All research and commentary by Jefferson Hall
From ghost stories to opera, Alice Riley (or Alice “Ryley”) has inspired bemusement and sympathy… but for all the embellishment of her tale we are left with more legend than fact; we know virtually nothing about her.
In December of 1734, Thomas Christie wrote to Oglethorpe:
“[As to] The Unfortunate Mr. Wise his Effects was Sold Except Papers & Manuscripts remaining in a Trunk in ye Store & those things mentioned to be Left with Your Honnour remain in the Store house till farther Orders.” The inventory of the late Will Wise’s possessions was a small one. “Ye Amount of his Effects Sold was about 20 Stg.,” he wrote, lamenting that so little was raised by the sale, and adding: “No doubt great many were Stolen by that Villian that Murdered him.”
As his remaining goods were sold off and his papers left to moulder in a trunk in a corner of the Store, Wise had already been dead longer than he had been alive in Georgia, the victim of the colony’s first murder some nine months earlier. The murder of Will Wise had taken place in the unlikeliest of places, not that any place was likely, but Hutchinson Island seems today an unheralded spot for such a barbarous act. For generations the story of Alice Riley and the murder of Will Wise has captivated the imagination and attracted lore. Who was she? Who was he? What was the reason for the murder? Was Riley even guilty?
While the title of this post is “The True Story of Alice Riley,” a more apt title might be “The True Story of Will Wise’s Murder,” in that, really, we know very little about either Riley or Wise, only the fateful act which forever entwined them to history and lore. For anyone looking for an explanation or motive, the record does not enlighten. For all the fantastic lore that has arisen around Alice Riley in the subsequent centuries—ghost stories, legends, even a 2015 opera—there is surprisingly little meat to be found on this bone. The reality is that nothing is known of her time before Georgia and almost nothing of her time in Georgia. She is something of a blank slate—a murderer, a wrongly accused woman, a femme fatale, or simply a desperate mother—all depends on the observer.
In 1733 Hutchinson Island became the site of an ambitious engineering effort; an attempt to clear-cut a line of trees, creating a vista which might provide a view to the north channel of the river from the town. In early 1734 Oglethorpe described the effort to the Trustees.
“Over against the Town lyes Hutchinson’s Island one of the most delightfull Spots of Ground I ever saw…. In that Island on the farther Side which commands the Northern Branch of this River opposite to the Town there is a House built and an Overseer lodged with four Servants belonging to You with Orders to cut a Walk through the Wood in a strait Line the breadth of this Town which will serve as a Meadow for feeding of Cattle and give a beautifull Prospect of the other River.”
– James Oglethorpe, January 22, 1734
By the penning of that letter Will Wise had been in Savannah a month and had been given the task of overseeing the work by the four servants. It was this house on the north end of the island that would see his death on March 1, 1734.
Wise first appears in the Georgia record in the pages of Percival’s Diary in June of 1733. A gentleman evidently once of means, he had fallen on hard times, though Percival was clearly concerned about sending him beneath his status.
“Wednesday, 6 [June, 1733]…. Mr. Wise, an unfortunate gentleman, brought me letters from the Bishop of Salisbury, Lichfield and London, to recommend him to Georgia. I told him unless he had money to carry him over and subsist servants to cultivate lands, he must go on the charitable list, which was the meanest foot that could be, and what I feared he could not bear with. He said better do anything than starve, and would desire to go in a future embarkation if he could not do better for himself before.”
– John Percival, Diary of Viscount Percival, vol. 1, p. 384
His luck evidently did not improve over the next three months and Wise was mustered as a Charity passenger on the Savannah. Wise, despite Percival’s concern, proved to have no reservations about going on the charitable list; so much, in fact, that he brought his daughter too… only to have the Trustees discover that Wise didn’t have any children. As the Trust’s Secretary Benjamin Martyn bristled in a letter to Oglethorpe, Wise “went in the Savannah, having misbehaved himself, and imposed on the Trustees by carrying a Woman of the Town on board the Ship, whom he had recommended to the Trustees as his Daughter.” Martyn further elaborated in his next correspondence to Oglethorpe as the situation escalated from bad to worse:
“The Trustees were afterwards inform’d, as the Ship put into different Ports, that there were great Differences and Distractions among the People, chiefly, if not entirely owing to him. They sent their Orders for him to be set on Shore, but the Ship sail’d before these were receiv’d.”
