George Wilson steals a horse, 1838
Gender has complexities beyond the physical definition, and George Wilson’s performance of gender seems to have puzzled and exasperated early 19th-century newspaper editors. (There were a number of “George Wilsons” in the early nineteenth century, and some of them had the bodies of women and the lives of men. This George Wilson appears not to be the one married to Eliza Cummins and arrested for drunkenness in 1836.)
Wilson was a thief, a sailor, a jockey, and one of several immigrants from England who found themselves in America. Also, an incredibly obstinate individual. And tough.
At first, this tale of a Baltimore horse thief fascinated newspaper editors, who tucked paragraphs from Baltimore newspapers into their own. Things became complicated, however, as Wilson refused to give another name and apparently didn’t have the usual story of a lovelorn young woman seeking her beloved. Wilson’s stubbornness while in prison also was a source of fascination, probably because that toughness wasn’t what editors expected of a woman.
Soon, however, the interest seemed to fade. Instead of being a desperate woman finding herself in a bad situation, Wilson turned out to have a history as a thief and—possibly—as a prostitute. Wilson didn’t cooperate with those trying to solve or investigate the situation. There were hints that Wilson was a member of the upper class, which Wilson wouldn’t confirm. Then Wilson’s sentence was commuted, and a wealthy patron arranged for the immigrant to return to England—and Wilson refused to leave prison until it was too late.
In the coverage, the Baltimore Sun was the most caustic, making social commentary and charting the uglier aspects of Wilson’s criminal career. The Sun was pessimistic about Wilson’s honesty and reported Wilson’s later criminal activity in Kentucky.
In its first story, the Sun took the opportunity to lambaste the younger generation for grooming and garb that the editor felt wasn’t gender-appropriate. Among other things, the detailed descriptions of clothing, grooming, and mannerisms provide a snapshot of antebellum ideas about presentation of gender.
[Notes: Betty Finiken was a character in the play Gretna Green, by Samuel Beazley, which premiered in 1822. Jacques Strop first appeared in L’Auberge des Adrets, a play by Benjamin Antier (1823), and was so popular that the actor portraying him made him a central character in Robert Macaire (1835); Strop is a con artist, played as a comic figure.]
“Influence of Bad Example.” The Baltimore Sun [Baltimore, Maryland] 19 February 1838; p. 4.
The attention of the knowing ones at the Horse Market, was attracted on Saturday morning by the appearance of a comely youth neatly dressed in a light fustian frock coat, blue pantaloons, velvet vest, and fur cap, who gallantly rode up the street upon a sleek-sided, well-fed bay steed. A crowd soon collected around the horse and rider, some admiring the former, and others scrutinizing the latter. The effeminate appearance of the stranger might have raised a sneer among the grooms, but they are too close observers not to have noticed that bloods of the first water now use every endeavor to appear like ladies’ waiting maids, and with their beardless chins shaded by perfumed and flowing ringlets, seem only to want petticoats to metamorphose them into very good looking “Betties.” On this account, perhaps, the youth was set down as a modern fop in disguise who to raise the wind to pay his barber’s bill, had been obliged to sell his horse. The stranger having intimated a wish to dispose of the animal, a bargain was soon struck, by which it was agreed that the horse should be transferred to the purchaser in consideration of the sum of $25, current money, which was a great bargain, for he was evidently worth at least $75. “There is many a slip between the cup and the lip,” saith the adage, and it was in this instance aptly illustrated; for as the purchaser was about paying over the money, another stranger appeared, in breathless haste, and entered a protest against the transaction. He represented himself as a Mr. Magness, from the vicinity of Belle Air, Harford county, and stated that the horse had been stolen from his farm about 2 o’clock on Saturday morning. The youth who had sold the hose, not being able to contradict the statement, was arrested by officer Smith, examined before Justice Keys, and committed to prison. The prisoner was placed among the male convicts, under the name of George Wilson; but Mr. Magness having mentioned to the Warden that the marks of footsteps around the stable appeared to be those of woman, [sic] a personal examination of the youth was instituted, which showed to the satisfaction of the matrons who made the examination, that the prisoner was a bona fide woman. She was divested of her disguise, clothed in the proper garments of her sex, and placed in the female apartments. She there stated that she was a native of Yorkshire, England, had been dressed as a man for three years, during which period she had been employed as a laborer upon the canal, and performed other labors usual for those of the stronger sex. Some one gallantly offered to go her security, but the offer was declined by the magistrate.
