high crimes and appeals. It was in this latter capacity that Atlee presided over Elizabeth Wilson's trial. Many jurors felt sympathetic toward Elizabeth, but they were charged to decide the case based on the evidence presented. Their decision was "guilty of murder in the first degree."

In the meantime, William went in search of his sister's erstwhile lover, but when he found him on a New Jersey farm he denied ever having known Elizabeth. William then began to seek out witnesses who could link the man with Philadelphia and his sister. 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. While the execution of women has always been relatively uncommon, there were many instances in this period of women who were hanged for the murders of their "bastard children."

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. This was essentially an advertisement for another Russell publication, a crime magazine titled The American Bloody Register, the fourth issue of which dealt with the Wilson case; no copies of the Register are known to have survived. Another Boston printer published The Victim of Seduction!, marking perhaps the first use of the name Harriot in place of Elizabeth. (While the date of Victim is unknown it appears to predate The Pennsylvania Hermit, another early source of the names Amos and Harriot.)

After Elizabeth's death, her brother William withdrew from society. After wandering for several years he took up residence in a cave near Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. He died there in 1821. In the late 1830s, The Pennsylvania Hermit: A Narrative of the Extraordinary Life of Amos Wilson was published. It is a twenty-four page pamphlet in two parts. The first, titled The Life of Amos Wilson, &c., is a brief telling of the Wilsons' story. The writer describes himself as William's friend and claims to have visited him the night before he died. As such, the book is often assumed to be authoritative, yet it contains numerous and often glaring errors. It is also another early source of the 'alternate' names, Amos and Harriot.

Myth and morality 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. In addition to the discrepancies noted above, The Pennsylvania Hermit tells that Elizabeth gave birth to a single child whom she killed immediately after birth. In this version, her jailhouse confession was simply an acknowledgement of guilt and of her sinful nature. One story in a Chester newspaper made repeated reference to a small blue stool on which William, as a boy, had carved the initials "E & W." Predating Charles Foster Kane's Rosebud by a century, the stool served as a reminder of a more innocent time as Elizabeth awaited execution.

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. This ghost story is unusual in that, while living, Elizabeth never set foot anywhere near the area she was alleged to haunt.

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.

While early storytelling focused on Elizabeth's saga and the moral implications of her actions, the current focus seems to be on the sensational aspects of William's ride and Elizabeth's execution and on the strange circumstances of William's life in the cave. As such, the story is sometimes resurrected by local media in connection with Halloween observances or as part of "strange but true" features.