– Benjamin Martyn, October 18, 1733 (Colonial Records of Georgia, vol. XXIX, p. 22)
Martyn concluded: “As the Trustees are apprehensive he may be the Cause of Disturbances among the People in Georgia, they think it improper that he should be permitted to have a Settlement there.” But Wise was welcomed in Savannah before these correspondence were received; the Savannah’s speed had worked in Wise’s favor—he was not only welcomed but granted a prominent position, overseeing the clearing of the Hutchinson Island vista. Whatever became of his consort “daughter” was not recorded.
Wise’s behavior evidently quickly tempered, for by the time he was murdered, just two and a half months after arrival, he was ill. The record on his murderers is equally as light; Riley is referred to (briefly) in only three surviving correspondence of the 1730s… one by Edward Jenkins and two by Thomas Christie, and until and unless the Georgia court records emerge out of a forgotten London cache—a feat after three hundred years not without precedent, but increasingly unlikely—so begins and ends the record of Alice Riley.
Alice Riley and Richard White were two of a shipload of Irish transport servants… historically speaking, these Irish transports were the dislocated and destitute, essentially chattel, sold off as indentured servants for the price of their passage. The ship, whose name is lost to history, limped into the Georgia waters in either late December, 1733 or the first few days of 1734, and its cargo of forty persons was purchased by Oglethorpe at the beginning of January 1734. According to Patrick Tailfer, the “forty transported Irish convicts… had been refused at Jamaica,” (Tailfer, p. 48) but as Percival countered: “The best and most human actions are by these malicious writers calumniated. That these Irish were Transports convict is more than we know, or that they were refused at Jamaica. Thousands of Irish at that time transported themselves to Plantations, to be indentured servants to Masters who should pay their passage, and these were probably of that sort.” (Notes within Tailfer, p. 48) Given Tailfer’s poorly disguised contempt for servants in general and poor record in dealing with his own servants in particular—which included beatings, sexual misconduct and even a 1735 indictment for murder—it is unlikely that five years’ worth of opportunity for direct contact with these Irish gives Tailfer any more credence than Percival, a man an ocean away. In point of fact, Percival later remarked in his Journal that the forty “put into Savannah in their way to Pensilvanea being in the utmost distress, which the Trustees allow’d of. But” —as even Percival admitted— “most of them proved to be vile rogues.” (Egmont Journal, p. 40) The author of A New Voyage to Georgia recorded seeing in the Savannah River on January 10 “a Sloop for Barbadoes, which was forc’d in by the Badness of the Weather” (p. 3) but does not record the name. While this could be the vessel in question, fellow correspondent Hector de Beaufain recorded the Two Brothers at harbor in Savannah at the same time, which could just have likely been the vessel bound for Barbados. The South Carolina Gazette was on hiatus following its founder’s death, so any attempt to consult that as a source of arrivals and departures is not possible.
Wherever they had come from, and wherever the ship had been bound for, Oglethorpe proudly remarked:
“A Sloop loaded with Servants was forced in here through Stress of Weather and want of Victuals many of them were dead, 40 only remain’d as they were likewise to perish through Misery. I thought it an Act of Charity to buy them which I did giving £ 5 a head. I gave one of them to each of the Widows which will render them able to cultivate their Lands and maintain their families. I let each of the Magistrates have one at prime Cost…. Of the rest I have allotted Mr. Lafond five to help him in building a Saw Mill, Four to the Gardens and four to the [Hutchinson] Island.”