A few words to our young exquisites. You see from this case, the effects of your attempts to unsex yourselves. If you will insist upon playing Betty Finiken in the drama of life, it is not strange that a damsel occasionally should seize the unmentionable and appear as Jacques Strop. Do therefore, good sweet fellows, leave perfume to the musk rat, mincing your steps, shear off your “unlovely love-locks,” and we shall no more be astonished by a woman turning horse-thief and riding like a jockey 21 miles upon a cold frosty morning.
“The Female Horse Thief.” Baltimore Commercial Transcript [Baltimore, Maryland]; reprinted in The Perry County Democrat [Bloomfield, Pennsylvania] 8 March 1838; p. 3.
The female in male attire arrested the other day for stealing a horse, was brought into the City Court yesterday, and being arraigned at the bar, plead [sic] “guilty” to the indictment.
The conduct of this woman has been very singular. She is said to be a native of Yorkshire in England, and came to Baltimore in the capacity of a sailor, working her passage. She refuses to tell her name or to give a satisfactory account of herself. She is said to be [a] woman of education, [and] may have seen “better days.”
A piece appearing in the Baltimore Gazette before 27 March 1838 was reprinted in various forms in other newspapers; the Lancaster Intelligencer appears to have reprinted more of the unavailable original than did other papers. Wilson here is very much not the usual dainty 17-year-old editors often condescended to. Physically tough, Wilson resembled a man. There also was the earlier conviction for theft. It’s clear that as far as editors were concerned Wilson wasn’t acting the way a woman ought. (The New York Daily Herald titled their extract of the Gazette’s piece “Flogging Female Prisoners” and italicized the sentences about Wilson being beaten; see 27 March 1838; p. 1.)
“The Female Horse Thief.” Baltimore Gazette [Baltimore, Maryland] reprinted in Lancaster Intelligencer [Lancaster, Pennsylvania] 3 April 1838; p. 3.
The Baltimore Gazette gives the following account of the female horse thief recently apprehended in that city, and sentenced a few days since to two years imprisonment in the Penitentiary. The only name the Amazon will acknowledge is George Wilson, and her fierce and untractable spirit will probably set [at] nought all efforts to render her submissive to the discipline of the prison:
This female is certainly a very extraordinary individual, and her personal adventures, if she could be induced to relate them, would doubtless form a volume of uncommon interest. But she is silent in almost every particular in relation to herself. A few things mentioned to her fellow prisoners have been repeated, and they only create a desire to know more of her character and history. At a very early age, say thirteen or fourteen, she assumed male attire, which she has worn with but one or two brief intermissions, for nine or ten years, undiscovered. She entered very young as a sailor before the mast, and has crossed the ocean in that capacity eight or nine times. For stealing, she was some time since confined in the New York state prison for two years—fifteen months of which time was passed in solitary confinement. While there, she steadily refused to work, and every effort of punishment or persuasion failed to have the least effect upon her. The solitary confinement was resorted to for the purpose of breaking her determined spirit, but it was vain. Lashings on the bare back, a regimen of bread and water for weeks at a time, and various other punishments were resorted to, but she remained unmoveable in her determination not to work, and was only relieved at times from this severe treatment by direction of the physician, who frequently found nature yielding to severity, until the term of her imprisonment expired.
In our state prison, she is equally incorrigible. No punishment which has yet been inflicted, or kind persuasion that has been offered, can move her from her fixed resolution not to work when imprisoned. Under the severest punishment, she shows not the slightest sign of anger or emotion; and will strip to receive the lash with as much apparent unconcern as though she were going to bed—nor does she cringe under the stroke. Her determined perseverance is a source of much pain to the keeper, who cannot allow of any insubordination, and has therefore to inflict such punishments as the regulations of the institution demand in cases where prisoners refuse to work.
In stature she is somewhere about five feet eight inches, and as muscular as a pugilist. Her face looks like the face of a man. It does not show any thing like a wicked spirit; but is settled, stern, and thoughtful—never relaxing into a smile. She, of course, knows nothing of woman’s work. She can handle a needle with no further dexterity than will enable her to sew a button on her pantaloons. She openly avows her determination to steal whenever she cannot find suitable employment in which to obtain a living. A year or two since she was in Baltimore, and being closely pursued by the minions of the law, changed her clothing for female attire, and remained for a few days on the Point, until she could safely venture out again.
