Speaker 1: Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
Speaker 1: is Wamanica. Historically, women have been told to make themselves smaller,
Speaker 1: to diminish themselves. Some have used that idea to their advantage,
Speaker 1: disappearing into new identities. For others, a disappearance was the
Speaker 1: end to their stories, but the beginning of a new
Speaker 1: chapter in their legacies. This month, we're telling the stories
Speaker 1: of these women. We're talking about disappearing acts. One early
Speaker 1: March morning in seventeenth century England, a mysterious figure draped
Speaker 1: in black velvet stepped off a boat and walked into
Speaker 1: a tavern. She was a wealthy German princess on the run,
Speaker 1: or at least that's what she told the tavern's owner.
Speaker 1: In actuality, she was an English fraudster with a pension
Speaker 1: for stretching the truth. Let's talk about Mary Carlton. It's
Speaker 1: hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to
Speaker 1: the details of Mary's life, but historians think she was
Speaker 1: born sometime between sixteen thirty four and sixteen forty two
Speaker 1: with the name Mary Motors. She ran away from her
Speaker 1: first husband, a shoemaker named Thomas. Soon after she got
Speaker 1: married once again. This time to a surgeon also named Thomas.
Speaker 1: In seventeenth century England, marrying someone while another person you
Speaker 1: married was still alive was called bigamy, and it was
Speaker 1: a capital offense. Mary's transgressions were discovered and she stood
Speaker 1: trial for bigamy. At that trial, a third man showed up,
Speaker 1: a bricklayer who said he was also Mary's husband, but
Speaker 1: Mary dodged the allegations and was acquitted of her crimes.
Speaker 1: A year later, Mary reappeared in billings Gate. She arrived
Speaker 1: on a barge dressed in black velvet weighed down with
Speaker 1: elaborate jewelry. When she walked into the Exchange tavern, her
Speaker 1: beauty and charm caught the eye of the tavern's owner,
Speaker 1: Mister King. Mary told mister King and his wife, Missus King,
Speaker 1: that she was as a nineteen year old daughter of
Speaker 1: a German earl who'd run away to avoid marrying an
Speaker 1: eighty year old man, though at some point her persona
Speaker 1: was upgraded to a princess. Mister King invited her to
Speaker 1: sleep in the tavern for the night. The next day,
Speaker 1: Missus King's brother, John Carlton, stopped by the tavern. When
Speaker 1: he met Mary, she charmed him with stories of her
Speaker 1: encounters with royalty. By the time John left, he was
Speaker 1: in love. But how does one woo a noble? According
Speaker 1: to some sources, John decided to go the flashy route.
Speaker 1: The next time he showed up at the tavern, it
Speaker 1: was in an elaborate coach. He brought along two footmen
Speaker 1: who pointedly addressed him as a lord. Why hadn't John
Speaker 1: entered the tavern with all this fanfare the first time
Speaker 1: he met Mary Well he was in disguise then, obviously,
Speaker 1: Soon enough, the English lord and the German princess began
Speaker 1: to court. In earnest Mary showed John letters from Germany
Speaker 1: that promised her fortune would arrive soon. John bragged about
Speaker 1: how big his houses and stables were. It was a
Speaker 1: whirlwind two weeks. By the end of it, John and
Speaker 1: Mary were married. The honeymoon phase was short lived. When
Speaker 1: John's parents went to sell some of Mary's jewelry, they
Speaker 1: discovered it was counterfeit. This prompted them to do a
Speaker 1: little more research, which is how they discovered that Mary,
Speaker 1: the German Princess was really Mary the two timing bigamist.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon Mary found herself in court on trial once
Speaker 1: again for bigamy. She entered the courtroom with her head
Speaker 1: held high, walking with a confidence befitting of a princess.
Speaker 1: Just like the first time, she pleaded not guilty, John's
Speaker 1: family made the mistake of calling just one witness to
Speaker 1: the stand. It was Mary's word against his. Mary's word
Speaker 1: won out, and her performance on the stand made her
Speaker 1: a London celebrity. Mary was quick to capitalize on her fame.
Speaker 1: Less than a week after being acquitted, she published a
Speaker 1: pamphlet titled A Historical Narrative of the German Princess, then
Speaker 1: another one called the Case of Madame Mary Carlton. Her
Speaker 1: writing was eloquent and often philosophical, almost like she had
Speaker 1: been raised among German nobility. Mary also appeared in a
Speaker 1: satirical play called The German Princess. She played the titular character,
Speaker 1: and Mary wasn't the only one crafting her narrative. Plenty
Speaker 1: of other people were writing about her too. More than
Speaker 1: twenty pamphlets were written about Mary. Her ex husband John
Speaker 1: wrote a few of his own. Soon after the press
Speaker 1: around the trial died down, Mary faded back into obscurity.
Speaker 1: She mostly disappeared from the historical record until sixteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: when She was convicted of theft and sent to Jamaica
Speaker 1: to be imprisoned. She escaped her imprisonment, but was caught
Speaker 1: again for theft a year later, eighteen seventy three. She
Speaker 1: was hanged for her crime. Mary's story and its liberal
Speaker 1: mixture of facts and fiction, might have inspired a whole
Speaker 1: new genre of fiction. Some scholars argue that the pamphlets
Speaker 1: written about her kick started the genre of realistic fiction
Speaker 1: that was later popularized by writers like Daniel Dafoe. All month,
Speaker 1: We're talking about Disappearing acts. For more information, find us
Speaker 1: on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to
Speaker 1: Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to
Speaker 1: you tomorrow