– James Oglethorpe, January 22, 1734 (CRG XX, p. 41)
Thomas Causton sent the Trustees the £ 200 bill for the servants, dated Jan. 9, acknowledged by the Trustees in the Minutes of their March 27 meeting: “Read a Letter from Mr T. Causton (by order of Mr Oglethorpe) with advice of Bills drawn for two hundred Pounds sterling paid for forty Servants.” (CRG II, p. 65) As the Trustees later remarked in their 1734 recap of finances, “[40] Servants bought in Georgia 9 January….” (CRG XXXII, p. 138) The colonists from the Anne had typically been referred to as the ‘first forty;’ well this unnamed ship at the end of the year had brought what could only be described as the ‘felonious forty,’ given their penchant for brushing up against the law. As Court Recorder, an exhausted Thomas Christie wrote to the Trustees by the summer of 1735: “The many surprising Attempts made to disturb the peace of the Colony & the irregular life of many of Its Inhabitants has required Our utmost Effort.” (CRG XX, p. 455)
By October, Samuel Eveleigh wrote from Charlestown to Oglethorpe:
“The Irish Convicts give him [Thomas Causton] a great deal of Disturbance. They are constantly playing their Roguish Tricks, stealing from their Masters and carrying the Goods to Some Others, whc gives him trouble, for he punishes both the Thief and the Receiver. Tis the General Vogue; That the buying of these Convicts, was the worst Action you did whilst there, and the Opinion is as General, That you did it with a good design.”
– Samuel Eveleigh, October 19, 1734 (CRG XX, p. 87)
The Irish Transport
[ compiled from the List of Early Settlers ]
The following is a reconstructed list of the Irish servants, with relevant comments. John Percival’s List of Early Settlers features 42 persons described as a servant “arrived 10 Jan. 1733-4.” (All remarks regarding subsequent bad behavior are from Percival’s List of Early Settlers unless otherwise noted).
- Edward Campbell
- Richard Clancey… (Percival remarked: “Sentenc’d 100 lashes for assault, abusing the constable, & profaning the Sabbath 16 Sept. 1734.”)
- Edward Cruise… (“Whipt 60 lashes for misprison of treason March 1734-5.”)
- Peter Delany
- Patrick Denys
- John Dodding
- Mary Fitzgerald
- John Flin
- Isaac Fling… (“condem’d 100 lashes for stealing 31 May 1735.”)
- Denis Fowler… (Thomas Causton, March 24, 1735: “accused before me of lying with Carwall’s Wench in his Master’s yard… in the time of Divine Service.”)
- John Fox… (“sentenc’d 60 lashes for stealing 31 May 1735. Also for false imprisonment, and combination to extort money… 12 July 1735.”)
- Michael Gaffney… (“Convicted of theft and running away 26 March 1734.”)
- Owen Hayes… (“run away”)
- Edward Jackson
- Bridget Jones
- Daniel Joy… (“dead 29 Oct. 1734.”)
- Michael Kilcannon
- James King
- Barrow Macdermot
- Peter Macgowran
- Thomas Merrick… (“run away or lost.”)
- Catherine Morison
- John O’Bryan
- Catherine Ongy… (“She married Michl. Welsh 16 Feb. 1734-5.”) (Robert Potter, December 16, 1734: “Tis certaine ye wicked & vile behavior of ye Servt ocation’d me to sell her. I could not endure her, in my house.”)
- Sarah Roach
- Henry Rone…. (“Fyn’d 5 shillings for stealing clapboards & selling them 4 July 1734.”)
- Joseph Rone… (“Fyn’d same time for the same crime.”)
- Richard Rone… (“Fyn’d same time for the same crime.”)
- Alice Ryley… (“Condem’d for the murder of Will. Wise.”)
- John Ryley… (“Sentenc’d 30 lashes for breaking open a door being drunk 19 May 1734.”)
- William Shale… (“run away to Carolina.”)
- Robert Storey… (“dead 3 March 1733-4.”)
- John Sullivan
- George Thompson… (“On the expiration of his service in 1738 a lot was granted him at Abercorn.”)