Take her all in all, she is a singular and hardened creature, utterly setting at nought all the regulations of law, and following the bent of her warped disposition, regardless of the smiles or frowns of the whole world. She is an English woman by birth, and has intimated her intention of having her life written out and published when she returns to her native country.
”Peter Paragraph” provided the Baltimore Sun with a story that has all the usual elements: the abandoning sweetheart, the desperate young woman dressing as a man in order to find her lover. Here, Wilson is the product of an overindulgent father and a tempestuous upbringing. There’s a child. A shipwreck is added to the story. It’s a lot of adventure for someone in her early twenties.
[Note: In the 19th century, “cute” was a shortening of the word “acute,” meaning a sharp thinker.]
Letter, by “Peter Paragraph.” The Baltimore Sun [Baltimore, Maryland] 28 March 1838; p. 1.
[For the Sun.]
Messrs. Editors.—The circumstance of a female being now confined within the walls of the Maryland Penitentiary for the offence of horse stealing, committed while she was in the garb of a man, brings to my mind a circumstance related to me by an English gentleman, which may throw some light upon the history of the extraordinary individual calling herself George Wilson. A gentleman of the name of Bruce, who had amassed a large sum of money by trading in horses and certain operations of the turf, known only to the initiated, purchased an estate in the West Riding of Yorkshire, with the intention of retiring as a country gentleman, and devoting the remainder of his days to agricultural pursuits. He was a widower, and had an only child, a girl, about seventeen years of age. He was too fond of the girl to bear her long from his presence, and resolutely rejected all the offers of his female relatives to take charge of her. She h[a]d been consequently carried with him on all his excursions around the country, and whether at the fair, Tattersall’s, or on the race course, Tom Bruce was seldom seen without the chubby face of his daughter smiling by his side. Thus nurtured among jockies, [sic] and educated in the stable, young Charlotte soon acquired tastes and habits very unsuitable for one of her sex, and at the age of 12 years was almost as knowing in matters of horse flesh as her father. By her own request she was clothed in male attire, and thus habited she had ridden several races over the course with much benefit to her father and his club, for whom, by her superior skill and management, she had won some hotly contested heats. Her only playmates were the stable-boys, one of whom was her avowed favorite. Jack Wilson was a cute Yorkshire lad, and saw the advantages of keeping in the good graces of an heiress; with this object in view, he used such arts as soon firmly attached to him the affections of this young Amazon, who saw in him her beau ideal of perfection—a stout, well built fellow, and an accomplished jockey.
When Bruce took possession of the estate he had purchased, he was seized with a sudden desire of seeing his daughter a fine lady, and for the purpose of polishing her manners, which had become somewhat rough, and of acquiring other accomplishments than those generally practised in the stable yard, she was sent to a fashionable boarding school, and placed under the immediate surveillance of a French governess. Miss Charlotte was here entirely out of her element, and completely astounded the young ladies with her knowledge of the slang dictionary, shocked all sense of propriety by mounting the old coach horse and riding bare-backed, in manly fashion, to the neighboring races, where she finally earned her expulsion from the school by selling the horse and betting the proceeds upon a favorite courser. She now returned to her father’s house where she renewed her intimacy with her favorite Jack Wilson, who was an inmate of the house, in the capacity of a groom. The father, though he admired Wilson as a jockey, did not approve of him as a son-in-law, and as his daughter was now nearly eighteen years of age, and not very remarkable for her decorous behavior, (she being as often attired in the close fitting dress of a jockey as in a habit more becoming the modesty of her sex,) he thought it prudent to remove the object of her affections, and thus prevent any disagreeable accidents. With this object in view, Jack was sent to America, to take charge of some high trained English hunters which a Yankee Nimrod had purchased of his master. But “the stable door was locked after the horse had been stolen,” as Bruce expressed it, for he in the course of a few months found himself a grand-father, though his daughter was not a wife. His rage was unbounded, and he punished his daughter for a fault he himself had brought about, by inflicting upon her the most severe personal chastisement. Her spirit rebelled against such tyranny, and watching the opportunity of her father being at a fox chase, she dressed herself in his best suit, mounted his fleetest steed, and galloped away to the nearest seaport in hopes of finding a vessel ready to sail for America. She found no difficulty in disposing of her horse for a good round sum, with which she set out on her travels. Totally ignorant of what part of the world her lover was in, she took passage in a vessel bound to Malta, still preserving her disguise, and representing herself as the son of a British officer belonging to the