Mary Carleton

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Standard Name: Carleton, Mary
Birth Name: Mary Moders
Self-constructed Name: Maria van Wolway
Married Name: Mary Stedman
Married Name: Mary Day
Nickname: The German Princess
Married Name: Mary Carleton
Self-constructed Name: Madam Carlton
MC , who was active in London in the Restoration years, was at some level or other a confidence trickster or woman living on her wits. When she stood trial and became the subject of pamphlet controversy, she proved herself equal to joining in with several pieces of autobiographical and legalistic self-vindication, which show her possessed of skills very close to those of writers of fiction, travel writing, or romance.
Etching and line engraving of Mary Carleton with three male figures, by James Basire after F. Nicholls. It is an action scene: Carleton, in dark street clothes, gesticulating, a lawyer kneeling, and the other two men disputing a raised sword. A caption reads: "The German Princess with her Suppos'd Husband and Lawyer." These are two different people: extensive letterpress explains that the lawyer was another victim of her swindles. National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Cultural formation Emily Frederick Clark
Most probably she believed in her own claim to royal descent. Though to history she looks rather like a pretender comparable to Mary Carleton , the shabby genteel condition of her immediate, English family was...

Timeline

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Texts

Carleton, Mary. A True Account of the Tryal of Mrs. Mary Carlton. Charles Moulton, 1663.
Carleton, Mary. A Vindication of a Distressed Lady. 1663.
Carleton, Mary. An Historical Narrative of the German Princess. Charles Moulton, 1663.
Carleton, Mary. The Arraignment, Tryal and Examination of Mary Moders, otherwise Stedman, now Carleton. N. Brook, 1663.
Carleton, Mary. The Case of Madam Mary Carleton. Samuel Speed and Henry Marsh, 1663.