- John Timberman… (“Dead 13 Feb. 1733-4”)
- John Wade
- William Wallis
- Simon Welsh… (“Condem’d to be hang’d for robery 6 Oct. 1733 [sic] but broak jayl and fled the Colony.”)
- Steven Welsh
- John White
- Nicolas White… (“hang’d for murder.”)
- Richard White… (“hang’d for murdering Will. Wise.”)
By April, 1734, as he prepared to sail back for London, Oglethorpe was still pleased with his purchase, boasting somewhat curiously: “the Ship Load of Servants which I bought, who must otherwise have perished… are now grown very usefull to the Colony.” (CRG XX, p. 53) Indeed, how “usefull” they were was already debatable, given the fact that at least two had already collaborated in a murder the month before; a murder of which Oglethorpe could not have been ignorant. The murder occurred on March 1, 1734, as Oglethorpe was in transit to Charlestown, but he was back in Savannah between March 14 and 23, before returning to Charlestown for departure to England on May 7… just four days, in fact, before the conviction of White and Riley.
In December Thomas Christie refreshed Oglethorpe’s memory of the incident. “The manner of his Murder was thus, wch you have no doubt been acquainted with:”
“He [Wise] Lay over in the Island a Considerable time in a very weak Condition and kept his Bed. He Used to Call for Some Water in the Morning to Wash himself & White Used to Assist him in Combing out his hairs in which he took a great deal of Pride & Used to lay his head Leaning out of the Bed to have it Easier done. Alice Riley by ye Direction & Influence of White brought a pail of Water wch She Set down by his Bed Side. White came in also pretending to Assist him in Combing his hairs. He Usually wore a handkerchief about his Neck, & while he was Leaning over the Bed Side, instead of Combing his hairs White took hold by that handkerchief which he twisted till he was almost Suffocated. Alice Riley at the Same time took hold of ye Pole of his head & plunged his Face into the Pail of Water & he being very weak it Soon Dispatched him.”
– Thomas Christie, December 14, 1734 (CRG XX, p. 125-6)
Convicted of murder on May 11, 1734, Alice Riley and Richard White actually escaped jail before sentence could be carried out. Attempting to lay low in the Georgia woods these Irish escapees did not make it far.
“I have paid Mr [Edward] Jenkins Mr Henry Parker and his Brother fifty pounds Currency in equall Portions, as a Reward for Retaking the Murderers of Mr Wise.”
– Thomas Causton, July 25, 1735 (CRG XX, p. 452)
Edward Jenkins, who had come to Georgia on the Susannah in September, 1733, wrote to Oglethorpe in January of 1735, explaining the capture of Richard White, which left Riley lost in the woods without a provider:
“Sir
“I did not think to have Given your Honour an account how [Richard] White was Taken that Murdered Mr Wise My self but thought Mr Christie or Mr Causton had doon it, but I understand they have not. The truth of it is as follows.
“Mr Henery Parker and his Brother william was at woork at my Lot to pay me for what woork I had doon for him. As we was woorking one of my men Sd yonder Goes a man very fast. I Looked & saw ye man & said I beleve its White that Brook out of Prison, If it is him Let us Go & take him. The two Parkers agreed not knowing where [whether] it was he or no, Left ye men at woork. All the wepons we had was two hooks & an ax we was at woork with. I desired one of them to be about 10 yards at my right hand & other at my Left keeping that distance without speaking a word. And as soon as we Came to him I would Cease him & if he offered to reble they should kill him immediately. So we persued him till we came into about twenty yards of him. At first sight of us [he] was much Surprised. I told him your Name is white[;] its in vain to Attempt & immediately I Cesed him. He fell on his nees & with many Blows on his Breast baged his life. So I took him by one side of Coller & Mr Henery Parker by ye other & William walked behind. We heald him very fast for we had often heard that the sarvant bid defience two [to] ten men to take him. As we was Leding him to Town, we asked him where he had been & where he was Going. He said he had been Looking for some house out of Town to Get some Provitions but find any one [none]. And he then was Looking after ye woman. He thought he Left her a little to ye right hand where we then was. As we was Leding him along he would often beat his breast & bage his Life. We told him if we Let him Go he must perish In ye woods. He said he woud Joyfull to perish in ye woods rather than dye on the Gallows. We told him If any [thing] coud turn to his Safety it woud be if he knew of any other vilony that ye Irish Sarvants or any one els had been doon or was inventing. He then Ernestly Declard before God that some of the Irish sarvants was at him to Contrive to break open ye Store, & for fear of his speeking of it they had Taken away his Life. And if thair oaths must be Taken he did not doubt but thay woud sarve many others the same. We Coud Get nothing more from him but Carryed him into Town.”