garrison. Her father, as soon as he had recovered from the effects of the carousal that generally wound up his field sports, missed his daughter, and started in pursuit of her. He traced her to the town from whence she had sailed, but was unable to ascertain the name of the vessel, or the port of her destination. Large rewards were offered for her return to her father, who at length got a clue to her place of retreat. One of his majesty’s cruizers [sic] had fallen in with a wreck off the coast of Spain which appeared to be entirely abandoned; but on boarding it, the apparently lifeless body of a youth was found lashed to the stump of the mast. He was carefully removed and placed under the surgeon’s care, who in employing the necessary means of resuscitation, discovered that the rescued person was a female. Life was with difficulty restored, and on revival she was furnished with proper clothing from the wardrobe of the captain’s wife, but she evaded answering all questions as to her name and the circumstances that placed her in the extraordinary situation in which she was found. Upon the arrival of the cruizer at Portsmouth, a purse was raised for her among the officers and crew, and she was placed in comfortable quarters at the principal inn of the place. The circumstance being much talked of at the time, it came to the ears of Mr. Bruce, who happened to be in the neighborhood. From the description of the person, he knew it must be his daughter, and driving up to the inn with his curricle he had the pleasure of seeing his dutiful child preparing to take her departure for London. She quietly suffered herself to be seated in her father’s vehicle, and coolly requested him to settle her bill at the inn. While the old gentleman was absent on this errand, the young lady gave reins to the horses, and away they dashed, leaving hostlers, grooms, and father transfixed with amazement. What became of the curricle and horses is not known, but she was traced to London, where it was ascertained that she had shipped as cabin boy on board a vessel bound to Greenock, in Scotland. Her father followed her, but arrived there only in time to ascertain that a youth, answering the description he gave, had the previous day sailed as one of the crew of a brig bound to New York. This was the last he heard of his daughter, and though several years have elapsed since then, he still continues his search for her, and offers the reward of 2000l. to whoever will induce her to return home.
If you think my supposition, that Charlotte Bruce and the extraordinary female now confined in the Penitentiary under the name of George Wilson are one and the same person, is correct, I hope you will publish the above imperfect sketch of her life, and add such connecting links as will bring it down to the period when she was convicted of horse stealing. By doing so, you would greatly oblige many of your readers, but particularly your unknown friend and sincere well-wisher,
Peter Paragraph.
[Our correspondent, we think, has made out a pretty good case, and though he is somewhat lengthy in his communication, we cheerfully give it a place and comply with his request that we should publish such portions of the history of “George Wilson” as may have come to our knowledge. The individual known under this name is a woman, who at the February term of the City Court was convicted of horse stealing, and sentenced to two years imprisonment in the Penitentiary. She is, we believe, a native of Yorkshire, England, and her advent in this country happened, some three or four years back, in the city of New York. She had been there found habited in a sailor’s dress, creating some disturbance in the street, for which she was brought before the police magistrate and committed to Bridewell among the male prisoners. Not liking her companions, she disclosed her sex, and the circumstance led to some inquiries as to the motives for her disguise. She spun them a long yarn about the sole keeper of her maiden heart having crossed the ocean to come to America, and left her to sigh alone. She could not bear to be separated from him, she said, and for the purpose of finding him she had disguised herself as a sailor and shipped at Greenock for the United States, under the name of David Bruce. She had been seeking her lover when the officers arrested her for resisting the importunities of a damsel who took her for a sailor boy. This story delighted the Gothamites, who are as fond of romance as a Parisian, and all the novel-reading spinsters, the sentimental Julias and the sighing Rom[eo]s clubbed together and made up a handsome sum to further the search of the damsel-errant after her truant lover. But what was their horror when a few months after their heroine was tried at the Quarter Sessions, for horse stealing! She was found guilty, and sentenced to two years hard labor at Sing Sing; but hard labor was not according to her fancy, and during the whole term of her imprisonment neither threats, persuasion, nor punishment could ever induce or compel her to work. On her discharge she insisted upon her male clothes being returned, and clothed in them she has since been at times working as a common laborer, and when dressed in her proper clothing she has generally been the inmate of a brothel. Our readers are acquainted with the particulars of the offence for which she is now undergoing punishment, and we will merely state that here, as in Sing Sing, she resolutely refuses to do any work.]
The Sun struck again once Wilson was released from prison. The ire here is palpable, as the Sun details Wilson’s refusal to cooperate by returning to England, the refusal to keep wearing women’s clothing, and the refusal to cooperate by pleading “not guilty.” Here was someone found to be a woman who just wasn’t acting the way the Sun thought a woman should. It’s in keeping with their first article, where young men are scolded for not acting the way the Sun felt a man should.
George Wilson. The Baltimore Sun [Baltimore, Maryland] 27 November 1838; p. 2.
George Wilson, alias Charlotte Wilson, alias Bruce, the female horse thief, was some time since pardoned by the executives. An English lady of high standing, engaged and paid for her passage in a vessel to England, laid in $20 worth of sea stores for her, and sent her $30 in money, for the purchase of clothing. Miss Charlotte was informed of her being pardoned, and the arrangements made by her benefactress—she received the money, but positively refused to go on board the vessel, or to leave her cell until she saw fit, and the vessel therefore sailed without her. The next day it pleased her to go forth, and she took her departure. Whither she has gone no one can tell, but it is probable she procured another suit of male attire, and when she is tired of walking will press into her service the first palfry that suits her fancy. Her whole course of conduct, from the time of her arrest until her discharge, has been marked with the greatest stubborness, [sic] and opposition to the will or advice of every one. At the time of her arraignment she was advised to plead not guilty, but she persisted in pleading guilty. Previous to sentence being passed, it was intimated to her that if she would consent to be sent to England, a pardon would be procured for her; this offer she rejected, with the observation that she had twice broken the laws of this country, and she deserved to be punished. She was consequently sent to the penitentiary. Previous to leaving jail, she expressed an earnest desire to regain possession of the man’s clothing in which she was arrested, and was particularly anxious to obtain the bridle that was on the horse she had stolen. The bridle she said belonged to her, and she might have use for it at some future time, for said she you know the old saying, “give a Yorkshire man a bridle and he will soon find a horse.” Her demand, however, was not complied with, and she was highly indignant at the refusal. While in the penitentiary she refused to work, and no discipline could subdue her resolution. Her unyielding stubborness was fully displayed in her rejection of the means of returning to Europe. Who this extraordinary female is, and what could be the motive for her throwing aside the habiliments of her sex, remains a mystery. That she is of good family, and that her history is known to some persons in this country, may be considered highly probable, from the circumstance of several Englishmen of rank taking great interest in her, and their ladies affording her assistance. During her confinement in the penitentiary, the institution was visited by an English nobleman and a member of the diplomatic corps, but as soon as she had an intimation of the rank of the visiters, she threw herself upon the floor and concealed her face, refusing to allow them to see any features by which they could recognise her. Her conduct at times gave reason to suppose that she was insane; that however might have been the effects of her entire loss of the finest feelings of her sex, and her abandonment of modesty of thought and action; but be she who she may, she is an extraordinary being, and seems determined to set all order and law at defiance. Her life and adventures would be a curiosity, and we hope will be given to the world before long.
Wilson seems to have continued to live as a man at least part of the time. Also as a thief, as the Sun reported. Whether Perkins was Wilson is a mystery; whether Wilson was Charlotte Bruce is unclear. And what happened next may never be known.
“At Her Old Tricks.” The Baltimore Sun [Baltimore, Maryland] 14 February 1840; p. 2.
By a letter from Madison county, Kentucky, we are informed that a female who was arrested for horse stealing while habited in male attire, has been sentenced to two years confinement in the penitentiary. Our correspondent asks us if she may not be the same woman who performed the same feat in this city sometime since, under the name of Charlotte Wilson. She now goes by the name of Perkins. There is little doubt that she is the same individual, and we have long been expecting to hear of some of her exploits, as she remarked, when leaving here, that she was true Yorkshire, and only wanted a bridle if she had that she would soon find a horse. It appears that she has now not only found a horse but a home. Who or what this strange being is, still remains a mystery. If she had desired to return to England, the opportunity was afforded her while here, through the benevolence of an English lady; but she preferred playing the knight errant, and has pursued her adventures into a country where horse-thieves are not much respected.
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