– Edward Jenkins, January 20, 1735 (CRG XX, p. 182-83)
It is interesting to note that White was interrogated by Jenkins and Parker as to what other mischief the Irish were up to, especially given that the Red String Plot was only months away. Jenkins concluded of his narrative regarding White: “He was had immadiately to ye Gallows & Declared to ye last he was not Guilty of ye Murder & by all apperance dyed a Roman.” And with that, still pleading his innocence, Richard White was gone, the colony’s first execution.
Riley was eventually recaptured, but no one recorded the event. As to her execution, Jenkins noted:
“The woman was Hanged yesterday, & denyed ye Murder of wise & the most that She had to answer for was by her being so wicked to Confese a thing that She was not Guilty of by which She Imagined was the Death of White. She seme to be of ye same principle as White was.”
– CRG XX, p. 183
With that, Alice Riley became the first woman hanged in Georgia, on January 19, 1735… four weeks after she had given birth to a son. Two months later Thomas Christie made what final comments he could in his March 19, 1735 letter to the Trustees:
“Alice Riley was hang’d Some Months agoe within Six weeks after her being brought to Bed pursuant to her Sentence of the 11th day of May Last and the Child is Since dead.”
– Thomas Christie, March 19, 1735 (CRG XX, p. 273)
Alice Riley’s son, James, followed her death by four weeks, on or about February 15. With Thomas Christie’s March 19th reference, the documentary record of Alice Riley comes to an end. Percival summed mother and child in his encapsulated entries within his List of Early Settlers:
1045. Ryley, Alice – Servt. to Ri. Cannon;
arrived 10 Jan. 1733-4. An Irish
Transport. Condem’d for the murder
of Will. Wise her master 1 Mar. 1733-
4. Hang’d 20 Jan. 1734-5.
1046. Ryley, James, son – Born in Georgia
21 Dec. 1734; dead 15 Feb. 1734-5.
William Grickson may have been the hangman. A man with a checkered past himself, by 1734 he had taken up lot 107 on the south end of Percival Ward, facing what is today’s Oglethorpe Avenue. Grickson arrived on the Georgia Pink in August of 1733 an apprentice to a tailor and was punished for attempting to escape in April of 1734. After his term of service was over, as Percival noted, he “was made hangman.”
547. Grickson, Will. – Apprentice to Hugh
Frazer; embark’d 15 June 1733; ar-
rived 29 Aug. 1733; Lot 107 in Sa-
vannah. Sentenc’d 50 lashes for de-
serting and again attempting to run
away 29 April 1734. After his dis-
charge from service he marry’d Janet
Colstong May 1734, took this lot, and
was made hangman.
The tradition that White and Riley were hanged in Wright Square—not found in any source—certainly begs closer scrutiny, given the fact that neither the court house nor the log house would be in Percival Ward until Oglethorpe ordered their placement there in 1736. Even after the court and jail were established in Percival Ward, executions were not necessarily carried out there. For example, in an execution carried out in a capital case in August, 1739 William Stephens noted that a “Gallows should be erected on the Bluff, towards the Extremity of it.” (CRG IV, p. 377) So while there is documentation of the Bluff being used as an execution site, the same is not true for Wright Square… the location of Georgia’s first capital execution is unknown.
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